Why should you support NaNoWriMo now?
This is a pivotal moment. NaNoWriMo is transforming—into offering year-round writing tools and support; into becoming a more diverse and equitable community of writers; into reimagining what collaboration and mutual creation looks like, in-person and online. If you can, please join us in this work for each other and the writers who call NaNoWriMo home.
We’re working toward:
- Building our nonprofit’s capacity to support year-round writing. Just a few years ago, our websites were only accessible during NaNoWriMo and Camp NaNoWriMo seasons, but we now have two interactive web applications (nanowrimo.org and ywp.nanowrimo.org) that support year-round writing. In the first six months of 2021 alone, there have been over 39,000 personal word-count goals set on nanowrimo.org, and almost 17,000 on ywp.nanowrimo.org. Your donation helps keep the sites running and funds new tech development to meet your ongoing creative needs.
- Building a more diverse, inclusive community that better serves all of our writers and participants. We’ve launched a Writers of Color forum with over 900 members, and regular Zoom hangs for BIPOC writers and LGBTQIA+ writers. We’re also launching a Community Advisory Group made up of participants like you to help guide our organizational vision so that you’re fully represented in our decision-making. We recognize that we have much more work to do—you can also check out our racial equity strategy with specific goals here.
- Rebuilding our “Come Write In” program. Our CWI program, which connects writers with local libraries, bookstores, and community spaces, suffered last year due to the pandemic. This year, we’re building it back up with a dedicated staff member ready to jump wholeheartedly into the questions of nurturing vital local literary communities.
We’ve been inspired by so many incredible stories about how our community of writers has endured, survived, and continued to create during this pandemic. We’re both grieving the losses of the past year and a half and embracing the need for transformative energy that arose from it. Rather than returning to the way things have always been, we want to reimagine the work we do and reinvest ourselves in our mission and participants. We hope to do that with you.
Wait, so what is a nonprofit exactly?
“For-profit” companies have owners (a founder, shareholders, etc.) and investors, and their usual goal is to maximize their profits to benefit and financially enrich those owners and investors.
“Nonprofit” organizations have stewards (staff, plus volunteers including a board of directors) who guide the organization on behalf of the public—and their intention is to serve and holistically enrich that public. Any money nonprofits generate goes toward furthering their “not for profit” mission: by funding programs, paying operations costs that make those programs possible, and supporting the entire community involved in their area-of-interest.
It’s a common misunderstanding that “nonprofit” means that there’s never any money being made, or people being paid! Nonprofits still have income and pay wages. But that money goes toward serving a greater public good, instead of solely “profiting” a group of owners.
Why is NaNoWriMo a nonprofit?
NaNoWriMo believes that stories matter. We’ve seen firsthand the incredible benefits that come from writing a story that means something to us: people learn to persevere and use their creativity, become more thoughtful and empathetic, find joy and purpose.
We think these benefits should be as accessible as possible, and should be shared truly equitably with people of all backgrounds—so that we can build a better, more creative world.
We became a nonprofit so that our community (participants, donors, volunteers, and staff) can effectively organize together to make this vision possible. Together, we’ve launched programs that support creative writing in schools, libraries, and community centers around the world. (And that’s not to even mention our flagship National Novel Writing Month, which now supports 300,000 writers around the world with the tools and community to work toward their writing goals.)
Our organization is unique even compared to other nonprofits because of how many of our donations come from small-dollar donors like you. Your financial support allows our community to pursue our mission with the resources to make an impactful change in the world. If you’re able, we hope you’ll consider making a donation and partnering with us in this transformative work!
Donate $30 to support a better NaNoWriMo.
Or, become a monthly supporter.
