The Readers Decide Revenue Drive could mean a big move for BSR

We are still here in an ocean of arts cutbacks, funding cliffs, defunct newspapers, press-hating politicians, toxic algorithms, and AI slop because of a community of real people who read us. Less than one percent of those readers step up to fund us, but it’s been enough to keep us going—barely. In 2025, we received 625 individual donations. So far this year, it’s 738, totalling about $25,000, which is just under 23 percent of our current annual budget of about $110,000, which also includes grant and foundation dollars. BSR’s average individual donation size is less than $40!

Tired but inspired

That’s enough math for today. As you can probably guess, I didn’t get into my career as a writer and editor because I love numbers. But this is nonprofit life, where we all wear many hats, so dealing with the financial side of running an indie publication is necessary, and for many years, in addition to editing BSR, I have helmed our fundraising alongside executive director Neil Bardhan, with support from the rest of our team—even though none of us have any formal training in development. Neil’s work is often behind-the-scenes partnerships and steering us through events, in addition to a lot of administrative support for me and the team.

We’re tired. But we’re also inspired by how those individual donations are ticking up year by year, as other funding sources dwindle. We’re doing something right. We’re going to build on that with our 2026 Readers Decide Revenue Drive.

Our first-ever campaign to expand our team

For the first time ever, we’re fundraising not simply to keep our operation going, but to hire a new team member devoted to revenue, including donations, partnerships and sponsorships, and grants. This is a big moment for BSR, and a big investment in our future sustainability. We are thrilled to partner with Daralyse Lyons, a longtime member of the BSR community who is an expert in publishing revenue. She’s consulting with us pro bono on this campaign, and if we can raise $10,000 by December 31, we will hire her to continue this work in 2027.

We have tens of thousands of devoted readers. If we have proven to you over the course of many years that our organization is a reliable, feel-good destination for your funds, your latest gift will have the biggest impact it has ever had. If you’ve ever hovered over our donate button and then skipped it for another day, now is your moment. Since we announced this campaign last Friday, we have raised almost $800 toward our goal. That’s a great start, but there’s a long way to go.

“I always try to support journalism when I’m able to, and I can’t always afford the price of a paywall,” one early donor told us. “So it’s a no-brainer to donate whatever I can afford … especially when it’s free and available to everyone. Just reading the ways that your staff has sacrificed in terms of working part-time and having to hold down a second gig to pay the bills was another no-brainer. If they can do that then I can certainly chuck in what I can afford.”

The decision is yours.

In the coming weeks, we’ll talk more about our unseen life as fundraisers, why BSR is doing something valuable and innovative according to the latest data on audience engagement, and why we are turning away from AI when it seems like everyone else is bowing to it—even though it’s more expensive for humans to do the work. We also have some exciting new events we’ll announce soon, going beyond our popular PR and review-writing webinar series.

You are our readers. So the decision is yours. If you value our work, its future is in your hands. Give if you’re able, and share our campaign with friends who care about independent media. If you have ideas on how we can meet our goal, we’d love to hear from you. Email Daralyse at [email protected]. We are so excited to launch this campaign in community with you. If you feel inspired, you can make a gift of any size here.