A Letter to Our Community
Oct. 11, 2023
Dear YES! Community,
I’m writing to you to let you know of some significant news and recent decisions that will shape the future of YES!, and ensure that YES! continues to tell the stories that inspire people to build a better world.
YES! is facing some hard truths. The media landscape—how people take in and interact with information and ideas—has changed dramatically, and YES! needs to adapt in order to serve its mission. At the same time, we are facing challenging financial realities. These two catalysts compel us to restructure the organization to meet the demands of this moment, resulting in a reduction of our annual budget by 25%. It is with deep disappointment that this includes the layoff of 5 of our 22 talented staff members.
How did we get here?
A changed media landscape
While YES! has a loyal following, simply not enough people know about it. YES! offers solutions to society’s biggest challenges, and to have the necessary impact, these stories must be told in many formats. We need to become as good at short, visual, storytelling—the preferred format for the communities we need to reach—as we are with the written word. We need to become skillful in engaging with new audiences and building community in new ways, while remaining true to our values. This transformation will take time, talent, discipline, partnerships, money, and community.
Financial turns of tide
During the pandemic, CARES Act funding bolstered YES!, and a flood of donations enabled us to hire staff and build up our financial reserve (we are so grateful to all of you who support YES!). Yet as a nonprofit media organization, YES! is affected by trends in both the nonprofit sector and the independent media sector. Over the last year, this means we’ve experienced a double hit with declines in individual donations and in print subscriptions (a trend that started a decade ago and accelerated last year), which together make up 60% of our revenue. Another factor is related to our commitment to cover the experiences and solutions emerging from communities of color and other historically marginalized communities. Some YES! donors have increased their support in response, while many—after a brief surge of donations in 2020—have since reduced or dropped their support—a troubling trend happening across the philanthropic sector for organizations committed to building equitable communities. To ensure that YES! has resources to adapt as we move through this period of change means acting now to significantly reduce our expenses.
How did we make the decisions?
Our process started with a more focused strategy that could also be financially viable in the long-term: an “audience first” strategy. This includes shifting resources to digital storytelling formats, engaging communities on the platforms where they live, and building financial support from our growing digital community and larger social-change funders. We determined the skills and organizational structure we needed to support that strategy. Then, with our commitment to equity and impact in mind, we reviewed each team member and made decisions based on the collective critical skills necessary for our future needs.
We are saddened to lose some of our coworkers. We’re doing our best to treat everyone in a compassionate and thoughtful way, and are taking care of them as best we can with severance and extended healthcare. We will support them as they seek their next workplaces, and hope that other organizations hire them immediately. And we will honor their contributions to YES!, because they have each, in their own ways, helped publish hundreds of remarkable stories that have inspired millions.
What this means for you, and how you can help
Initially, you may not notice many differences. YES! will still reliably publish our unique brand of solutions journalism in print and online. As we settle into our new strategy with our smaller team over the next several months, you’ll notice changes. We expect to invest in fewer stories, but with more intention, ensuring they each have the most impact possible. This means publishing in multiple formats, working with partners to publish and share those solutions, and engaging with the communities that are replicating them, so we can learn and share together. And we will encourage people to understand and support YES! as a mission, not just a magazine. As a member of our YES! community, we hope you will continue to learn, share, and support YES! storytelling long into the future!
Some final thoughts
We hear every day that YES! is needed now more than ever, because social change movements need healthy, independent media to tell the stories of what’s possible. This difficult financial crunch provides a moment of clarity, and an opportunity to move forward with intention. Our commitment to solutions journalism that produces the more equitable world we desire to live in remains steadfast and strong. Together, with our communities of readers, donors, and contributors, we can ensure that this pivotal moment marks the beginning of the best of YES!
If you have questions, ideas, or anything else you’d like to share, please email us at [email protected]. If you’d like to support YES! with a gift, donate here.
Thank you very much for your support!
Christine Hanna, Executive Director
Evette Dionne, Executive Editor
Julia Pagán, Director of Finance and Organizational Development
Berit Anderson, Co-Chair, Board of Directors
Manolia Charlotin, Co-Chair, Board of Directors
Monique Davis, Member, Finance Committee and Board of Directors