I wanted to let you know that we are currently in a fresh round of development, and we would appreciate your support in helping us make SuttaCentral even better.
If using the Donations page is not convenient for you, just let us know and we’ll work something out.
Following the launch of the new site earlier this year, we have been maintaining and improving the site. Meanwhile, various issues have come up, including problems and bugs with the current site, as well as ideas for new and exciting features. We believe that the Buddha’s teaching deserves the best, and we want to make the site as good as it can be.
Of course, it goes without saying that the backbone of SuttaCentral has been, and will always be, the incredible contributions by our many volunteers. But for the core programming of the site we need professional support.
We have re-engaged STXnext, the same Polish firm who did such a great job on the site last year, and we’re working hard on upgrades, including:
Improve performance, especially on mobiles, and fix bugs such as erratic offline performance.
Integrate the voice assistant so people can listen to Dhamma on audio.
Incorporate user feedback to improve the interface and make it more accessible.
Make it easier for users to find translations in their own language.
Add support for export to books and EPUBs.
Create “universal web components” allowing SC to be integrated with any website.
Create a new editor and system for translating suttas.
Full details are on our Roadmap (although this is subject to revision):
Any support that you can give, no matter how small, is greatly appreciated by all of us.
Hello Bhante, I really appreciate the site. I am assuming site development is going to be ongoing and wondered if the running costs should be framed as an ongoing annual cost and can this be disclosed in approximate terms. I would be more likely to contribute monthly if that where the case as I have no idea how much this site requires to keep afloat. Thanks.
Hi Bhante
It is good if you give an indication how much fund you try to raise in this round and keep us informed. If this is not possible you can let us know when the target is achieved. I understand that the ongoing annual expense budget was about $75000.00. I beleive you are trying to raise fund for a special project.
The normal budget is about $3,000/month, most of which goes for Blake’s wages. He has just had a daughter, and we’ve given him his first raise in five years.
Currently we are working with STXnext, and are paying them on a contract basis. There are plenty of cool things we want to do, so we will keep them on as long as we can.
My estimate for this round of updates is about $50,000–$75,000. If the funds run out before then, we’ll have to leave more things on the 2-do list for next time.
What Bhante saying is SC annual fixed budget cost is $36000.00 ($3000x12) wages alone.
There are lot of other anciliary expenses as well.
SC needs to raise additional $39000.00 for the upgrades and special projects next yrar. (2019)
To achieve this level of support you need 150 donars contributing at least $500.00 per annum.
This seems like an easy target but form my experience it is quite challanging.
Sometimes you hit the jack pot. In my home town one wealthy donar (the owner who run the local liquor shop) donated $20000.00 to build Buddha’s statue! This is quite a lot of money in Sri Lanka.
Sorry, my apologies for being unclear. I work with it every day and forget that some people don’t!
We have engaged a IT firm to do upgrades, as this is too much work for our in-house team. We have had one programmer doing background and preparation work for two months already, and are about to start the next phase. I anticipate that this will require another 2 or 3 months.
This is what I am referring to as this “round of updates”, and this is what will cost $50-75,000. This is in addition to the fixed wages for Blake.
We don’t need to raise this entire amount, as some of it has been covered already, and some has been pledged. I am hoping to raise somewhere in the vicinity of $20,000—$30,000 to be able to complete the main items on our roadmap. Should we get more than this, we will be able to build more features.
The nature of the project at this time is different than it was last year. Then, we were building the app from scratch, and so everything had to get done. This time it is more in the nature of gradual improvements, fixes, and growth, so there is more flexibility as to the scope of the project. However, from a project management point of view, one of the major issues is working effectively with an IT team. It takes a lot of time and effort to get people up to speed on a complex project like SC, so the more we can get done at this time the more efficient it will be.
Happy to help. Thanks for letting us know of the need. I was actually just thinking about messaging you today Bhante Sujato to ask you to let me know when any special need of SC might arise. I now have a better idea of what the financial needs are to keep SC up and moving forward. Building and maintaining Sutta Central would be immensely more expensive if not for the amazing contributions of the volunteers and translators. Thanks to all of you!
Yes you can make a donation without a credit card. Please make a direct bank transfer to the following account( you can find this information on or donation page) . if you you are not in Australia your bank will charge a small fee. Other option is to make a cheque infavour of SuttaCentral Development Trust and mail to PO Box 1931, Hornsby WF 1635, Australia.
|Account name|SuttaCentral Development Trust
|Bank name|Adelaide Bendigo Community Sector Banking|
|BSB|633 000|
|Account no.|154500086|
|Address|1273 Pacific Highway, Turramurra NSW 2074|
|Swift code|BENDAU3B|
Yes you can make a donation without a credit card. Please make a direct bank transfer to the following account( you can find this information on or donation page) . if you you are not in Australia your bank will charge a small fee. Other option is to make a cheque infavour of SuttaCentral Development Trust and mail to PO Box 1931, Hornsby WF 1635, Australia.
|Account name|SuttaCentral Development Trust
|Bank name|Adelaide Bendigo Community Sector Banking|
|BSB|633 000|
|Account no.|154500086|
|Address|1273 Pacific Highway, Turramurra NSW 2074|
|Swift code|BENDAU3B|
