UPDATE: Due to the amazing generosity of, well, you all, this emergency is no longer an emergency! HUGE THANKS! Read more here.
At this point in a normal pledge drive, I would be taking a moment to thank everyone who has donated and nudging anyone who hasn’t to add what they can. And I do want to thank all of you — those who have provided financial support and those of you who have offered support in other ways. You are all very generous; some of you extraordinarily so.
Unfortunately, my financial situation at the moment is quite dire. After dealing with unavoidable bills, the money I’ve raised so far during this pledge drive is already mostly gone and I need to raise more money to pay rent and get through the next month or two. I didn’t realize how close to the edge I’ve gotten.
So if you appreciate the work I’ve done over the years here at We Hunted the Mammoth, and are in a position to help out, I truly need all the help I can get. If you haven’t donated,, or if you have, but can afford to give a little more, please give what you can.
You don’t need a PayPal account; credit cards are fine. And if you want to avoid PayPal altogether, email me at [email protected] and I’ll let you know how. Thank you!
I’ve been doing this blog for eight years now, and I’ve never had to make an urgent request like this before, and I hope I never have to again.
I plan to start a crowdfunding campaign in the next couple of days — probably on GoFundMe — but I wanted to let you folks know what’s going on first, and to see if any of you had advice on the best way to go about this. Because we’re family. You’re the people I do this blog for.
The reason this has come to a head right now is that I have been subsidizing this blog from the start by by raiding my 401(k) savings. But I don’t have that option any more. My savings are gone; I’ve hit the limit on what I can put on my credit card; and I simply don’t have the money to cover my bills right now.
Adding to the trouble are the thousands of dollars in medical debt incurred treating an assortment of serious ongoing health issues, as well as a bunch of expensive tests I underwent in the wake of a health scare a little over a year ago.
My plan is to dig myself out of this hole by taking on more freelance journalism work, which I had largely set aside for many years in order to focus on the blog. But it will take some time to ramp this back up and build or rebuild relationships with editors at various publications. Donations will give me a little breathing room while I make this transition.
Don’t worry: the blog will continue on uninterrupted. Hopefully, in the medium and long run, the combination of freelance work and regular pledge drives will return me to some sort of financial stability.
Again, I’m sorry to have to come to you all with this urgent request. But I really have no choice.
Thank you all for your support over the years, and for taking the time to consider this appeal.
— David
Sorry to hear, David. Don’t feel bad for asking though – you give us so much.
I’ll be chipping in next Wednesday and for now I’m sharing the tweet on this as much as possible.
All the best, and you rock! Take care of yourself and the fluff children ???
$20 sent and appeal propagated!
<3 Take care of yourself David! I feel bad about you raiding your savings for this blog. You shouldn't have to do that!
I will get you another donation soon. In the mean time, please reconsider turning ads back on! I've never blocked ads on your site when you had them, I considered them a reasonable usage tax to be honest.
I hope you can get through this quickly and get yourself some more freelance work!
Thanks, everyone!
I’m going to try to avoid the ads if possible. One very generous donor has been so generous in part to provide the rest of you with an ad-free site.
In any case, I don’t think it would help much in any case. These days it’s hard to make money off ads unless they’re obtrusive and everywhere.
Kicked some extra cash your way. Sorry you’ve been needing to raid your 401k. The healthcare situation in this country is just so backwards. I hope it gets better soon and you can get migraine treatments without worrying about how it will affect you financially.
Done. It was not a big amount or anything, but I hope it helps.
buck$ $ent your way. I appreciate the hell outa what you do, and I shitloads about social conscience from the other Mammotheers. Hope you get back afloat quickly!
Do NOT apologise!
It’s International Women’s Day here in Australia and once my pay comes in, I’ll kick some denari your way in honour of the work you do. It won’t be heaps, but as much as I can afford!
I really appreciate your work.
Money will have to wait til I see how much the exhaust costs tomorrow, but can shake some free.
