Fundraising Update #1: Autostraddle Raises 40K In 21 Hours, Still Has 44 Fun-Filled Days Ahead

You did it! You raised enough money to buy us a brand spankin’ new website for our website! In less than 21 hours, Autostraddle readers raised over $40,000.

this was what it looked like at around noon pst on wednesday

First we gave you kiddens, now we’re throwing you a gif party!

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But wait! There are still 44 days left in this fundraising campaign, and we could always use more funds, so why stop at $40,000? To keep the ball rolling and your expectations on high alert, we’re coming up with some additional milestones. A reader wisely pointed out to Riese in the comments on the Indiegogo page:

“make it an even $100,000 in 45 days. Don’t be afraid to make an ask like that—especially after you’ve seen what 24 hours can do. If you’re feeling modest, Riese, let your readership propose: $100,000 IN 45 DAYS.”

So here’s the plan! Firstly, as promised, Alex will be doing a dance. Not just any dance — she’ll be making a “Call Your Girlfriend” dance video! It’ll be epic and probably your whole life will change.

Furthermore, if we hit $100,000 Alex will get a tattoo of Tinkerbell on her ass, using the same design pictured on this page (Alex and Riese sold buttons via Riese’s blog in 2008!)! This will also be epic.

We’ve been brainstorming all day, thinking of things we could do for you when we reach additional milestones. Ideas are ranging from Riese actually updating her personal blog, to Formspring Friday live (via livestream!), to you all choosing our content for a day based on what you’ve always wanted this or that or any person to write about. Videos have been a popular suggestion.

Let’s aim for the stars!

Take a look at these suggestions on Tumblr, then tell us what you want for every $10k after our goal. Ftr I’m all about NSFW Sunday coloring pages.

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?

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103 Comments

  1. Omgomgdeepbreath its tina fey and Amy and glee and clueless and mscl and jbeals and LiLo in the one post! #lifemade. Although I’m wondering if reading autostraddle excessively has brainwashed me into caring about all these things do much? So theres a thought…

  2. Wait a minute, updated Autowin post?!?!?! I WILL ACTUALLY GO TO THE BANK, GET A LOAN OF £5000 AND GIVE IT TO YOU FOR AN UPDATED AUTOWIN POST. ACTUALLY.

  3. Liz Lemon and Leslie Knope gifs in the same post? You just made my day, autostraddle.

  5. Holy fuck Autostraddle underwear may possibly be the best idea ever. The only issue may be trying to figure out whose is whose afterwards…

  6. Can we please have a “You do me” panties/boy shorts/underoo’s/lingerie, etc option to wear underneath our “You do you” shirts? That would be dope.

  7. Alex if you decide you don’t want Tinkerbell’s face on your butt I feel the “I totes heart rock bottom” design you did could be a suitable alternative.

    All the way to 100k, baby :D

  9. What I would like to see is what the extra money could contribute to the site. I remember when Double Fine was fundraising for their new game they had stuff like $x allows the game to be on all OSes, $y allows the game to be translated into this many languages, etc. You’ve mentioned stuff like being able to pay writers more and getting new media equipment, but actually breaking that down would help us imagine it and give us something to aim for.

    I personally would like a tips section or some way for us to write up & contribute news that we think would be relevant to AS readers. I think Feministing has something similar? Then if the current editorial team want to build up on that and post it to the front page they can – and half the work is done already.

    • Yes! Telling us what $50,000 would allow you to do, $60,000 etc would be great and help keep the momentum going.

    • Yes! Like at $50,000 (almost there anyway!) you get Final Cut Pro, or so-and-so can become a paid staff instead of a volunteer. And you could do this in addition to perks for us if people still want them?

      IDK like we love you guys so much I think this would make every one happy.

        • i just want to state that sitting here with my calculator writing down amounts of money i would like to give to actual human beings who bleed/sweat/cry all over this site and have for years makes me happier than unicorns

    • Agreed.

      Think the livestream Formspring Friday idea sounds great – and it rocks that $40k was raised in less than one day – but yes: methinks proposing specific goals/results for the $100k (and perhaps even at different milestones along the way, also as stated by Cassandra and Meer) will motivate Autostraddlers to give more to the campaign.

