Fundraising update: We’ve raised nearly $10,000!

In late November, The Sick Times announced our initial fundraiser, aiming to raise $75,000 as we build a full news website this year. That funding would cover six months of publication in our current format, allowing us to report on the most pressing issues in the Long Covid community and demonstrate our potential impact to both readers and other funders.

Thanks to generous donations from you, our readers, we are now about 13% of the way to that goal — and have raised nearly $10,000 to support our work! You’re helping us demonstrate that readers are excited about original reporting on the Long Covid crisis from an independent, nonprofit newsroom. But we still have a long way to go to reach sustainability.

As we shared in November, The Sick Times chose to launch as a nonprofit organization because we consider our work a public service for the Long Covid and post-infectious chronic disease communities. Already, we’ve published impactful stories, ranging from interviews with leading researchers to profiles of unique advocacy efforts. And all of our stories are free to read, without paywalls, to support open access to information in the Long Covid community.

We’re honored that readers have supported our work with donations, adding up to nearly $10,000 so far. This total includes contributions from 150 individual readers, 45 of whom have chosen to support us with recurring (monthly or annual) donations.

Here’s how we’ve spent this funding so far:

• $1,000 goes to our fiscal sponsor, the MuckRock Foundation, which manages our legal and financial infrastructure.
• $2,400 was paid to freelance contributors Fiona Lowenstein and Simon Spichack for their articles.
• $2,500 will reimburse Betsy and Miles for website and publishing costs, including our logo and mascot designs, fees for our website (hosted on WordPress), our newsletter (sent by Mailchimp), a post office box, and a Google workspace.
• $2,000 is earmarked for future articles by freelance contributors.
• $2,000 remains in our bank account for future expenses.

Right now, both of us (Miles and Betsy) are essentially working for free as we have not yet had the funding to pay ourselves for our three months of work. So far, we’ve produced about 50 stories between us. We knew this would be the risk going into this project, and can continue working under our current model for two to three more months as we wait to hear back from grant applications.

Thanks to your donations, we’re especially excited to be working with freelance contributors, as other journalists and writers bring new perspectives to The Sick Times. Your support helps us pay these contributors at fair rates! With further funding, we want to continue to add more freelance stories; we’re getting so many pitches, and right now, we unfortunately have to say no to most of them. By meeting our goal, we also plan to improve our website, particularly by adding audio versions of feature stories and other accessibility features.

Here’s how you can keep supporting us:

• Recurring (monthly or annual) donations are incredibly helpful because they allow us to predict our future funding. For example, if every reader of this newsletter contributed just $5 a month, we’d reach our goal in just three months!
• Share our fundraiser with friends and family members, and let them know this is one way they can support the Long Covid community. We know many in the community may be unable to donate themselves, which is one reason why we’re encouraging voluntary contributions rather than requiring subscriptions to read our work. 
• Share our work with businesses that might be interested in sponsoring an issue of our weekly newsletter or future online event. Our newsletter currently reaches about 5,000 readers, including many Long Covid researchers and patient-advocates; it could be a great venue for organizations looking to share their work with this community.
• Let us know if you see grant opportunities or other ways that we might raise funding. We’re looking out for any nonprofit funders that might align with our mission to provide accurate, impactful coverage of Long Covid research, health, and policy issues.

If you’re interested in sponsorship opportunities, want to share other ideas, or have any questions about donations, please reach out to betsy@thesicktimes.org.