Tag Archive for: patreon

It was two years ago when a friend, social entrepreneur, and Impactathon Impact Talk speaker said, “Innov8social should make a page.” Well, Nathan, it took a second, but we created a Patreon page!

https://www.patreon.com/innov8social

What is Patreon?

For the uninitiated, Patreon is a platform where readers, listeners, and fans can support their content creators through memberships and subscriptions. It’s a way to value the work of content creators while creating a community of engaged fans and supporters. Content creators––ranging indie musicians, graphic artists, writers, podcast hosts––have been seen, heard, validated, and enabled to continue creating content.

Why we created a Patreon page

For the past eight years, through blog posts, podcast episodes, online resources, and convenings, we have been creating content and experiences with the mission of making social entrepreneurship more actionable and accessible. We have avoided including ads on the website, blog or in the podcast.

The timing felt right to create a way to both validate and value our work and create a new way to connect with our community–our tribe.

“Fail fast,” they say. And they usually say “fail forward” within the same sentence. In the spirit of those tenets of lean entrepreneurship, the Patreon page is also a way to receive a response to the overarching question. is it working? I.e. are we making meaningful strides in the direction of our mission. Are we creating content that matters to anyone.

There is a goal of 500 subscribers which will lead to the creation of a “Where are they now” type of series with past podcast guests. It is a goal post that seems football yards away today, but is an objective measure by which to track validation.

Just as many of us are becoming informed consumers or conscious consumers by voting with our dollars for the goods, services, and foods we choose to use, engage, eat, and champion; so too do we ‘vote’ when we chose to spend time reading, listening, liking and sharing online content. Supporting a content creator on a platform like Patreon, takes ‘mission-driven content consumption’ one step further, by giving value to content.

Value and valuation, as we know, are terms of art to some degree. A share price, a consulting fee, worth of currency or cryptocurrency all involve our belief in the worth of something.

In the social impact sector, content creators, conveners, and ‘social impact ecosystem builders’ (of which we include ourselves) are often asked to work for free. I.e., sending the message that we do not have value within the system. We cannot create a place to stand, and for future social impact leaders to stand, unless we see our work as valuable. And while the first step is seeing value in our work, it can only be validated by others. By you.

All of that to say, the reason we created a Patreon page is because we believe what we do is valuable. And, whether you are taking your first step within the social impact sector or have been in the space for decades, we invite you to become our champion.

We are grateful to Patreon, to our community, and you for taking the time to read this. Thank you!