Help Feminist Book Club become a co-op! ‍

UPDATE 10/29/24: Well, helloooooo there! It's been a while!

When we last updated you, we were recovering from multiple break-ins and fundraising for our transition to a worker-owned co-op.

We are quite happy to report that we are nearly at the finish line with that transition!

Here are some updates for you:

- Last fall, our transition team worked together to determine how FBC would function as a co-op.

- In February, we welcomed a new Executive Director, Sally Mercedes.

- In July, the legal documents we needed to establish FBC as a co-operative were finalized, and we moved into a new office space at The Coven SLP.

- In August, our newly-established Board of Directors met for the first time.

Now, at the end of October, we are just about ready to officially welcome our staff as worker-owners of FBC!

It took us much longer to get here than any of us could have anticipated, but we are excited about heading into 2025 as a worker-owned cooperative, working together in new ways and doing our part to work outside of the expectations of capitalism. It means a lot to us to align our values (as a company and as individuals) with our business structure and goals.

We want to say thank you, thank you, thank you for helping us get to this point! Your financial support, kind messages, personal fundraising efforts, sharing the campaign, etc. all had a big impact.

We have just one last hurdle to jump through, which is establishing a financial foundation that ensures we are able to pay our staff and contributors for the next couple of months.

Because we are now technically a brand-new business, we are starting out "behind" in a way, as we do not yet have the cash flow in place that typically keeps a business running month-to-month. While we can use our subscription renewals to pay for products and shipping in the short-term, it will take us some time to be able to have that money accumulate enough to consistently fund things like payroll, website maintenance, etc.

If you are able to contribute in any way, we would greatly appreciate it! Every dollar counts!

To support in other ways, you can also:

- share this campaign

- invite folks to join Feminist Book Club (remember we have audiobook and virtual-only memberships as well)

- get one of our new Date With Destiny bundles for a personalized book box

- shop our Pango outlet for slightly damaged and overstock books

- choose Feminist Book Club as your bookstore on Bookshop.org and Libro.fm (where we also have curated recs)

- get some FBC merch

- send good vibes!

Links to all of these things can be found here: LINK TREE

Things are really tough for everyone right now, and we completely understand if you are tapped out financially and unable to contribute. That is totally fine! We still thank you tremendously for helping us get here. You rock!!

UPDATE 8/23/23: We’ve mostly recovered from our spate of break-ins and thefts (thank you!!) so we’re back on the path of restructuring into a worker-owned co-op! Donations moving forward will go towards this transition. If you believe in a more democratic and equitable economy, I hope you’ll consider supporting this fundraiser and our incredible team. 

Renee

UPDATE 8/10/23: As of August 10, 2023, Feminist Book Club's office and storage warehouse has experienced at least three separate break-ins in the last two weeks. At least $5000 worth of equipment and goods have been stolen from our space and it is not covered by our insurance. We had installed security cameras, reinforced the locks, and moved everything of value out of sight. To say we're frustrated is an understatement.

We are updating our ask for funds to help us recover from this situation. 

Thank you for your support. 

Renee

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Original ask:

Hi, I'm Renee (she/her) and I founded Feminist Book Club in 2018 to bring together feminist readers. Since then, we've won awards, been selected for fellowships, been featured in Oprah Daily, CNBC, Minnesota Monthly, and more. But most of all, we're proudest of the community we've built. In addition to our 20+ content contributors and discussion moderators across the country, we’ve connected thousands of feminist readers across the globe. And we have no plans to stop, especially now.

Rah (they/them) and Renee (she/her) at The Next Challenge Award Showcase where they won the 2023 Vision Award from the Glen Nelson Center and American Public Media Group

Feminist Book Club is a small team with huge goals. It’s a terrifying time to be a woman, trans, or gender non-conforming. We're asking our community to help us work towards a more equitable and just future.

We're based in Minneapolis and, over the last 5 years, have endured high highs and low lows, like many of the small businesses around us. We weathered a pandemic, marched with our neighbors, raised funds for reproductive justice, organized and taught workshops, and pivoted our goals time and again. We’ve hung in there, but barely.

Feminist Book Club turns 5 years old this July and it's time to humbly ask for your help. We took on a significant amount of debt to keep us afloat, always making sure our team and our contractors are the first checks written. I had to make some difficult yet bold decisions to make sure we continue to prioritize people over profit, and one of them was to take myself off payroll two years ago. There are only two of us who work for FBC full-time and we've been incredibly creative in marketing, bootstrapping, and finding new ways to participate in capitalism so it doesn't feel too gross. I’d like to take that burden off our team.

I'm also working towards transitioning this company from an LLC to a worker-owned co-op. In order to do that, we gotta get FBC on the right foot. We’ve never taken investor money because we want our team to have full ownership over our decisions. Help us become even more independent and sustainable by contributing to our GoFundMe!

Other ways you'll see us working towards these goals:

Celebratory sales on our shop and our outlet store

Asking for help is hard, but this is precisely what mutual aid and justice communities are for. If you can work us into your budget, we would be eternally grateful. If it’s not in the cards right now, consider sharing our campaign on your social media. Thank you in advance. We genuinely have the best community of people on the internet.

To sweeten the deal, if you donate, make sure you leave a comment to let us know what kinds of books you like to read. I’ll reply with a personalized feminist book recommendation!

Standing L to R: Renee (she/her), Rah (they/them), Ashley (she/her), Halley (she/her), with Heidi Mastrogiovanni and her dog Obi-Juan seated at our book signing at the LA Times Festival of Books, April 2023