Illustration elements in the feature image from our Build Queer Futures sticker and pin, designed by En Tze Loh
Hello my radiant friend in queer community! As I type this, I am wishing nothing but good things for your weekend. I hope that your weekend feels like cider donuts and hot coffee and something snuggly — or whatever it is you like best! I am here today to talk about something you might be wondering, which is simply, how is the fundraiser going?!
The short answer is, thanks to over 1,373 people who’ve given, over 106 contributed to the gift membership pool, and over 156 new and upgraded A+ members, the fundraiser is *deep supersitious breath* *knocking on wood* on track.
Thank you for this gift. Thank you for doing this together.
Want to help us out? There are a variety of ways to do just that! Whether it’s a $10 fundraiser sticker or a $6 a month membership (which gets you an A+ sticker), every gift helps!
We’re 53.8% of the way to our goal on Day 11 of our fundraiser. And, mind you, that goal — $138,000 — is not an insignificant amount. We know that, and we are blown away by the support of our community so far. The average gift, this morning, was $48, but as we know, averages can be skewed by outliers, so here’s how it actually breaks down:
That is 75.5% of gifts at $50 or less! You are so powerful, together!
And the thing is, this money will go back out into the world in much the same way it came in. We are going to use it over the next four months through January 2022, to fill in the gaps in the funding we need to pay the people who work for us full-time and part-time and to pay queer and trans writers. We don’t hoard it; we spend it right back into our community, into our people, into the thing that makes Autostraddle who we are — the lesbian and bi+ and trans and queer and gay people who make this space like no other. We put it back into work for you, and we put it back into growing and learning and changing and becoming better than ever.
So, if you were wondering if your gift could change things, really, even if it’s $10 or $25, the answer is yes, absolutely, because if each person who asks themselves “will my gift make a difference?” decides that “yes, it will,” then we will meet our goal. Because we have to do this together.
How long will it take? That depends on everyone reading this, and on our community and on how far the word spreads. Even if you can’t give right now or if you’ve already given (thank you!) spreading the word, telling others, makes a Huge Difference for us. We’ve planned for about 22-26 total days, which, yes, means that we are right at the mid-point, but also, we’re going to go until we meet our goal, even if it takes longer. Why? Because this number isn’t arbitrary. We got to this number by subtracting the amount of money we can count on coming in from our costs. It’s the amount of money we need. If we don’t meet our goal, we’d have to find another way to pay our costs and we don’t have anything else we can rely on to do that right now. We can only rely on you. But also, we believe that we can count on you.
And what does your support do? It helps create a space that is like no other. Here, for you, is a thread of videos Heather made about her experience writing about long COVID and why that could only happen here. Your support does extraordinary things for queer media, queer writers, and this community. Thank you if you’ve given, if you’re a member, if you’ve shared. Thank you for anything you can do.
— Heather Hogan (@theheatherhogan) October 16, 2021
This is awesome !
I love how we blew right past $69K (LOL) we’re so hot.
LITERALLY SO HOT.
So. Hot. :)
Do you think we could add an option/button to specifically donate $69
SALLY. This has never occurred to me, but the thing is…I could?
This is stimulating and of mutual benefit.