You DID IT! See Our Slack Office Freak Out When We Met Our Fundraising Goal, and More!

We love you!!! And here are some things that are true!

You, our community, raised $118,000 for Autostraddle, for independent queer media, for our vision and goals for the future. Right now, as Carmen said in her thank you letter (that is a heavily recommended read) we’re collecting ourselves, we’re resting, we’re getting ready for what’s next.

And we want to celebrate YOU!!!

If you gave to this fundraiser or you’re an A+ member, I hope you’ll comment on this post to tell us how you feel! I hope that you’ll cheer like we are! I hope that you’ll find a little bit of light in this moment, and read some Autostraddle — WNBA coverage, political analysis, vapid fluff, Saturday Morning Comics, or our series of essays — Future Present — launched in recognition of Autostraddle’s investing in a new editorial vision — because YOU funded these things. YOU make it possible for us to do this work. You support us, you believe in us, you encourage us — including with handwritten notes in the MAIL! It’s really hard to write this without crying, okay?

A handwritten note in rainbow letters says Keep it going Autostraddle! We love you! with a heart drawn as well.

As Carmen said:

“This team is built by our queer community. I’m humbled by your strength and your belief in us to be the guardian of your stories. When I say guardian, I don’t mean “standard bearer.” And I certainly never mean “gatekeeper.” I mean loving protector and guide. Thank you for putting your trust in us to keep this delicate flame of our community lit, gently using our hands to push back against the winds that threaten to blow it out. Each of us, together, holding on to keep it warm and maybe if we’re lucky, a little less fragile, for the ones who are coming next.”

Thank you for choosing to make us the guardians of your stories, all 3,111 of you. This fundraiser saw smaller contributions than the ones before, and HUNDREDS MORE people giving overall than ever before, too. To say we’re touched by that is an understatement. We’re STILL overwhelmed this Monday after you did this for us. You really did it $1,$5, $10, and $25 at a time. That means more to us than if some wealthy celesbian had swooped in. You got in there, all grassroots and lesbian and bisexual and queer community and YOU chipped in to make a difference as a collective.

A pie chart. Text reads: You All Are Powerful. 67.5% of contributions to the fundraiser were $25 or less! 1% were $1 or less. 15% were $2 to $5. 16.5% were $6 to $10. 35% were $11 to $25. 18% were $26 to $50. 10% were $51 to $100. Just 4.5% were $101 or more.

A Note: The fundraiser store’s still open through midnight tonight. If you were eyeing one of the gifts in there — a mask, a print or sticker or shirt — your purchase still supports us just as much as it did last week! Go get ‘em, tiger.

AND FINALLY: a special treat. The energy on Slack (our digital office on the internet) was something to see last week. Normally, peeks into our Slack conversations (the funny ones, mostly) are reserved for the A+ Insider, but because you all are so amazing, I thought I’d give you a look below:

Slack conversation: Carmen says: OH WOW DO I LOVE IT HERE!!!! We're busy today behind-the-scenes making plans to pivot tomorrow's fundraiser content to "celebration" content because... omg whatttttttt?? who knew we'd probably make our goal this early???? 11:01 This is because of all of you, and your incredible hard work here — every day! — to make Autostraddle such a beautiful home to so many people. 11:02 More when we make our goal!!! BUT GOOD MORNING YALL ARE THE BEST RAYS OF SUNSHINE! [sunshine emoji]. Then Nicole says: We thought it would be tomorrow! Friday! But now we have to figure out what to do about the fact that we'll probably make our goal today! Here to say YES to everything Carmen has just said!!! There were hardly any "big" donations this round. This is literally just thousands of people giving like $5, $10, $20. It's WILD and different and YOU are all responsible for this being possible for how much people value your work and your being here and wanting to see you keep going!!! [Sparkle heart emoji] Vanessa says: This makes me SO emotional. Three sob face emojis and three loved emojis. Nicole says: Hello @here we have JUST NOW MET OUR FUNDRAISING GOAL!!! Congratulations EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Christina Tucker says: !!!!!!!!!! Drew Gregory writes: Yay!!!! valerie writes: YAAAAAY!!! with a ta-da emoji. Jehan says: Amazing!!!!!!!

