In my last blog post, I left a link at the bottom of the page to a project that I’m involved in with two of my closest friends – Melissa McAllister and Melanie Childers. (I hope that you clicked thru and took a look!)
The Underbelly was an idea conceived by Melissa and Melanie after many conversations about all the harsh realities that come with having a diagnosis of Breast Cancer and the aftermath of it all. Everyone hears of the “happy celebrations” and “bell ringing” after treatment ends but no one ever talks about what REALLY happens. The issues that can arises after surgeries, the depression, the feelings of isolation, how your body changes with treatments, PTSD and the list goes on. Men and women need to talk about these things and many feel they don’t have an outlet for these conversations or a safe place to go to read about others with similar experiences.
The flip side is what those dealing with Metastatic Breast Cancer live with. The shock of getting a terminal diagnosis, having to be in treatment for the rest of our lives, having to process grief sometimes on a daily basis when another friend dies, the anxiety that comes with every blood test, scan and test.
Factor into all of that there is a discord between those that are diagnosed with Early Stage Breast Cancer and those living with Metastatic Breast Cancer, the three of us wanted to create a community all of it’s own where it would be inclusive of ALL of those that have ever had a diagnosis of Breast Cancer – past or present. The Underbelly would be a place where we could share real, raw stories that were not ‘sugar coated’ or covered in ‘pink platitudes’. And not just our stories – we invite and encourage others to contribute their stories and experiences.
And that’s just what we did.
In August, The Underbelly had a soft launch of it’s website and Facebook page. We were extremely pleased with it’s success and the embrace we received from the Breast Cancer community.
We have now expanded our mission and we have some pretty lofty, although very attainable goals, for The Underbelly. However, to make it all happen we have started a Crowdfunder and have set a goal of $20,000.
The magazine is not supported by way of subscription fees, which means we get to deliver amazing content to our community for FREE. The costs of running the site are around $2000. That includes hosting, a code monkey on the backend, equipment, and storage.
We’d like to pay back our initial investors (Melanie’s awesome folks) at $2000.
Most importantly, we need YOUR help to fulfill our commitment to providing a source of financial assistance in and for the breast cancer community. Cancer really sucks your wallet dry. Giving women & Men who’ve been diagnosed with breast cancer an opportunity to tell their stories and make a little cash on the side is incredibly helpful, so your support will directly help contributing writers get PAID. Three articles/writers a week @$50 per article for 9 months is $5400.
We also intend to grow and expand our reach and voice in the community, including podcasting and video. For that, we need funds to invest in joining with other projects, traveling to conferences and events, advertising, and sponsoring causes that positively impact the community. We estimate $5000.
To continue growing and supporting ourselves, we will also be launching a store to generate income and distribute super cool swag, such as bracelets, t-shirts, mugs, posters and other awesome items. $2000 will go toward launching the shop.
Additionally, a percentage of proceeds from certain merchandise sold through our store and this crowdfunder will go to nonprofit organizations who either fund metastatic breast cancer research or directly assist patients in need. 10% of the bracelets will go to the non-profits we’re supporting, around $2000.
And of course, if fully funded, the administrative fees for running the funder itself come to around $1600.
As of last night we reached 16% of our goal!! Not bad for launching just one week ago today, but we are still a long way off.
We have some pretty nice “perks” that can be chosen when making a donation. There are 6 different Mala Bracelets that represent the 6 Non-Profits that we support and each were designed in their respective colors by our own talented Melissa McAllister. 10% of each bracelet goes back to that NPO.
Your contribution may support a writer directly, or get your ad in front of our email list, or a full sponsorship of the site for a week, two weeks, or a whole month!
If you can’t give to our campaign, that’s OK! I still love you an awful lot.
It would be SUPER awesome if you’d share our campaign on your social media platforms or even this blog post and encourage your friends to help us out. You never know who might be looking for something just like The Underbelly, or who might want to share their story!
Also – and this is a pretty big deal, at least I think so. TODAY – well tonight at 7pm EST. I am going to do a Facebook LIVE on The Underbelly Facebook page and broadcast to whoever may be out there to talk about why The Underbelly is important to me and perhaps if some of you pop on and don’t leave me hanging you can even ask me some questions. I’m kind of nervous about doing this but Melissa and Melanie have already done it and today is my turn and I can’t let the team down!! So, set an alarm – mark your calendar – SOMETHING!!! Please SHOW UP!!