      (And I love the “You do me” underwear idea, but that pretty much goes without saying.)

  12. Hahahaha, Rachel’s face in the Glee gif…”Jesus Christ. They actually did it. Now we’ll never hear the end of it.”

  13. you do you underwear you do you underwear you do you underwear you do you underwear
    you do you underwear you do you underwear you do you underwear you do you underwear
    you do you underwear you do you underwear you do you underwear you do you underwear
    you do you underwear you do you underwear you do you underwear you do you underwear

    I need this in my life all the time.

    Just make sure there’s no seam down that middle of the crotch.

    • The seam in the crotch!!! why?! why are we still letting men design our underpants? who wants built in discomfort? Why??????

    • hey yes, we’ve gotten heaps of requests for you do you underwear for over a year now, maybe two years. it’s something alex will definitely be making this year — she actually finished the design in December for the “you do you” boyshorts, just hasn’t had the time to get them printed yet.

      • actually, i just remembered what happened with that — we wanted to print them for X-mas but didn’t have enough money to front for them on top of what we were fronting for the calendars, t-shirts and posters we’d printed, and then when we did have the $$ to put up, it was that i didn’t have enough time to handle all the shipping on top of camp stuff and neither did alex, and then we had bren take over shipping, like 2-3 weeks ago, so now would probably be the moment to get those suckers printed. to celebrate 50k. ta-da!

    • And also ‘Auto/Straddle This’ underwear? Maybe? I know ‘straddle this’ is a lot to fit on underwear, but…

      • Could some of the underwear be in another shape than boyshorts? Cute as they are, they just don’t fit comfortably on my shape, or, I suspect, anyone else with um… fuller buttocks…

        • Benefits being that the fuller buttocks would most *definitely* fit ‘straddle this’…I’m speaking on behalf of my own ample cheekage, of course.

      • I think a men’s style boxer brief or boxer shorts would be great too, for the dudes and masculine-of-center people who read autostraddle.

  14. May I suggest that one of the milestones gets another day of Autostraddle International Meet-up/Brunch/Party/Something? An Autostraddle International Day Event gets the whole readership and staff involved, in a way. Tinkerbell tattoo is cool but it only involves Alex and her ass. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

    • I thought it would be infinitely entertaining to video tape the tattoo situation. But if I’m overestimating the “omg” factor that is putting a stuffed animal permanently on my ass and sharing that situation with all of you, you have to tell me!

      • speaking as someone who also has a silly tattoo on their ass and documentation of the process — DO IT

      • Wait, there’s going to be a video of the tattoo process? I wasn’t aware of that… That makes it way more interesting.. Hmmmm…
        But I still think that one of the milestones ($50k, $60k..) should be another Autostraddle International Event

      • i’m figuring out the other milestones and drawing up what we would spend it on this weekend!

        ALSO HOW ABOUT THIS!!!

        if we get $100k, i will rent a car, drive to los angeles with marni (and maybe bren!?), and film alex’s tattoo experience, and i will edit a “short film” about the experience starring me, alex, haviland, brittani, julie, brandy, sarah croce, ashley reed — (and maybe even laneia if we can get her out there) — and any other LA-dwellers you’d like to see. it will be a beautiful touching film about love and friendship and will be delightful approximately from start to finish

  15. Oh, thank you for that last one. Sloane is so effing hot. One of my first lady crushes.

  16. Would I be wrong to assume that raising 100K would mean we will actually see this Tinkerbell tattoo? (brb, going to take out a hefty loan!)

  18. I would have loved to see a time elapsed photo spread of Riese’s face every time she refreshed the iniegogo page during those first 21 hours.

  19. I like the idea Creatrix Tiara (awesome name, btw) posted above. Perks are cool and all, but I’d love to know what our money is buying for AS! Now that we’ve raised enough to rebuild the site, what else can we do? I think knowing what their money is buying will encourage people to keep donating, even if they’ve already donated once.

    Personally, I’d love to see some of the money go towards funding A-Camps in different places. I know that only serves the (relatively) small number of readers who are able to go, but I’m selfish and want to go to one, lol.

