The honeymoon’s over. Six months down, six months to go.
It appears as though the Heron will be around beyond Fiesta—to May and June. That will mean we would have been around one year. After that? It depends on how well we do between now and then.
We are still very much building the organization. In late November, we sent our 501(c)(3) application to the IRS, and it’s currently pending. We are now accepting sponsorships from businesses and organizations. We will soon apply for grants vigorously.
This hasn’t been easy.
Trying to build an organization while keeping up with the news cycle is a bit like attempting to lay down track as the train approaches from a mile away.
To the 52 Heron supporters via Patreon and PayPal, thank you for your contribution and thank you for your patience. It’s a daunting task to try to publish ever day at the standard we’re trying to reach with a small, ever-changing staff. In 2018, we had the occasional content blackout, which we are trying to extinguish as we enter 2019.
The goal now is simply to make it to one year, which would be July, and to be solvent at that time. I’ll have a good idea after Fiesta whether that will happen.
I can say with great confidence that we’re heading in the right direction. While our monthly supporters have kind of plateaued, we received our first sponsor in December, which you’ll soon see. And we continue to gauge interest from others. There is a small team of nonprofit and website experts who work behind the scenes to help the Heron grow. We have an engaged board and a small group of eager freelancers.
With all of that said, here are three resolutions as we move forward into 2019:
» Increase our role as conversation starters—whether that be through hosting events or through our content.
» Get back into the neighborhoods. We started off strong, being all about the communities that surround downtown, and then we weren’t. The Heron needs to return to the principles on which it was founded.
» Being on time and on target. There were some stories in 2018 we just flat ignored. To blame growing pains would be fair—but, again, the honeymoon’s over. We must cover all relevant stories in the downtown area.
That’s it. Back to the grind. All we can do is our absolute best and live with the results.
Contact Ben Olivo: 210-421-3932 | ben@saheron.com | @rbolivo on Twitter
Congratulations! What you are doing is Mount Everest difficult. Keep climbing.