I’m turning 32 on September 23rd and y'all have started asking what I wanna do on/for my birthday. Well: I wanna spend my birthday giving money to the writers of Autostraddle.com!
If you’re a fan of Autostraddle’s writers, it would mean so much to me if you could consider pitching in to support the amazing women who have made my life so meaningful/worth living. (and hopefully yours, too!) If you were planning on getting me a gift, donating to the Autostraddle Writers Fund is honestly the greatest gift you could give me.
We’re so grateful to have such a supportive group of readers who, through donations, merch sales, camp tuition and last year’s fundraising campaign, have enabled us to pay our senior staff — and me! — just enough to get by. The senior staff does so much work for Autostraddle that they’re unable to get another full-time job, and therefore compensating them/us for their/our time at least a little bit is necessary to keep Autostraddle running.
But we’re not quite there yet with being able to compensate the writers, and this fact haunts my days and nights. Our redesign (also funded by you!) will debut this fall and I have high hopes for a future of paid writers and better-paid senior staffers, but until then: nothing would make me a happier birthday girl than if I could spend my super-special day spending money on some super-special people. After the fundraising campaign last year I was able to give year-end bonuses to our contributing editors & writers and it was one of the best days of my life!
I wanna give money to these girls who I love with my whole heart:
Subject Editors - (Crystal, Ali, Lizz, Vanessa, Hansen, Brittani, Carolyn) These folks oversee a subject area (such as music or DIY/food), are on call once a week and contribute 2+ posts a week.
Contributing Editors (Subject Editors and Kristen, Cara, Carmen, Daniela, Fikri, Jamie, Laura, Mey, Kaitlyn, Kemi) - these folks are on call once a week and contribute 2+ posts per week.
Writers (Gabby, Katrina, Kate, Malaika, Sindu, Stef, Rose) - these folks contribute at least two posts per month.
Mods/Interns/Illustrators/Designers (many!) - varies
The money will be divided using formulas which will take into account their position at AS, the number of posts they’ve written in 2013, the number of months they’ve worked for Autostraddle throughout all of time, and a bonus for those who have taken on additional responsibilities (like being subject editors). If we raise enough, non-writing positions would be paid on a flat fee.
I’m using GoFundMe because transparency, and I’m starting this campaign now so that I’ll have all the funds by the time my birthday happens and therefore can pay my writers on my birthday while eating carrot cake in my sweatpants. I’ll stop taking donations at midnight on September 23rd.
If you donate $50 or more, I’ll send you a home-made thank you card! (I’ll email you for your mailing address after my birthday)