Heather responds with a Dobby emoji which is her cat's head and "WHOOOO!!!!!!!" and another dobby emoji. Someone reacts with the "Dobby at work" custom emoji which is the same cat but working at a laptop. Riese writes: THANK YOU SO MUCH to all of you for spreading the word and writing about it and writing other good things that made our readers want to donate and for cajoling the other humans in your life to give us money during a time whne it can feel really hard to ask people for money!!! you're all a fucking inspiration. Heart emoji. Nicole writes: SERIOUSLY: thank you all for taking to twitter, for bugging straights, for telling people about what you do here, for everything. (heart emoji) You and the work you're doing are the whole freaking reason people gave!!! Laneia responds with: !!!!!!! adrian writes: wow wow wow wow wow!!!!! Dani Janae writes: HOLY SHIT YESSSSSSSSS

rachel responds with: you guys!!!!! and a sob emoji, Abeni writes: wow nice, Shelli Nicole responds with 5 smiling emojis, Nicole responds with 3 sob emojis, kaelyn responds with 3 champagne bottle pop emojis, Casey respods with Ahhh woo hoo!!! and 3 sob emojis,

Vanessa writes: HOLY FUCKING HELL I AM SCREAMING IRL with 3 celebrate emojis. Shelli Nicole finishes up the online celebration with: Ayeeeeeeeee

So, THANK YOU for making us scream IRL, for making us smash our keys into keyboards in celebration, for paying our writers and team during a global pandemic, for making the tireless efforts of this entire Autostraddle crew (and the 2 months I worked without a day off) all worth it — and for keeping this space here, for trusting us with the task of continuing to carve out room for our community online now, and, we hope, in better times in the future, too.

Before you go! Autostraddle runs on the reader support of our AF+ Members. If this article meant something to you today — if it informed you or made you smile or feel seen, will you consider joining AF and supporting the people who make this queer media site possible?

Join AF+!
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Nico

Nico Hall is a Team Writer for Autostraddle (formerly Autostraddle's A+ and Fundraising Director and For Them's Membership and Editorial Ops person.) They write nonfiction both creative — and the more straightforward variety, too, as well as fiction. They are currently at work on a secret longform project. Nico is also haunted. You can find them on Twitter and Instagram. Here's their website, too.

Nico has written 232 articles for us.

22 Comments

  1. I was trying to think of what I read most here but realized I love almost everything, from the super smart, incisive news roundups and commentary when I can’t deal with opening my news apps myself, to the beautiful, thoughtful personal and critical essays that open me up to perspectives and experiences I haven’t seen represented elsewhere, to the tv and film content that introduced me to shows with A+ gay content (thanks for turning me onto me to Wynonna Earp, Valerie!) – I love it all. Also, I’m impressed by the intentionality and thoughtfulness of the culture here, value Riese’s incredible labor, and am so excited to see what happens with the new editorial vision.

    So that’s a long way of saying I’m happy and proud to be here, y’all

  2. I am crying. This is so beautiful that we came together and did this together with small donations. Nicole and everyone else, PLEASE rest now. <3 We must rest and sleep in order to be able to dream and build the futures we need. (Check out The Nap Ministry)

    • I have totally checked out the Nap Ministry! Thank you so much for this message Mathilde and for all your support. Sending restful thoughts and looking forward to dreaming and building!

  3. This is so Exciting! And I’m (not quite equally but thoroughly) excited that there is also a new like button situation for comments! So I can like all the comments on this wonderful article and many many more!! I missed +1-ing and am thrilled to star great, witty comments from now on <3

  5. I don’t know if this was intentional:

    ..but truly I can hardly think of a better advertisement. 💚 Love to you all! I second the person who said go and rest now!!!

    • I think that’s because there was an advertisement below which was blocked by your ad blocker but yes it looks cute :D <3

        • Ahahaha yes! That’s a little automatic advertisement spot. I can’t control where it loads in the post (just somewhere in the middle) so that really was a happy accident <3 Thank you for your kind wishes for rest!!

  6. I’m so happy for you all. I love this site. I have personally struggled a lot this past year and this site has helped me so much, especially Laneia in particular. Thank you for being here. <3

  8. I’m so glad you all exist and I’m so glad Autostraddle exists! Happy to help keep this place going. Also, I’m enjoying Future Present so thanks for that! The one on perfectionism especially resonated with me and gave me a lot to chew on. I’m also excited about the WNBA content and hoping that one day we’ll get more NWSL coverage. I should mention that the Wynonna Earp Recaps are my favorite part about Mondays. In summary everything here is great and I love it and thank you.

    • I also loved the one on perfectionism! Rachel served as editor for that mini series and I’m just honestly so impressed!! Thanks for being here <3

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