For the past six years, the Otherwise Award has not done any fundraising aside from our auctions. For some of that time, we were on hiatus, so our funding needs were lower, but now we’re back in our stride and in order to continue, we need your help! This Giving Tuesday, please consider making a donation to help us support the exploration and expansion of gender in speculative fiction.
Running an award comes with a lot of costs. There’s the obvious cost of producing physical awards to give to the winners, but there are also many administrative costs, including things like buying copies of books & other media for the jurors to consider, paying for services like web hosting and bookkeeping and jury logistics, and giving a stipend to our jurors.
We’re currently paying for more administrative work than we used to because we want to make sure that we are fairly compensating the people who make the award possible. After our hiatus a few years ago, we came back with a new process for the award, and we are committed to keeping it sustainable and equitable. It’s been working, so far! Here’s what we’ve done:
Since our return, we’ve convened a jury that awarded works from 2024, and we’ve also invited friends of the award to appreciate works from 2022 and 2023 (parts 1, 2, and 3). Our current jury, chaired by Eugen Bacon, is now considering works from 2025.
We’ve also returned to offering fellowships after a two-year hiatus. Our 2024 recipients were Eugen Bacon and Mars Lauderbaugh, and our fellowship committee is now considering the 2025 applicants.
To keep doing this joyful and affirming work, we estimate that we need to raise roughly $9,000. That will allow us to sustainably keep all of our current projects going for the next year. Please help if you can by donating and by sharing this with others who care about exploring and expanding our notions of gender.
Thank you all for your help over the years — whether you have helped by donating items for auctions or bake sales, by purchasing yummy baked goods or auction items, by serving as a juror, by volunteering, or by sharing your enthusiasm for the award with others. The Otherwise Award has always been supported by a wonderful community, and we couldn’t do it without you!
