Welcome to April!

Every time I sit down to write you, I can hardly believe another month has passed. I told you last month that I had been sick in February -- and then it dragged on through most of March. I'm now slowly digging myself out from two months' worth of email and trying to make headway on building the Foundation as I can.

A marvelous March to you!

After the excitement of finishing our IRS 501(c)(3) application at the beginning of February, I was ready to tackle huge swaths of our to-do list, and then I realized I had to quickly catch up on organizing for teasecraft, our meetup group for folks interested in DIY sex toys and equipment. (Boston-area folks, we've got a Show & Tell featuring the Nogasm automated orgasm denial device on March 17, and we're celebrating teasecraft's 5th birthday on May 19.)

A fabulous February to you, friends!

Yesterday I went to the post office and carefully dropped off a package containing the fruits of my labor over the last month: the Effing Foundation's application to be classified as a public, 501(c)(3) charity, all 50-plus pages of it. YEAH!

Why would anyone spend literally tens of hours filling out an interactive PDF form that won't let you save your progress so that every time Acrobat Reader crashes you have to type the whole thing in again?

I'm glad you asked!

Well, everyone, we made it to 2017!

This is probably going to be a pretty challenging year, but we made it here together.

The end of last year went remarkably well: As of December 22, 2016, The Effing Foundation for Sex-Positivity, Inc., is officially incorporated as a not-for-profit!

2016 is almost over: We've made it to December.

When I sent out the October newsletter, I was extremely hopeful we'd be incorporated. October turned out to be a pretty challenging month in terms of my personal life, and then the first half of November hit me pretty hard (as I imagine it did for many of you). I recognize that there are many folks, especially people of color, who have been suffering longer and struggling much harder than I have. I'm trying to use the privilege that I have in some areas (as a white, educated, relatively well-off person) to help other people, while spending time within less-privileged communities I'm a part of (as a non-binary/trans, queer person with a chronic illness) to take care of myself.

Happy October, Foundation followers!

Our story so far: After realizing that I wanted to raise money for sex-positive projects, I've been trying to build the Foundation of the Effing Foundation for over two years. I've hammered on budgets, wrangled strategic plans, recruited board members, and picked apart bylaws. I didn't want to commit to incorporation until we had as many ducks in a row as we possibly could. Now, finally, October will be the month in which we become a Real* Not-for-Profit Corporation.

Salutations, super sex-positive supporters!

I'm sure some of you are wondering, like me: How did it get to be September already?

August was a bit of a mixed bag: Slow on the Foundation-building front, but full of cool people and events. We've been waiting on feedback from our tax lawyer on the Effing Foundation bylaws and articles of organization, so we're almost ready to incorporate.

Speaking of cool people, I got to spend time with the fabulous Kate McCombs, MPH, the sexuality educator who founded Sex Geekdom!

August, ahoy!

This past month has been a whirlwind of trips for me. It's been great to see old friends and meet new ones! (Speaking of which: Welcome, new subscribers!)

The highlight of my month was presenting "Hacking Sex: Toys, Tools, and Tips for Empowerment and Pleasure" at HOPE XI in NYC. I covered a broad range of topics, from broadening our definition of what "counts" as sex to crowdfunded sex toys, the sex toy patent troll, 3D printing, and working with silicone. You can watch my talk, skim the slides, and find lots of resources at http://toymakerproject.com/hope-xi/ .

Whew, it's July already.

Foundation building continues: I've got a complete first draft of our Bylaws ready to go out to the Board and our tax lawyer. I'm also reviewing feedback from the Board on our budget and fundraising plan. Plus, we have a couple of events coming up for folks on the East Coast:

Happy June, everyone!

Foundation building for the Effing Foundation proceeds apace: Bylaws! Articles of Incorporation! Fundraising planning! (Adding exclamation points makes things more exciting, right?!)

Our board of directors and our nonprofit tax attorney Jon have given their votes of confidence to our updated mission and strategic plan. This means it's much more likely the IRS will classify us as a 501(c)(3) organization, the magic nonprofit designation that means our donations would be tax-deductible. Here's our updated pitch, in a nutshell: