I just don't see where that money will come from, most players won't be donating (I think) because
A1) they don't know
XionTawa's done a great job of broadcasting the message. The only other suggestion I would have is to set up a recurring message to broadcast the need for donations to migrate the server (while preserving everything players have built) to a new home and keep it online. Maybe have it repeat once every 15 minutes--often enough that people are unlikely to miss it during their session but not so frequent that it's intrusive or obnoxious.
A2) they think someone else will step up at the last moment and they will get to ride the gravy train.
The "last moment" is coming up fast and no one is stepping up. It's unfortunate, but it may take taking the server offline to drive the point home: It costs money to run a server.
B) they don't have the money to spend
This is a valid point. Many people (myself included) are unemployed right now and in no financial position to donate. Others are struggling to get out of debt. I'm not asking those members to donate--I never have. I ask those who are employed or have a regular income (don't want to leave business owners out, after all) and already regularly tithe to their local church to help fund Tribe of Judah's growth.
I have never implied that God is obligated to bless you if you donate to ToJ. I've never coerced or manipulated people into donating. I simply state how much money we need, what the money will be used for, and we stand to gain by additional donations. This situation is no different.
C) they don't care/ will just find somewhere else to go play.
I would hope that a game like Minecraft, where your buildings and projects stay on the server on which you build them, would build player "loyalty," but I suppose as long as there's a free alternative, some people will just hop from server to server.
Trouble is, those servers also require funding. I'm sure XionTawa's server isn't the only one that started small, grew, and is now in danger of closing if members don't donate to keep it online.
I really like our server, and XT your doing a great job, but I just don't think its viable to keep the server up. So far the players haven't said anything as to whether they will donate to keep it running.
If the numbers Joshinator posted are accurate, it would only take $15 in donations per month to keep a Minecraft server online. With the amount of activity the server has seen, I'm surprised 3 people haven't stepped up, said, "Yes, we'll donate $5 a month," and made the server migration happen already.
They could have at least have said something by now, like they will think about/work on it.
It's the same problem I'm facing trying to raise funds for ToJ to rent a dedicated server.