Five Years of Your Alternative Media: Unicorn Riot

We are pleased to announce that March 20, 2020, marks the fifth anniversary of your commercial-free media alternative, Unicorn Riot!

Over the past five years, Unicorn Riot’s members and volunteers have worked tirelessly to build a platform that centers the voices of real people alongside crucial context and facts. Our media-makers go where the story is unfolding to bring you primary source reporting and on-the-ground coverage from the front lines.

Update: The outpouring of love and support we’ve experienced has been breathtaking. A HUGE thank-you to every single viewer who has been able to donate to us during these times of unrest. 🦄

  • May 27: we met our original goal of $5K
  • May 28: we met our first stretch goal of $35K
  • May 30: we met our second stretch goal of $100K

Founded by members in Minneapolis–St. Paul, Boston, and Denver, we have since expanded our membership into Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia. Last year we went global, adding our first international member from Durban, South Africa!

We went from being a small media organization with a vision and a few resources to a fully-functional diverse and ever-growing non-profit independent media organization. Of course none of this would have been possible without the continued generosity of donors from around the world. From the bottom of our hearts, we are humbled by your support and sincerely thank you all!

Unicorn Riot has reported from the front lines of many historical events and movements.

Since our inception, we have dedicated ourselves to covering environmental and societal issues and amplifying the voices of people marginalized by dominant society. We strive to deliver high-quality content to our viewers on a variety of issues, such as climate change, racism, police, poverty, and arts and community.

A challenge appears.

While we celebrate our achievements, we also recognize the immense challenges ahead. We have all felt the psychological, financial, and physical destruction of COVID–19 as it sweeps across the planet.

Since the virus’ appearance, we’ve witnessed an almost 50% decline in our monthly donations.

While this sudden drop is understandable, it is a challenge to our continuing mission of creating ad-free independent media. Now is the time to donate if you can.

Since 2015, Unicorn Riot has been producing commercial-free media and publishing it to the Internet.

We have always believed it is important for as many people as possible to be able to access our content for free — we don’t believe news, or our media, should be available only to those who can afford to pay. For this reason, all our media is published under a Creative Commons license, so we can distribute our content extending to wherever is connected by the world-wide web.

Unicorn Riot’s alternative model succeeds outside the profit-driven media economy because of the support of our viewers.

All of this is only made possible because we are independently funded through contributions from viewers like you.

March 20 is the beginning of our 90-day fundraising campaign. As always, the most helpful way to support our work is to become a recurring donor. You may also opt to give a one-time donation(s).


Those who donate at least $35 before 11:59PM CDT June 6 will receive a brand-new five-year commemorative shirt as well as a special thanks for your continued support!

Due to unprecedented demand we have to close out the t-shirt gifts earlier than expected!

We’ve sent out an email asking donors to reply with their shirt sizes. Our aim is to start production by October 1. If you haven’t received an email and are expecting a shirt, email us ASAP: [email protected].


 

If you cannot afford to donate to Unicorn Riot at this time, you can help our efforts by sharing our content with your circles. Sign up for our occasional email newsletters in the page footer below.

No matter the amount, every donation helps!

In dangerous and uncertain times the need for fact-based, non-corporate media is greater than ever. We can weather the storm together, but we can only do it with your help.

Stay informed,

Unicorn Riot