We reached the goal amount of $1,200 in our first ever donation drive. Thank you to everyone who donated. I have even better news. I was able to secure a dedicated server at a lower cost than I initially thought. The amount donated will keep the new server running through April 2009. I'm still thinking about how to manage donations in the future. More donation drives like this one is a possibility. Another is to just publish a monthly goal on the site (basically the server cost) and just let it roll over one month to the next.
So, I've secured the new server and will spend the next few weeks getting things set up over there. I'll publish a cut-over date ahead of time, so you can expect some downtime when that occurs and since you'll know about it, you can get your feeds beforehand (or plan to wait).
Again, thank you all for your donations.
cafeToolbox
http://www.cafetoolbox.com/article.php/cafetoolbox-donation-drive