A Letter To Our Supporters

Since we first launched our publication in September 2018, Hueman Collective has been telling the stories of the amazing people making Auburn, Opelika and the surrounding area so incredible. Our mission has been to cultivate a better community through storytelling. We believe storytelling is powerful. Cultures have used storytelling for thousands of years to shape community; it’s been used to try to explain where we come from, to define what is right and wrong and to give us hope for a better tomorrow by allowing us a chance to understand and learn from yesterday.

Through each story that we tell, we attempt to show that people have an inherent value just because they exist and that each person brings something unique and beautiful to the community around them—however large or small that may be. We believe that the more a community understands this truth, the faster it reaches its greatest potential. “Cultivating community through the power of storytelling” is more than just a slogan for us—it is our singular mission and our cornerstone. When one rises, we all rise.

In two and a half years, Hueman Collective has grown so much, and our ambitions have grown with us. We have some amazing plans for ways that we can further contribute to the community, and we are always trying to expand our publication to include better and more frequent content. We want Hueman Collective to be the kind of publication that points toward a better future for our community, and that is why we are asking for your support.

We have been (and will continue to be) committed to providing our publication free of charge online so that anyone can enjoy our stories no matter their financial situation. Because of that, we have relied on a few generous donors to get us where we are today. But in order to achieve some of our goals for this year and next year, it is time for us to grow. And that is where we need your help.

This week, we are excited to announce our First Annual Supporter Drive. In this, you can support us financially in a number of ways.

First, we are inviting you to “join the collective” by becoming a sustaining supporter and subscribing to a recurring, monthly donation that can be canceled at any time. You’re also invited to give a one-time donation. By joining the collective, your recurring or one-time contribution will directly help us to continue providing our publication for free for those in our community that can not afford to pay for a subscription and allow us to produce more rich content.

Second, we are introducing our Community Partners and Legacy Partners. These partners are local individuals or businesses that believe in Hueman Collective and share our values and passion for cultivating our local community. Through a one-time yearly donation, these partners make a large impact in ensuring that Hueman Collective is able to dream big and achieve our long-term goals. These partners will be shared with our community through a dedicated webpage and carefully curated ads on our site as well as through our social media throughout the year. We are not alone in our passion for our community, and we are excited to partner with these great individuals, organizations and businesses. If you are interested in becoming a Community Partner or a Legacy Partner, you can reach us HERE to find out more.

Third, we understand that there are companies that our community values and that could benefit by being able to get their message out via ads on our website. For the last two and a half years, we have chosen not to sell ads on our website because we have wanted to make sure our community knows that we are here to support the community through our stories and not to simply make a dime off their views. Like everyone else, we hate clicking a link to read a story only to be bombarded with ads. With all of that in mind, to be able to grow and achieve our goals, we will begin running very carefully curated ads on our homepage. These ads will be from local business and organizations that we believe in and share our values. These ads will also be an additional way for our community to connect with businesses, organizations and events that they may be interested in and may benefit from. If you are interested in advertising with Hueman Collective, please contact us HERE for more information!

Last, we are VERY excited to announce the addition of our store at hueman-collective.com! Currently we have for sale our first shirt—our Community Circle Tee in Oatmeal. Now you can show your support for your favorite local, independent publication and look snazzy, too! We have big plans for our store. For now, take a look around and shop our shirt HERE.

If you believe in our mission and benefit from our publication, we ask that you please consider joining the collective and supporting us in one of the ways above. Your support means so much to us, and together we can do much greater things. We have lofty ideas of what community means and even bigger goals to help us make that a reality.

We are fortunate to live in an amazing community, and Hueman Collective is committed to help it become a better one. One story at a time. And we hope that you are too.

Thank you for your support, 

Henry Williford, Creative Director and Founder