Achievable Goals
Donate to our end of year fundraiser this giving Tuesday.
Footlight Presents @ the Windjammer is a community supported art space providing a platform for emerging artists in Ridgewood Queens since 2016. This is our Substack where we share industry related interviews, essays, & encourage discourse.
We’ve been trying a lot of different ways to make our programming more sustainable. We apply regularly for grants(between 6-8 a year at least). We accept donations at the point of sale and so many patrons have been very generous over the years. We earn at least $2000 annually from that extra $3-5 added to your ticket purchase. Recently, I put out a call on socials for volunteers to run the door for us during shows. I was floored when we received dozens of emails wanting to help us with our mission. Thanks to the incredible volunteers who have graciously donated their time over the past few months we’re finally catching up and getting to a more comfortable break even point where we can continue to pay artists an average of 65%+ from admissions.
Transparency is so important to me. It comes from a place of wanting to be honest to artists and patrons about the health of arts and culture in NYC as a whole. It’s no secret that independent venues are struggling right now and I don’t want to pretend we’re somehow exempt from that. Footlight is in a position currently where covid debts are catching up to us and need to be settled. All the while, the amount patrons in general have to spend on arts and culture programming is at an all time low. We want to remain accessible but also struggle to remain sliding scale while continuing to pay the artists and staff a living wage.
Photos by Katrina Stewart
This giving Tuesday, if you have the means, or if you work for a company that matches your annual donations, consider Footlight Presents, the small venue that could, for your charitable giving this year. In 2023, Footlight Presents became a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Fractured Atlas will receive grants and donations for the charitable purposes of Footlight Presents and provide oversight to ensure that donations and grant funds are used appropriately. Contributions for the charitable purposes of Footlight Presents must be made payable to Fractured Atlas and are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law. We are very close to becoming a 501(c)3 Nonprofit. If you have questions about how to donate a larger sum of money through our fiscal sponsor, you can email a request for a major gift letter.
We also sell our tickets through the ticketing platform and sustaining membership program WithFriends.events. From here you can track our fundraising progress and either become a sustaining member, which will come with membership perks such as discounts on tickets, or you can make a one time donation towards our goal.
You could also become a paid subscriber to this Substack! We will keep providing content in 2026 such as interviews with artists and staff as well as featuring other organizations that we are proud to partner with for a number of causes.
We also have merch that you can order straight to your home! Featuring designs from Footlight staffers Áine Mullaly, resident graphic designer and Tim Shea, resident visual artist, host of The Joy of Ranting & curator of The Footlighter Zine.
Photos by Katrina Stewart
We have roughly 2700 subscribers and if even 10% of our readers paid just $5 a month, that would pay the annual salaries of two part time administrative positions. Help that we need to make time for more grant writing and to expand our capacity for new programming, free workshops, and community forums.
Any amount of money you can spare towards our mission keeps this space alive and well and thriving! Small stages are vital platforms in the arts ecosystem and it is essential that we actively participate in keeping these independent venues open for use by our community. If you cannot give financially of course we understand and you can still help by sharing this post and engaging with our social media so that more people discover the space and all our incredible programming.
Photos by Katrina Stewart
Lastly, the gratitude we have for all the artists who continue to work with us and are patient when we’re struggling to stretch every dollar is unparalleled. We appreciate that we continue to be able to serve this community and are hoping to do that in a more sustainable fashion for many years to come.