Confession: I still get butterflies before hitting "publish" on this site, especially when it's something I wrote. And I've never had more butterflies than I do right now, this second. 

Today we are going to ask you for money.

Not a lot of money. Just $5 actually. But before I start my speech, I’m going to come right out and say it.

Today I am going to ask you to support us financially by making a $5 donation to Coffee + Crumbs. 

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Writing on the Internet is both weird and amazing. We live in a time where anyone, anywhere in the world (so long as they have an Internet connection), can create art and display that art on the Internet for anyone to see.

That is a wonderful, inspiring, and powerful opportunity.

For nine months now, we’ve been putting our art on the Internet for free. We have done this willingly, excitedly, happily, gratefully. We are here because we want to be here, and I cannot stress that enough. This blog was created with little expectations, and it has exceeded every small dream I could have possibly imagined nine months ago. The magic of that is not lost on me. This is my dream job: curating a platform of stories about the very thing that turned my world upside down in the best possible way. This is the thing that makes my heart stir on a daily basis— connecting women, connecting mothers, connecting you, weaving our daily stories into a much bigger story, a story of love and magic and the good kind of heartache. I will say it again because it bears repeating: this is my dream job. 

And it is a job. There is a lot of work that goes into this website behind the scenes: writing, editing, calendar planning, submission reading, photo taking, collaboration pitching, social media strategizing, etc. There are things to pay for, like web hosting and babysitters and coffee (so much coffee!). To date, none of our writers have made a dime off of this work, and sometimes that keeps me up at night. I have a lot of goals for Coffee + Crumbs: a podcast, an online shop, eventually a hardbound book of our essays. But more than anything else, I desperately want to pay the regular writers who craft stories every month and pour their hearts and souls into this space. I want to pay the writers who are sacrificing naptimes and paying for babysitters and getting up early and staying up late so they can write beautiful stories about motherhood. 

It can be very hard to make money as a writer, especially when you write on the Internet where almost everything is free. While we're working diligently behind the scenes to make this site profitable without sacrificing the integrity of what we've created, today we're starting here.

We're starting with you. 

Have you ever been to San Francisco? There's a street musician near the wharf who sets up camp every afternoon and plays the saxophone. His case sits on the ground next to him, full of dollar bills and change, money that people have freely given. He plays all afternoon and hopes that passersby will listen and appreciate his music. He doesn’t do it for the money, of course, but the money helps pay for his lunch and his coffee and his saxophone tune-ups. The tips validate his talent, encourage his heart, and reassure him that the gift he is putting into the world is actually being heard.

Some people walk by and don’t throw anything in the case, but his fingers keep running up and down the keys.

Because he has a song to play.
And because he loves the music.

Today, whether you donate or not, we’ll still be here.

We’re here because we each have a song to play.
And we’re here because we love the music.   

Today we’re asking you to make a $5 donation to Coffee + Crumbs. If you have enjoyed our content at any point over the past nine months, if you have resonated with our words, if you have thought "me too" while reading, we’re asking you to give up one Starbucks latte this week. We’re humbly asking you to drop a few dollars in our saxophone case.

Donations will be used to:

1)   Pay the regular writing team of Coffee + Crumbs for their hard work thus far
2)   Invest in products for the online shop we want to launch later this year
3)   Pay for web hosting/graphic design work/misc expenses

5% of what we earn through the pledge drive will be donated to Every Mother Counts, on behalf of The Readers of Coffee + Crumbs.

Thank you for supporting us, for reading our stories, and most of all—for valuing our art. Your presence alone makes us want to be here. 

“After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.”  ― Philip Pullman

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You can donate using the button below. $5 is the suggested amount, but by all means, if your heart and wallet tell you more or less, we are grateful for anything you can send our way. We'll be accepting donations today - Monday, April 20th. 

Written by Ashlee Gadd. Photo by Sarah Thornhill.