In 2018, about 1% of our subscribers in U.$. prisons donated money each
month. Those comrades supplied about 2% of the funding for printing and
mailing Under Lock & Key to prisoners across the country. If
you include all money from comrades behind bars, including literature
purchases, and MIM(Prisons) full operating budget, those comrades
provided about 5.8% of our funds. This is not an insignificant portion
of our budget, yet it remains relatively small considering our primary
audience is U.$. prisoners.
We are still in the progress of exploring options for how to
make
ULK a monthly newsletter. While we hope to be more efficient
with our resources as part of this campaign, there is little doubt our
total costs are going to increase significantly. And the comrades in
MIM(Prisons), who fund the vast majority of what we do, will not have
the ability to cover such an increase. Therefore this expansion will
have to stand on 3 legs: 1) partners who we hope will co-publish the new
newsletter, therefore taking on some portion of the funding and
distribution; 2) recruiting new distributors on the streets who will
also contribute a monthly amount to fund the new newsletter; and 3) our
existing subscribers in U.$. prisons.
Many years ago we reported that prisoners funded 4% of Under Lock
& Key and set a goal of increasing that to 10%. Since then we’ve
tracked donations separate from payments for literature or other
services. Today, we have a ways to go to reach that modest goal of
funding 10% of Under Lock & Key from comrades behind bars.
If you are a reader of ULK who thinks that doubling the frequency
with which we can send communiques out to prisoners across the country
is a needed expansion, please think about how you can organize to
contribute to funding that expansion.
Currently, a one-year subscription to Under Lock & Key costs
about $10 to fulfill. We don’t know what that number will be under the
new scenario yet. The goal of funding 10% of ULK could be reached
by 10% of prisoners who receive ULK contributing $10 per year.
Remember we only have 1% of our subscribers donating right now, covering
about 2% of the costs. We need at least ten times more of you to step up
to help make this goal attainable. Contact us for info on how to donate
by check our MO.