Sorry to drag this post out of the depths, but I read it when it was first posted and it's irritated me ever since. As an LBT woman, I hate the endless monetisation and profiteering of our magazine industry. It's a sad fact of life that the magazine industry as a whole is done, it's costly to create and curate content, and people won't buy what they can access for free online.
Silke Bader is the CEO of Curve Magazine (US) and LOTL (Australia) and she's just as bad as Linda Riley. I just had to highlight what I have seen happen over the past couple of months with her shameless display of attempting to monetise her own brands.
On July 30th Curve Magazine sent out an email to its a mailing list, it was a survey about Curve with the opportunity to win a free subscription, so I took part. Halfway through the questions started to talk about the LBT community instead, and something weird about a Curve foundation started to be mentioned. Questions such as; would I support a Curve Foundation if one were to exist. I said no, because Curve has no experience in the charity arena to my knowledge and at no point did they explain what the Foundation would actually DO.
On August the 9th I get another email. Surprise surprise, they are launching a Foundation. They claimed that their recent community research suggested that there is a need for us all to advocate for our rights and visibility. Now, call me suspicious, but I don't think they set that up in between the 30th July and 9th August. I also don't think many people would have said "yes, please set up a foundation". Especially as the questions were so flimsy. But here we are, an Indiegogo page with the intention of funding a Curve Foundation and wanting, gulp, $20,000 to do so.
The Indiegogo page is a revelation. www.indiegogo.com/projects/launching-the-curve-foundation--2?#/
Firstly, the video is essentially some cheap stock video of popcorn popping. Has nothing to do with anything and doesn't explain what, exactly, they will do.
But then you get onto the text, which reads like someone in a blind panic with no idea what they are aiming to say wrote the text in half an hour. Which is probably exactly what happened.
The Curve Foundation, set up only because of their community survey (you know from a week ago), will "establish a new network that will support our community in the areas of
Mentoring young women and supporting our Elders
Fighting LGBTQ+ discrimination
Connecting communities
Fighting workplace equality"
All of these things are important, of course, but it just seems like someone has written down some headlines without really thinking. We're for young people. And old people.
And I seriously hope they are fighting FOR workplace equality and not just fighting workplace equality as they say.
A little further we discover that they need $20,000 just to set up the foundation. Not a penny/cent of that will actually DO anything, no. This is just money for the paperwork and a two-day workshop. Let that sink in, they are talking about a Foundation for LGBT equality but the $20,000 they want, which is no small amount of money, is entirely for set up costs.
It gets worse.
Under the Risks and Challenges tab it all becomes clear. They say "Curve magazine can no longer continue with the old publishing model. As a trusted brand, Curve can continue with its activism, by giving back to the community through grants, fundraising and building a better infrastructure for the future."
To my eyes, they are admitting that Curve as a magazine is no longer viable, so they are attempting to become a charity simply to stay afloat.
As anyone familiar with these fundraisers will know, different levels of donation come with different perks. Curve is no different. For £400 you can be a foundation member. For nearly £2,000 you can be a board member. For £4,000 you can be an honorary member. Of what, I'm not sure. Strangely, the amount of info at that staggering level is woeful.
But wait, it gets worse. What's worse than shamelessly converting your dying magazine business from a media company to a charity and asking for an enormous $20,000 just for set up fees? Doing it twice. Because Silke has done it for LOTL as well. www.indiegogo.com/projects/launching-the-lotl-foundation#/
Both got to the end of their funding windows with only one backer giving them any money. I'd bet my house that one back is Silke herself or a member of the Curve/LOTL team. No one else was willing to give anything to these ridiculous "foundations". And thank goodness. But I needed to highlight it because I was so disgusted by this.
I get the need to regenerate and reinvent yourself and your business in these changing times. But putting together a charity with no idea what you are doing and seemingly no care and attention to the enterprise is disgraceful. I hope more people see Linda Riley and Silke Bader for that they are, money-grabbing frauds.
In case the Indiegogo pages get deleted (I certainly would!) here's the images of the Curve Page: imgur.com/a/enYFRNG