On Jan 13, 2021, at 12:05 PM, Mark Fletcher <markf@corp.groups.io> wrote:

Hi All,

I have just pushed a new group sponsorship feature, based on Shal's and Samuel's proposals. Here are the details:

• In Group Settings, there's a new Allow Sponsorships checkbox, with the help text Allow members to sponsor the Groups.io fees for the group.
• If a group allows sponsorships, a new Sponsor This Group button appears on the group home page.
• Clicking that button brings you to a page to enter an amount (of at least $5.00USD) and a credit card, if we don't have one on file for you. The text is By sponsoring this group, you are helping pay the Groups.io hosting fees. Any amount you sponsor will be held by Groups.io and used to pay hosting fees as needed. Sponsorships are non-refundable.
• You do not need to be a member to sponsor a group but you do need to have a Groups.io account.
• Free/Basic groups can allow sponsorships. Converting from Free/Basic to a Premium group still requires a credit card to be on file when you do it, but you can delete the credit card after you've upgraded the group, relying only on sponsorship reserves to pay for premium.
• To see how much money is in a group's sponsorship reserve, go to the Billing/Upgrade tab under Admin. It will appear as a line like There is $23.00 in reserve to pay hosting fees.
• Group sponsorships are logged in the activity log and a moderator notification is sent out as well.
• Any group sponsorships that you have paid are listed in your Account on the Billing page.
• If a fee is paid solely by sponsorship reserves, you will not be sent a payment receipt, but you will still get an email notification.
Please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions. Thanks to Shal and Samuel for the idea.

Thanks,
Mark