I wonder why they were not visibly announced anywhere that I’m aware of.

I’ve always felt that members recognized the $25 verification fee as a donation. This was easier to justify when CS felt like a community, not a service.

I suspect the model once CS reaches critical mass will be an advertising-based one or sponsored (ie. partnering with travel sites). There are also other revenue streams there have not been fully utilized (eg. Surf shop). As CS becomes more mainstream, I’m sure these methods will be more accepted by the members.

While this in itself is good news and definitely the kind of thinking-ahead that the organisation needs, it fails to address the broken business model though. When the time comes, it will only postpone financial troubles for a couple of months. But then, simply firing Jim and Matthew at that point should stretch that kind of money a lot further than 3 months.

So yes, a good thing indeed.

Perhaps it’s not common for organisations to repay donations that have been made, but that’s totally missing the point. If your (ex-)key volunteers start to ask for “their money back”, shouldn’t that get you to thinking if your organisation is making the right choices? I know CS is not really willing to address (=solve!) any of these extremely serious issues within CS that so many people are raising, but this sort of hand-waving (“we aren’t doing anything wrong”) is obviously not helping anyone.

So, anonymous amazing poster, I ask you this: Are you really sure you’re on the right track?

Also, is there any other organization where you can donate funds and then ask for them whenever you feel like it because you’d suddenly “rather use it for my personal benefit”? That seems like a reckless way for any organization that relies solely on member contributions to operate but good for you, I guess, for taking your money back (years later, even!) to buy people drinks.

Anyone up for a drink, my treat? (well if you happen to be around Italy-Austria-Switzerland)

Couchsurfing can charge to re-verify you if you change address (most people only live in a place a few years), and there’s a whole bunch of people that will loose their account and create a new one later, or young people only getting into travel.

From what the finances reveal, there are absolutely no savings. I once pondered what the effects of a system failure would be (can’t get verifications if there’s a failure).

In the case of the last crash, it lead to increased awareness and donations. I’m not sure it will be the same every time.

I am kindly asking if it would be possible to get refunded for the amount I donated up until now that exceeds the 25€ I paid for verification through the European bank system.

At the time of donation the amount was not a big deal for me, however now I would rather use it for my personal benefit.”

Sent to: http://www.couchsurfing.com/contact.html

Also, you might want to take a look into Triple’s replies to some of the recent Brainstorm threads and assess their viability.

In the meanwhile, I’m wondering if it would be possible to get back the money I donated on top of my verification fee… I’d rather use it to sustain my own life and travels than keep fattening someone else’s account.