Passed your name on to a couple people I know who said they’d get in touch regarding freelance stuff (Leads mostly – I’m out of the loop with editors myself) so you may get a couple of emails/DMs from strangers – if on twitter and I follow them they’re legit.
I am a jewelry artist (www.deadthingsbysarah.com if you want to take a gander) and feel this panic! I also lived off a freelance journalist’s income for several years in my 20s, and the hand-to-mouthiness is a tense situation that leaves a knot in the gut, always. Though I’m not sure I would know how to live any other way! I don’t have much at this very moment, but sent $10 your way with a commitment to do that every month. That’ll at least keep you in toilet paper.
Done. I’m sorry it isn’t more. Your site has provided me with a rather painful education for years now. I knew Trump had a shot if there were enough of the folks you cover. Is there a non-religious form of bless you? That’s how I feel. Anyhow, rock on and may Bast be with you. 😉
Thanks, everyone, every bit helps! And don’t worry if you can’t send anything along right away.
Sarah, welcome! I will think of you whenever I poop. Well, maybe not every time.
I’m really sorry to hear about your financial troubles. I gave you some cash, least I can do for all your good work!
Have you considered starting up a patreon? Might be a way to earn a more steady income.
Yes. The rewards could be pictures of your cats.
(I’ll be donating in a little bit)
No need to apologize. Your project has been so important in exposing this insidious movement, but your time is important and the unpleasant nature of this labour deserves greater compensation than I can spare.
I’ve been too deep in a profound depressive episode to engage in the comments like I used to, but I still check in for frequent updates, when I can stomach them.
I am also happy to report a recent victory, all my former coworkers who I had advised to document their incidents took my advice, and I was able to stay in touch and coordinate a mass HR report that got our shitty, misogynistic, homophobic corrupt manager 86’ed from the company and banned from the premises.
Donated some and set up a monthly donation. Thank you!
I’m happy I’m finally able to help, sent a bit right now and set up a monthly smaller bit. Your work is much appreciated.
Ugh, I know the feeling of emptying your savings account for living expenses. Just dumped my entire TFSA (which was for school) into a cheap car to (hopefully) get a good enough job to afford/save for school. Otherwise I’d definitely up my contribution.
Also I think patreon might be a good idea, if nothing else because it’s more used, might get some extra traffic.
Good luck on the freelance work though!
Just donated a twenty: wish I could give more, but don’t have any income flowing in at the moment. Hope things start going better for you, David. Your dedication to this blog and to exposing these shitheads is inspiring!
Shaved some gold flakes your way, sorry to hear about problems! 🙁 Thumbs up for all the work you’ve done, give the kitties some hugs from us!
I’ve been very lax in my $upport 🙁
I’ve PayPal’d $50 as a small token of how much I love and genuinely appreciate both you and this blog.
Thank you for all you put yourself through for us.
Self and the usual crew here threw in for $100.
Our Miss R here coughed up a credit card.
Hope it’s a bit of help, we’re all reading along here and glad for this site and all the work that goes into it.
Just a quick reminder too, in case anyone’s not aware of it: when you donate to WHTM, you can set up a recurring monthly payment (amount of your choosing). I’ve done this, and I find it easier; donating a smaller amount per month suits my income and budget better.
I’ll be chucking in some extra next week though 🙂
I’m not sure if I can afford to donate, but I third the Patreon idea-other bloggers I follow are doing it, and it seems to be working out well for them.
Sorry I’m not in a good place to help right now. 🙁
Last semester of college, savings are running scarily low and I’m a bit in limbo about whether I do or do not have a job in May (I’m technically hired so can’t apply for other jobs due to professional ethics but there’s some hurdles that could make me not-hired really easily that I have no control over).
If all works out with the job, though, I’ll possibly be able to help out next pledge drive — or just sneak in between drives!
Good luck, David!
I’m also going to Nth the Patreon idea.
Folks could more easily toss a regular stream of tiny donations, instead of having a “If I don’t get Yay Many Donations in Yay Amount of Time I get No Donations” thing, like gofundme and kickstarter tend to have.