I’ll cut to the
chase: Communities, that stalwart chronicler of the
communities movement since 1972, is on the chopping block—at
least as a print publication, and perhaps in all forms. To
survive, we need a very substantial, “all-hands-on-deck” step-up in support
through subscriptions, back issue and compilation orders, and
donations. (Advertising and issue sponsorships help too.)
Failing adequate financial support, the board of the
Fellowship for Intentional Community may be making the
difficult decision to pull the plug sometime in the near
future, putting an end to the preeminent publication focused
on cooperative culture in North America and worldwide.
We are heartbroken
to share this prognosis, but want to provide you a chance to
make it different. You can make the outcome
different, in concert with the many other people who believe
in the magazine and, we hope, will want to help it survive
when they learn that it is in serious danger.
If, within the
coming weeks, 200 people or groups each spend $50 to $100 on
subscriptions/gift subscriptions/orders/donations, and 20 send
$500 to $1000 or more our way—or we receive equivalent amounts
of financial support in other forms—we can stave off Communities’ demise and in fact
assure its continuation. We all know it deserves to continue.
But the financial reality is harsh, not only for the magazine
but for its parent organization, the Fellowship for
Intentional Community, also stretched thin in its efforts to
respond to its mission in the world.
Communities, the FIC, and the
communities movement itself are needed now more than ever in
light of the legion of challenges we as a species face.
Cooperation is part of the answer to almost any problem that
confronts us. By sharing stories of cooperation, of new ways
of living together that promise a healthier future for our
planet and its people, of cutting-edge experiments in what it
will take to survive and even thrive collectively, and of the
accumulated wisdom of generations of communities and
communitarians, the magazine makes an essential and enduring
contribution to the culture change we all recognize is
necessary.
If you support us
financially at this time, and we cannot follow through with
the issues and subscriptions you’ve ordered, we will offer
refunds. But our strong hope is that this “SOS” to those who
have been with us over the years can precipitate a turnaround
in our balance sheet, and that you will have not only our
gratitude, but Communities magazine’s continued existence and
future flourishing, as a reward for your support of this
unique publishing venture.
You can subscribe
and order gift subscriptions here, donate directly to Communitieshere,
or give to FIC’ s general Fall Fundraising
campaign here. Thank you for anything
you can do.
Chris Roth
Editor, Communities
PS: Here’s what some
of our contributors and readers say:
I
love Communities magazine. I’ve
read and kept every issue since 1972. Deciding to be
communal is the best decision I’ve ever made in my life. Communities has been there
from the beginning. —Patch Adams, M.D., author
and founder of the Gesundheit Institute
Our
mission at Utne Reader is to search high
and low for new ideas and fresh perspectives that aim to
start conversations and cure ignorance. To that end, Communities has become one of
our go-to sources for thought-provoking pieces about
people opting out of the rat race and living life on their
own terms. We’re pleased to share the voices we come
across in Communities with our readers
because they remind us all of the virtue of cooperation
and the world-changing potential of coexistence. —Christian Williams, Editor,
Utne Reader
I’ve
been subscribing to Communities for over a
decade. Each issue is a refreshing antidote to the
mainstream media’s “me, me, me” culture. Communities overflows with
inspiring narratives from people who are making “we”
central to their lives instead. Specific group process
tricks I learned in Communities have been
extremely useful in all the group endeavors I participate
in. All the articles are written by people who are on the
ground, doing this work of innovative culture-building,
and reading their stories always reminds me that our many
separate ventures add up to something big. —Murphy Robinson, Founder of
Mountainsong Expeditions
Community
has to be the future if we are to survive. Communities plays such a
critical role in moving this bit of necessary culture
change along. We have to see what we have lost, what we
have, and have yet to gain. Knowing and caring about each
other on a manageable scale is the beginning of supporting
each other at the universal scale. Thank you Communities for beating the
drum and helping us see. —Chuck Durrett, The Cohousing
Company, McCamant & Durrett Architects
For
more than 40 years Communities has done an
outstanding job of promoting the communitarian spirit to a
public in need of that message, as well as serving
intentional communities and other groups of people coming
together for the common good. I read every issue cover to
cover. —Timothy Miller, Professor of
Religious Studies, University of Kansas
For
many years we’ve been associated with and have strongly
supported Communities because we’re
convinced of its unique contribution to the communities
movement in the United States and the world. Since the
1980s we’ve been writing articles about our intentional
community in Wisconsin, and have shared our reflections as
the meaning of community has continued to broaden,
including the focus on sustainable living. We applaud the
magazine’s role in furthering and extending the outreach
of the Fellowship for Intentional Community. —Lisa Paulson, writer and
artist, Belden Paulson, Ph.D., retired professor,
University of Wisconsin, cofounders of High Wind
community
Communities has been
important to me ever since I began researching intentional
communities back in 1980. In fact, along my office wall
sits every issue of Communities since #50. I
appreciate Communities because the
articles are well written, usually by long-term communards
or scholars, and the magazine is well edited, designed,
and printed. While Communities promotes the
broad range of intentional communities, the Editors have
always been willing to include critical articles which
challenge accepted norms. And, while the majority of
stories and readers are North American, Communities includes coverage
of this movement from across the globe. I highly recommend
Communities to anybody
interested in any form of intentional community. —Dr. Bill Metcalf, Griffith
University, Brisbane, Australia
Communities mentors me with
real human stories and practical tools: networking,
research, and decades of archives that nourish, support,
and encourage evolving wholesome collaborations. The
spirit and writings have helped guide me to recognize and
contribute to quality community experiences wherever I am.
The magazine is an irreplaceable resource and stimulus
during the times when community disappears and
isolation/withdrawal looms; and an inspiration and morale
booster when I am once again engaged with intentional and
committed group work. —Shen Pauley, reader and
author, Barre, Massachusetts
Communities is an invaluable
resource for information on the many forms of intentional
communities. The editors dedicate each issue to different
core subjects, acquainting readers with both the problems
and achievements of communal life. I have received every
issue since the magazine’s very beginning in 1972,
establishing a full collection in the Department of
Communal Studies in Yad Tabenkin Research Library. This
collection has been very useful for my research on modern
communities and in writing my book The Globalization of
Communes. I warmly recommend Communities. —Professor Emeritus Yaacov
Oved, Tel-Aviv University, Yad Tabenkin Institute
As
a reader of and contributor to Communities, I feel connected
to the community of people that has developed around the
creation and dissemination of the magazine. Each time I
receive the publication, I look to see which authors I
know, some of whom are friends of mine and others whom
I’ve come to know through their contributions to the
magazine. I feel as though I have traveled around the
world and experienced a wide range of community
perspectives each time I finish an issue, all the while
sitting on my couch. It’s an uplifting gift each season! —Devon Bonady, Founder, Fern
Hill Nursery, Cottage Grove, Oregon
If
living in an intentional community is the grad school of
interpersonal skill-building, Communities is a compilation
of the most brilliant research being done in the field
today. —Valerie Renwick, Twin Oaks
Community
I’m grateful for Communitiesbecause it has
repeatedly served as a guide for me to keep on coming back
to in my search for intentional communities and to keep on
learning about the topic. I always feel confident
referring people to it, knowing they’ll get the knowledge
they need from it. —UB Hawthorn, editor of The Mindful Word, author of Journeybook