Today we at Radio Survivor launch our first fundraising campaign so that we can sustain and build up our coverage of radio that matters.
After publishing more than 4,500 posts over the course of nearly six years we’re turning to readers like you to help keep Radio Survivor going. We’re using the crowd-funding platform Patreon, which lets readers and supporters make monthly contributions to help us pay our bills, become sustainable, and grow the breadth and depth of what we do.
Patreon is a lot like the sustaining giver programs that public and community radio now use, asking listeners to give a monthly amount as an alternative to donating once or twice a year during pledge drives.
The reason for this campaign is simple: advertising and affiliate sales just barely cover our basic costs, like web hosting. It doesn’t even begin to compensate us for our time spent researching, reporting, writing and editing.
We need your help to continue our unique coverage of LPFM, college radio, community radio, internet radio, podcasting and the policies, laws and regulations that affect our ability to make and listen to great radio. But we have bigger plans than that. We want to add more coverage areas, do more in-depth reporting, and even launch an investigative reporting series.
We’ve set monthly funding milestones so you know exactly what your money is supporting. For instance, hitting our first milestone of $100 a month will replace all revenue from display ads on our site, letting us get rid of them altogether. Radio Survivor will be a completely sustainable operation when we hit $3600. From that point forward we can focus on new initiatives, like adding new weekly feature topics, bringing in fresh voices and perspectives.
Like a Kickstarter, we also have rewards for our supporters. For instance, everyone who contributes $5 or more a month will have access to exclusive bonus content, along with an invitation to participate in live webinars with your Radio Survivor editors and writers. All of the rewards are listed on our Patreon page.
The great thing about Patreon is that every supporter moves us closer to each new milestone. It’s an old saw, but it’s true: every dollar matters.
If you have any questions about this campaign please drop us a line at editors@radiosurvivor.com.
We’ve made it this far because of encouragement from readers like you who visit the site, subscribe to our newsletter and send us comments and email. We don’t just want to keep going, we want to grow and provide even more valuable coverage and reporting. If everyone who reads Radio Survivor every month pledged just $1 we would surpass all of our milestones.
We hope that you’ll make your pledge today.
Thank you,
