Hey there believers,
Guess what you did?
YOU GOT US THERE! You got us past there, in fact! At this time, we have a fundraiser total of $141,497. Our goal was $138,000! Most of these gifts were $50 or less. When we tallied halfway through, that was 75% of gifts! You are powerful. You did this, bit by bit, together. Thank you.
The money raised will keep Autostraddle running and fill the gaps in our budget through end of January 2022. This money represents more than just filling holes in a budget, though, it’s about the future of this space. You’ve bought us time to continue the hiring process, and gifted us with the resources to set new team members up for success. At this time, we’ve hired Kayla as our new Managing Editor, but we hope to welcome a new ad sales gay in the coming months as well — and more! We needed the space, the funding and the resources to be able to get more people in here so our overworked staff could start to get our footing again. You’ve kept us here throughout the pandemic, and we are never going to forget that. We promise to work every day to make you proud.
Speaking of some people bringing their best selves, we have some folks to thank!
Thank you to the 2,551 people who gave direct financial support or got perks. Your gay dollars are going to 1) remain 100% gay and 2) going to tranform into the work you love from Autostraddle, accomplished by queer and trans people who you help pay.
Thank you to the 6,671 A+ Members who are with us right now. You all are the backbone of this website. You keep us here for everyone. Thank you to the 275 people who joined A+ during the fundraiser and ALSO thank you to the 24 members who upgraded. Finally, thank you for the 139 donated gift memberships that will allow your fellow queer folks to join A+ free of charge. They are not all claimed so if you are someone who would benefit from being an A+ member but cannot afford it, please do put in for one right here.
Thank you to everyone at Autostraddle who contributes to this space and to making us the bastion of queerness on the internet that so many people call home. Thank you to the writers, illustrators, and our tech team Yikes who keep us running day in and day out. Thank you to our subject editors and to Vanessa, Shelli Nicole and Ro who wrote personal essays disguised as fundraiser letters. Thank you to Valerie and Carmen both for tag-teaming fundrasier Twitter with me and to the entire social media team — Valerie, Sarah, Carmen and Heather for all your work on getting the word out about this fundraiser across Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
To the entire senior team — Carmen, Heather, Kayla, Laneia, Riese, Sarah — thank you. We all put so much of ourselves into fundraisers, and it’s always an honor to work with you. I also want to take a moment to just publicly acknowledge and thank the partners, the girlfriends, the spouses and the wives, the kids, the families, chosen and blood, friends and loved ones whose unseen support also makes the fundraiser possible. I know my partner Sadie put in so many unpaid hours of support and I want to recognize the invisible behind-the-scenes labor that goes into a project like Autostraddle. We couldn’t do it without you all.
As you can see, it takes a village to sustain a queer community. Our magic, our not-so-secret secret, our special sauce is that we know we’ve got this if we act as a team. Thank you for being on our team, thank you for being you.
So, what’s next?
- Autostraddle as usual! We are going to Get to Work!
- I am taking a week off (my first since I got here!). You’ll still get the A+ e-news and this Friday’s advice column, but fundraiser and A+ perks will start getting packed next week!
- The Perks site will close down at 5pm PST TOGAY! Order your perks while you still can! (UK site here, also recommended for Europeans for the reason of cheaper shipping.)
- I currently have an Impact Report slated for January, when you’ll hear more about what we’ve accomplished with your support. I cannot wait to share what we’ve done! In the meantime, keep reading to see your gay dollars at work.
Thank you for believing,
