10 Days to Raise $4,000

I mentioned before that Relevant Magazine is going to be doing a feature on my work with Abort73 in their May/June issue. Their circulation is currently 75,000, they list their readership at a quarter million, and this particular issue will also be given away to as many of the attendees as possible at both of this summer's Cornerstone music festivals (combined attendance will likely be between 30,000-40,000). If at all possible, I want to augment their story with a full-page Abort73 ad. Placing that ad will cost us close to $4,000. For some ministries, that would be a fairly insignificant investment. For us, having received a total of $42,000 in donations for all of 2006 (which must cover all of our operating expenses), $4,000 is a lot of money.

Here's why I feel it is worth the effort. Having looked through the Relevant press kit and having seen the magazine in person, I believe it is the single most strategic publication for us to advertise in right now (the purpose of this particular ad would be to compel young Christians to both visit the website and start employing our resources). It is extremely well put-together and it reaches the right segment of the populace. Eighty percent of their readers are between 18 and 34. Almost forty percent are between 18 and 24. While I wish it had better traction among high schoolers, I know of no other Christian magazine that is effectively reaching high schoolers. The trickle down effect, though, is promising because I'm sure that there are a lot of high school and college ministry leaders who do read Relevant, as well as a lot of the bands that hold influence over high school students. And because this particular issue will be distributed at the Cornerstone festivals, it will probably end up in the hands of more high school students than any other (and because it is such a high-quality publication, it's not likely to be just thrown away).

For all these reasons, I'm convinced that Relevant in general, and this issue in particular would provide us with solid exposure among the cross section of people that we're most trying to reach (students, pastors, bands, etc.). The ad deadline is March 15, which doesn't leave much time. In order to run the ad, I need to raise $4,000 between now and then. It's possible that the total could be reached with 400 ten dollar donations, but it seems more likely that a handful of people would take it upon themselves to cover the whole expense. If that might be you, please let me know. I'd be happy to answer more questions you may have and give you an idea of what the ad would look like.