GGWash survived 2020. You can help us thrive in 2021!

One year ago this Friday, GGWash’s world shifted on its axis when we decided to cancel our birthday party and work from home to protect the health of our community. During those early spring days as the realities of our national and international crisis began to set in, we had no idea what we’d face in the year to come.

For us, 2020 was about resilience. As the pandemic upended our focus and modes of working, a few key funding sources dried up or drew to a natural close. Our founding Executive Director, recognizing the changing landscape for GGWash’s work, decided to step down to clear the path for new leadership.

Amid all that, GGWash staff and volunteers stepped up to meet many challenges, paving the way for future success. We’re making a major transition from an organization led by a visionary founder to one where responsibility is more evenly distributed throughout our broader team. But there’s no glossing over the fact that our budget has suffered a lot in the last two years. Our overall revenue projections decreased from $799,229 in 2020 to $491,229 in 2021 and we are projecting an increase in expenses from $579,000 to $691,328. We’d love to present you with a budget that has a surplus not a deficit, but growth sometimes comes with growing pains.

Keep two things in mind as you review the above graph. Firstly, our revenue and expenses are projections and not set in stone. We already know our expenses, 86% of which go to staff costs, will be less than we thought at the beginning of the year, and we hope to secure more revenue. Secondly, while 2021 presents an uphill battle to keep funding our staff and work, 2019 and 2020 were really great years for us and our revenue exceeded our expenses. We are so fortunate that thanks to your generous support in the past, we have a plan C to survive this year. But using plan C always comes with a cost.

Ultimately, if we are unable to secure more funding to make it through this year, we will be relying on our reserves to make it until next year. If we are still unable to close the gap in 2022, the future of GGWash could be at serious risk. We don’t want anyone to panic: our team is hard at work right now seeking out additional sources of revenue. But we do want to make sure you all know where we are at.

What does this mean for GGWash?

One of the reasons our budget looks like this is because, for the last six months, the staff and volunteers who normally seek funding are focused on managing our leadership transition and filling in the gaps. It’s been more fun than it sounds, but it takes time and focus to get this critical moment for GGWash right, and everyone’s playing their part.

As you can see, our new Executive Director will certainly have their work cut out for them. We have reached the final stages of the recruitment process and are excited to have an update for you all soon.

For now, the GGWash team is focused on wrapping up the hiring process, seeking new revenue sources, and continuing to push for a more sustainable and equitable region through both our publication and our policy work.

Our organization has essentially two halves, our media program and our policy program. These programs both support our mission to promote an inclusive, diverse, growing region where all people can choose to live in walkable urban communities. But they have very different sources of funding. In the chart below you can see our projected revenue sources for 2021. If it has a (P) next to it, it’s a dedicated revenue source for our policy program, if it has an (M) it supports our media program/ the publication.

Though these programs work in tandem, it’s a lot easier to fund policy and advocacy work through foundation grants than it is to fund media. We rely on individual support to cover the aspects of our work that larger funders are less interested in, which are largely expenses related to the publication.

Currently, we are trying to increase our projected earned income by growing our advertising program, seeking out new grants to support both media and policy work, and thinking of creative ways we might be able to secure more support from corporate sponsors. We will also be asking for money more often this year than in years past, and we really appreciate both your support and patience.

While we probably won’t make up our deficit through individual support (unless any of you happen to have $50,000 you want to send our way), we are counting on readers like you to jointly help us raise enough to keep the publication going. If you work for an organization or foundation that would be interested in supporting our work this year please let us know!

Your contributions are the lifeblood of the GGWash publication

Although GGWash is a lot more than just our publication, our media program is vital to our approach to growing local and regional understanding of urbanist principles.

Publishing fresh local content every day provides a wide audience with access to news, informed analysis, and varied perspectives that strengthen our policy and advocacy work. In turn, we’ve seen ideas that GGWash’s publication helped seed in its early years become so mainstream as to appear in a broad variety of media outlets.

None of the work we do would be half as effective without the publication, and yet, we’ve consistently struggled to raise the money needed to cover the publication’s expenses. We still have a long-term goal of having the publication become self-sufficient, but this year, we are very focused on making our budget. That means we need your help to raise $100,000 by the end of the year.

In 2021, individual contributions are projected to make up over 50% of the publication’s funding. For that to happen we need your support. Can you match our investment in the publication by joining, renewing, or upgrading your membership in the GGWash Neighborhood?

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GGWash supporters have stuck with us throughout the challenges of the past year, allowing us to continue popular writing beats after the funding dried up and avoid staff cuts overall in a tough year financially for many nonprofits. We are so grateful. This year the editorial staff has great plans to build on the portfolio of articles we were able to bring you last year, with more room to breathe for advocacy pieces and opinions. And our whole team is dedicated to helping light the way for how the region can grow and thrive in the late- and hopefully post-pandemic period. We’re excited about our opportunities ahead to re-emerge from this societally destructive time with an updated strategic vision for urbanism, equity and sustainability.

We are confident that with your support and a little creativity we can keep the GGWash we know and love around for years to come. But to make this happen, we need to grow our revenue from readers (as well as advertisers and sponsors) to $150,000. Will you help us by making a contribution to GGWash today? Every one-time, annual, or monthly gift helps support the content you enjoy and the region needs.

In this unprecedented year when the future of the Washington region hangs in the balance, thanks for keeping the story going.

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