World Changing is a 501(c)3 media organization. As such, raising money the old-fashioned way–by asking for it–is something the site’s management team needs to engage in.
Alex Steffen explains:
We’ve been a very entrepreneurial nonprofit, finding ways to raise most of our money through writing and speaking. We’ve also kept our standards consistently high, eschewing press release journalism in favor of thoughtful, independent writing and never allowing advertisers to influence our content in any way. Precisely because of these things, we have found ourselves particularly vulnerable in this downturn.
I believe that the world needs Worldchanging now more than ever; that in times like these, good ideas are not a luxury, they’re vital. If you agree, we need your help.
AdPulp is NOT a 501(c)3 media organization, yet we too think good ideas are vital. In fact, we make it a point to bring good ideas to the surface every day for your benefit and ours. I think we’ve established by now that our practice is something more than a hobby. It’s a business–one with little cash on hand, but a business nevertheless.
Like Steffen at World Changing, I’m not above asking our supporters for help. We’ve held our hand out before. A company has to raise capital!
But there’s more going on here than display ads and supporter contributions. Behind the blog, there’s AdPulp the ad guys. While we seek to monetize the front end of the site, the more tangible value here is our increased visibility, which is directly tied to our ability to get jobs, land freelance and establish enduring client relationships.
It’s true that 99.9% of all creative services companies existed before they launched a blog. I’m thinking it’s good to be on the other side of that stat–to be one of the few to launch a blog first and then follow it with a company.
