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They're keeping 5%. BTW, Paypal charges maximum of 2.9% + USD 0.30

About 3000 people would be keeping an eye on it, if it happens. http://trekunited.com/contributions.php

"All money used for the cause - TrekUnited allows fans of Star Trek: Enterprise to contribute money to sponsor the production of a fifth season by Paramount/Viacom. [...] All contributed money is used for the cause, minus the transactional fees charged to us by Paypal/the bank (5%; any excess of fees to be donated to American Tsunami relief)."
http://trekunited.com/amember/

It's not over yet. (Read the posts referenced in the other reply to 4,144,033.00 and http://www.trekfansunited.com/forum/index.php?show topic=3543 for some clarifications)

And read this to verify they were aware of the letter (and everyone else could too). Taken from a thread called:
"STAFF CHAT LOG - Mar 22nd, 2005, With Tim, Candice and Chris R."
http://trekfansunited.com/forum/index.php?showtopi c=2533:

"Tim_Brazeal: Love your attitude! I am hoping that we can return all of it but the 3 mil to be honest.. but, we will see.. The fax that we recieved stated that they could not take viewer money and that is fine. We are Trek United Inc, so we are a corporation and not a viewer group any longer.. We are registered with the IRS, the state of Tennessee and are lic to do business in the USA.. As such, we (Andrew) is treated this way."

About 3000 people would be keeping an eye on it, if it happens. http://trekunited.com/contributions.php

"All money used for the cause - TrekUnited allows fans of Star Trek: Enterprise to contribute money to sponsor the production of a fifth season by Paramount/Viacom. [...] All contributed money is used for the cause, minus the transactional fees charged to us by Paypal/the bank (5%; any excess of fees to be donated to American Tsunami relief)."
http://trekunited.com/amember/

It's not over yet. (Read the posts referenced in the other reply to 4,144,033.00 and http://www.trekfansunited.com/forum/index.php?show topic=3543 for some clarifications)

And read this to verify they were aware of the letter (and everyone else could too). Taken from a thread called:
"STAFF CHAT LOG - Mar 22nd, 2005, With Tim, Candice and Chris R."
http://trekfansunited.com/forum/index.php?showtopi c=2533:

"Tim_Brazeal: Love your attitude! I am hoping that we can return all of it but the 3 mil to be honest.. but, we will see.. The fax that we recieved stated that they could not take viewer money and that is fine. We are Trek United Inc, so we are a corporation and not a viewer group any longer.. We are registered with the IRS, the state of Tennessee and are lic to do business in the USA.. As such, we (Andrew) is treated this way."

From Trekunited.com:

Traditionally, April 1st is April Fool's Day - a day to play pranks. While popular Star Trek communities like Startrek.com are jokingly announcing Star Trek: Enterprise's renewal a bit prematurely, TrekUnited continues to work to make it a reality, using the opportunity to ask all fans of Star Trek: Enterprise, Star Trek and science fiction to contribute to what is already now the biggest fan campaign fund in history, and make today's contribution total stand out.

Star Trek Enterprise has NOT been saved.

If somehow http://www.trekunited.com/ manages to buy another season for their $ 3,130,961.26 then maybe we'll see another season on SpikeTV. However, I'm not holding my breath.

Enterprise will be the first Trek series since the original Star Trek not to end with a special two-hour finale. Its not the two-hour finale because Enterprise isnt done. http://www.trekunited.com/

I donated money to the Trek United fund. I also donated money to the tsunami relief effort (can't find the link for it). Show me where to donate money for these missions, and I'd donate to these, too. Just because I donate money for one cause doesn't mean I wouldn't donate for another. And no, I probably would not have donated more money save the Voyager missions if I had not donated money to save Enterprise.

I was wondering about this earlier today.

What with the new ST:Ent Challenge with the fans essentially paying for the production of a new season. This allows the broadcasters to provide the content without requiring prime-time advertising. Easily allowing the episodes to be made available online.

The only problem I would imagine is the actors royalty payments which DRM (god forbid) or a subscription based system could account for.

I am massively in favour of funding even $50 for the ability to fund a new season and be able to download it when I want to view it.

Hopefully Paramount will look into this option if they go ahead with ST:Ent S5!

2. About how much money are we talking here?
Actor John Billingsley (Enterprise's Dr. Phlox) stated that the production of one Star Trek: Enterprise episode costs about $1.6m. For 22 episodes of a full season, this boils down to $35.2m

3. What guarantee do I have that the contribution is safe and legal?
....."All contributed money is used for sponsoring Enterprise; only transactional fees charged to us by payment systems and banks (set to a flat 5% because of the varying payment methods and individual fees) are deducted. Furthermore, all potential excess in fees will be donated to the American Tsunami Relief Fund. If no agreement can be made with Paramount, your contribution will be refunded to you."

They currently have a total of $3,070,745.00 US contributed to saving the show.
I personally welcome the continuation of the show as I believe it is getting better. Originally when it aired I wasn't really that interested. Now I'm hooked on it.

I don't get UPN so I can't watch it so I have to go online and download the latest episode via Bittorrent. THAT is probably why their viewer ratings were so low. Checking the torrent tracker for this one episode totals 42,769.
If Paramount would release even a semi-high quality episode even with the commercials included I would rather do that to show my support. Hell, if they had a subscription not priced overly extremed I'd do it.

Online viewing is definalty growing more and more if they like it or not. Perhaps they'll learn from RIAA's mistakes and release an online "pay-per-download" setup. I'd join.

From Wired:
But the campaign claims to be very close to securing $3 million from three anonymous donors who helped fund a commercial space flight venture.

Doesn't sound very anonymous to me :-)

And apatently the money has been pledged but since it is not "legally" obligated, (he could take it back) the total can not be added to the counter.
More details....

Enterprise season 3, in my opinion, has been the best season of any star trek series to date, running neck-to-neck with DS9 season 7 or TNG season 6.
I think we will start seeing even more hard-core fandom actions including, for instance, hunger strikes.
If http://www.trekunited.com/ pulls this thing off and gets a season 5- this could be a windfall for fan-generated input for the next season.
Fans could 'demand' (as non-profit share-holders for a fifth season) a brand new Theme Song.
My theory is that the theme song for Enterprise is the whole reason viewers have been under par from the outset.
They could also demand the removal of R. Berman and the elevation of Manny Coto (who has total credit for making Enterprise as great as it has been these last two seasons.)
Anyone who disagrees with me can eat Targ!
Qa'pla.

Trek tattoos are cool.
Female Vulcans are generally hot.

From the website:
...the money, minus transactional fees charged to us, is donated to Paramount/Viacom...
(emphasis mine)

Doesn't it sound just a little stupid when you phrase it like that? I mean, even with JMS working on it, why would anyone donate money to an organization that obviously didn't see the worth in producing the show in the first place?

Let me turn this around: if Paramount produced a season of Enterprise and released it exclusively on DVD for $40, and every one of the supposed 3 million fans bought it, they'd have $120,000,000 in the bank! The problem here is not that there aren't 3 million fans, it's that Paramount doesn't want to keep turning out episodes for minimal returns and a (likely) shrinking fan base.

Hybrid solution here: donate your 3 million fans' $12 to JMS, and let him make whatever he wants with it. It won't be Trek, but it won't be held at the mercy of a corporation that doesn't see the value in the show in the first place.