Support Free Creative Writing Workshops

This fundraiser is organized by NY Writers Coalition Inc..

Tax deductible

NYWC started from the belief that everyone has a voice and a story and that telling our stories and having them heard is a basic human need. We’ve spent 22+ years expanding access to literary community and creativity.

We urgently need your help to keep providing free and low-cost creative writing workshops to the public so that historically silenced and marginalized communities can tell their own stories—not just be written about. Please support us if you care about writers, are a writer yourself, and if you value community, self-expression, and equitable access to the literary arts.

WHO WE ARE

NY Writers Coalition (NYWC), a Brooklyn-based 501(c)3 not-for-profit, is one of the nation’s largest community writing organizations. We support writers from all backgrounds and levels of experience, with an emphasis on people from historically under-resourced groups. Each year, we provide more than 1,000 *free* creative writing workshops for people not heard from often enough in our society. We also publish and host events featuring new, emerging, and established writers.

We are unique in the breadth and scope of our work and our impact has been astounding: We have operated more than 20,000 workshop sessions in hundreds of locations, serving more than 25,000 people, and more than 400,000 new pieces of writing have been created in our generative workshops.

HOW ANY FUNDS RAISED WILL BE USED

We've provided free, high-quality writing workshops for over 20 years but it has become clear that we need to evolve quickly to continue doing so. Your support will give us time to transition into a new revenue model that will make our work sustainable and achieve the following:

Continue NYWC's Black Writers Program (BWP): Launched virtually in 2020, the BWP is a high-quality series of workshops, panels, and craft talks for Black writers of all backgrounds, at all levels of experience. Although demand regularly exceeds capacity, we keep all programming free for participants—but pay competitive stipends to the workshop leaders, teaching artists, and event panelists who make the BWP possible. Roughly half of these funds will be used to ensure we can produce a 10-12-week 2024 program—including launching local, in-person programming here in NYC.
Relaunch & Expand Our Outreach Programs: When the pandemic started, our ability to run our landmark Outreach Programs for people in vulnerable communities suffered. We've since re-launched about 30% of these offerings including some of our longest-running workshops (10-20 years) at the 14th Street Y for seniors; CIDNY (Center for Independence of the Disabled, Manhattan); SAGE (a Manhattan community center for LGBTQ+ elders); Creative Center (an arts center for people living with cancer); and Port Morris Wellness Center (a workshop in a community clinic for patients undergoing treatment for opiate abuse/dependence on methadone maintenance)

Providing free Outreach Workshops like these is at the very heart of our mission—but we can’t continue to do so without your help.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Support us if you've written with us and love what we do. Support us because the creative life of someone you care about relies on our ability to keep going. Support us even if you've never heard of NYWC but recognize that writing shouldn't only be seen as a tool of scholastic aptitude. Support us if you believe in the power of creativity and self-expression. Support us if reading the writers of people with different experiences from your own has deepened your worldview.

Here are some ways to join in:

Donate: You can support us here on GoFundMe, donate directly through our website, or become an NYWC Member. Our membership program, which we launched last year, includes perks like great merchandise, bonus small-group workshops, an exclusive newsletter, 1:1 critiques, and more. Memberships begin at just $5/month!
Spread the word: If you aren't able to donate, please share our fundraising efforts with others! Email, text, or DM our GoFundMe to someone you think will be interested in our work. Share our campaign on your favorite social networks with even one sentence about why what we do matters, and tag us so they can learn more.
Join us in person and/or online: We'll continue to offer free and sliding scale programming throughout this campaign, including virtual and in-person (NYC-based) workshops, poetry readings and salons, social events for people looking for writing partners, and new lit friends, mixers, and much more. Please join us by buying or gifting a ticket, RSVPing yourself to get some writing done, or just coming out to say "hi".
Connect us: As mentioned above, one of our goals includes connecting with companies and organizations seeking employee engagement opportunities. Email us if you know of or work at an institution that shares our vision and would like to connect for ERG and/or corporate sponsorship opportunities.

OUR CHALLENGES

Like many nonprofit organizations, we've spent the last few years navigating new and exacerbated challenges, as the COVID-19 pandemic completely altered how we work. After temporarily suspending our in-person programs, we stepped into the virtual space and extended our hallmarks of connection, community, and creativity through writing to those sheltering in place.

We initially weathered the pandemic with the financial support of private and government emergency funds. Although those emergency funds helped keep us going, they masked several underlying structural issues in nonprofit funding that have since returned to full force:

Arts funding often excludes creative writing: The unfortunate reality is that literary programs receive a small portion of arts funding overall—and community creative writing programs receive an even smaller percentage of literary program grants. Arts funding is typically exclusive to the visual and performing arts, and the lion’s share of writing grants usually go to programs focused on literacy and academic achievement. While those initiatives are, of course, important, we believe that creative writing is an art—and one worth investing in.
NYWC is mighty—but very small: The demand for our work is high but we make it happen on a modest operating budget of roughly $450,000 each year. Several foundations have informed us that our work is impressive but ultimately falls outside their funding guidelines (e.g. having a minimum operating budget of $750,000+ in a previous calendar year). Other foundations don’t accept proposals and exclusively fund organizations that have been pre-selected.
NYWC has a big-tent approach: Throughout our history, we’ve worked with seniors, under-housed people, individuals with disabilities, incarcerated writers, youth, and more. The incredible breadth of our work enables us to provide workshops in a variety of communities but, unfortunately, shuts us out from funding that focuses solely on specific writing genres or demographic groups (for example, organizations solely focused on fiction or ones exclusively for youth).

OUR STRATEGY MOVING FORWARD

We’ve developed a multi-pronged plan to revamp how we generate revenue. In the short and long terms, we plan to:

Grow our membership program: We launched this offering in 2023 to make it possible for our current supporters to deepen their relationships with us. We currently receive a little over $1,250/month from membership fees and know there is room to grow.
Launch for-pay programming: Both long-time and new members of our community have expressed interest in more in-depth workshops. Launching a higher-level, for-pay workshop offering will help subsidize the costs of crucial offerings such as our Outreach and Black Writers Program workshops.
Create corporate & Employee Resource Group (ERG) workshops: Many participants have told us over the years that writing with us has helped them articulate themselves and their experiences, and communicate more effectively with others. Others are “secret” artists and writers—people who may be unable to dedicate as much time to writing as they’d like. We’re developing a corporate and ERG workshop program to pitch to businesses and organizations interested in retaining, engaging, and developing staff. Your support of this fundraiser will give us time to establish this revenue stream.
Enlist Strategic Experts: Through the support of grantmaker LitNYS, our board has been working with a highly experienced philanthropy consultant to become more of a revenue-generating body. Additionally, support of the NY Community Trust has made it possible to enlist the services of a marketing consultant who can help spread the word about our incredible work.
Share Our Skills & Knowledge: Our workshop method has deep roots in the Amherst Writers and Artists method created by Pat Schneider (and described in her book Writing Alone and With Others). We’ve trained a cohort of nearly 200 workshop leaders and teaching artists across our history, and want to equip more people and nonprofits with the skills they need to lead workshops in their own circles and communities through training and info sessions.