This past April was a time of grave uncertainty, and also a time when Autostraddle saw our projected ad revenue slip through our fingers. We needed money to keep running. You stepped up and helped us and honestly, you’re the reason we were able to do the work that came after. If you gave, you underwrote everything we did from May 2020 on. THANK YOU for helping us be there for this community. You did that. Thank you.
As we look toward the rest of 2020, we’re launching another fundraiser! It’s our second one of the year, and we’ve been planning to have this since before our last one. You can go look at our fundraiser website right now if you’re all ready to support us! There are HOT perks like special edition stickers, tees and art prints from artists Dia Pacheco, Aubrey Casazza, Ari Liloan, and Emma Rust who you may know from Autostraddle — keep an eye on our Twitter and Instagram for updates on the brilliant artists we’ve partnered with and the exclusive work they’re creating for this fundraiser. Go forth you beautiful beings, get some perks (or not), read up on our goals, maybe sign up for A+ membership — go wild!
There was never going to be an optimal time to schedule our second fundraiser of 2020, but if you’re asking why fundraise now?, our answer is twofold:
We’re determined to make damn sure the jobs we provide for about 50 queer people are still going to be here through the end of the year. We certainly don’t expect you to give if things are hard right now — we want to be clear about that. But if you know that you can help, please consider chipping in. Your gift will subsidize someone else who wants to give but can’t right now, and keep Autostraddle and our community free for everyone.
The second reason is to fuel the first part of the new vision for Autostraddle that Kamala Puligandla has shared as the new Editor-In-Chief.We hope that you’ll invest in the challenging and joyful work ahead of us. If we can achieve our fundraising goal this August, then we can spend the fall and winter focused on realizing our vision and planning more excellent QTPOC-centered work for YOU and this incredible community.
So what do we need?
We need to cover about 29% of our expenses through the end of the year, nd we’re aiming to spend $82,000 a month from August through December 2020. That’s what it costs to pay our writers and artists, freelancers, and our full-time team, contractors and all those myriad things like server fees. That 29% equals $118,000; that’s the amount we’re hoping you’ll help us raise. I know it seems like a lot, but I want to show you the chart (which Sarah gave a colorful facelift) from the last fundraiser. We raised over $132,000 in April 2020, and we did it with mostly gifts of $50 or less. Every contribution matters! I feel like LGBTQ people coming together and pitching in what they can and keeping a website that is by and for us around is just, IDK, powerful?
We’re about to send some emails, have some pop-ups, talk about sexy perks, bring back the beloved fundraiser tracker, — and host What’s On Our Gay Agenda, a free livestream event on Friday 8/7, 5:30PST where we answer reader questions about the vision, the plan, and Autostraddle (fill this out to submit a question). Right now, we’re planning to fundraise through August 24, 2020. This could change, but it’s our current plan! This fundraiser’s running on public radio rules, so the faster we hit our goal, the sooner we stop bugging you so much! Also, all our perks for this are hella limited edition, so we are going to stop offering them on August 24! Eek!
If you haven’t signed up for the AS Weekly, I’d do it soon because you don’t want to miss the email from Kamala and the letters from other folks on the team. In the meantime, go check out the fundraiser! We did embarrassing quarantined solo photo shoots for this and everything.
So all that is to say, after all this, thank you for being here. You’re the only reason we do anything at all.