  20. Congrats AS team! I just contributed – wish I could do more, but we can all do something, right? I am super-excited to see the new Autostraddle the way it’s meant to be experienced.

    Paying all the writers is an awesome idea!! You all work so hard, and speaking as a girl who’s done her fair share of unpaid writing internships, working for free (even for something wonderful that you completely believe in) isn’t sustainable for most people. The writing on this site is so high-quality, and you all deserve to be compensated.

    Also, undies. Undiesundiesundiesundies.

  21. My mom Never acknowledges the gayness, but I had to show her, so I emailed my mom the link and told her to watch the video. And she replies, “Mom have money and will give any need it”- MOM

    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    validated. supported. understood. SEEN.

  22. That last gif… whoa! Mia Sara was one of my first big crushes growing up. Thanks for that.

    Count me in with everyone on the site improvement milestones idea. It really helps build enthusiasm and keep people going.

    And I’ve already voted on Tumblr for boy shorts!

  23. i vote formspring friday live because that was so much fun at camp.

    also maybe the team could make an appearance on an ASSchat thursday night? this is a win win for everyone because chat is super fun.

    and make us more videos with your faces and your words because you know what riese said in the last real l word recap? about people who love you thinking the not cute shit you do is cute? yeah, that’s us. (although i remain convinced that you guys are the cutest and funniest and anyone who thinks otherwise just has bad taste, so.)

  26. Is there a way to put the donations of indiegogo on the side of this website and keep it there until it is over, like a header or something? I say that because people may miss the article (it is already on the second page).

  27. The Muppets!!! MY CHILDHOOD IS BACK!!!!! <3
    Alex's ass is relevant to my interests, I want to see her getting that tattoo done.

  28. Maybe once you hit $85/90k raffle any unclaimed perks to anyone who donates? (if there even are any at that stage!)

  29. Please, many pretty pleases, ask for AS artist-readers to submit NSFW colouring pages! This is a thing that I would love to do, and I’m sure that there are other Autostraddlers who would also like to make this a thing.

    Please help us make thing a thing.

  30. Glad there’s 43 days left, that way I have time to get my tax refund and can donate a healthy portion to you guys ^^. There is just so much… LOVE.

  31. So, possibly silly question. I really want to donate money. I have a job and money to give, but I still share a credit card account with my parents. I’m not quite out to my parents yet, so I’d prefer to give you guys money without them knowing. Is there an obvious way to do this?

      • It shows up as [removed, see next comment] on my statement. If her parents are nosy they could google [removed also] and find the Autostraddle tumblr + Wikipedia page.

        Other options: debit card / linking a checking account to PayPal / putting money on a prepaid visa debit card.

        edit: I had to edit out the E word because that combined with PayPal means that it still shows up in google results. Damn interwebs!

        • Just a note: I just googled that and the only search result was this comment. Googling it with a space between the words had thousands of search results, none very specifically gay.

          • I logged out of google and cleared everything (cookies, history) and searched again and Autostraddle’s tumblr and wikipedia page were still in the first 10 results for me. But I’ll edit my previous comment so that it won’t pop up if anyone’s parents happen to google that exact phrase.

            This is all assuming her parents like to play internet detective.

          • My dad is an expert at internet sleuthing. It’s made me extra paranoid about where I use my credit card.

        • I do have a visa debit card with money on it. So just to clarify, if I use my debit card, my parents won’t be able to track the transaction back to here? Even with access to my checking account?

          • I didn’t realize they had access to your checking account as well as your credit card account. I imagine it’s billed the same way, so your best bet is to buy a prepaid visa card like I mentioned. They sell them at drugstores and such, but you might have to pay a $4.95 fee. (I mistyped last time, should have said prepaid visa card, not prepaid visa debit card.)

  32. Ohh… Can we unlock more cookie perks?

    And OMG. Could we pay to unlock an Autostraddle TEAM dance video?!

    • this would be amazing, and perfect to do at camp, just sayin….or if you guys reach 75k the AS team has to do a skit/song at the talent show and put it on youtube for the world to see

  35. The length to which closeted autostraddle devotees are going to in order to donate to the campaign is just such a beautiful testament of our love for this website. ALL OF THE FEELINGS

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