Editor’s Note

By Tim Covi
2010 was another record-breaking year for the VOICE, and we want to thank everyone who helped us along the way. In August we were in the red, struggling to find the funds to keep our vendors in papers and our papers in print. I guess all conflict comes with resolution; non-profit management is no exception. Thanks to our avid fans, loyal readers and the hard work of our benefactors, we managed to pull out of the red and we’re back in the black as of mid-December. We have turned a corner, but we have a lot of hard work ahead.

A particular thanks goes to two Denver businesses that helped us immensely by generously hosting fundraisers for us. The law firm Ridley, McGreevy, Winocur & Weisz held their annual Parade of Lights holiday party in our honor, raising nearly $1,000 in an evening for the paper. Shortly after, Marlowe’s closed their restaurant for an evening and hosted a year-end celebration for us with an amazing spread of food and wine. They raised $14,000 for us that night!

Our annual budget is $300,000, and with that money our vendors collectively earn $360,000 or more each year. We put more money into the community than it costs us to operate.

In 2010, our vendors broke their sales records yet again. With your help, we distributed nearly 16,700 papers in September, our highest sales yet. Vendors report earning an average of $2 per paper, so in September you helped put more than $33,000 directly into the hands of the poorest members of our community.

We’ve also continued to sharpen our journalism throughout the year, providing you a combination of intelligent local journalism and literary journalism from around the globe. Our reports included direct coverage of the worst oil spill in history from renowned photojournalist Zoriah Miller, as well as coverage of critical regional and local issues. We were lucky to bring on a few more talented local freelance reporters, giving us the ability to bring you more Colorado news more frequently.

In 2011, we’re going to build on the foundation you have helped to fund. We’re becoming even more locally focused, and plan to create a “community page,” a section of the paper dedicated to exploring your local community. From significant organizations to individuals working to improve our city and state, the community page will educate readers about what’s happening and how you can be involved.

Once again, we’re grateful for all of your support and to your commitment while we’ve grown and gone through changes. Please help our vendors stay in business throughout 2011 by continuing to buy a paper each month. Your support is a crucial part of helping people work their way out of homelessness. 

Editor's Note

By Tim Covi

We want to start this month with a resounding “THANK YOU.” Everyone at the VOICE, our vendors and our staff, are extremely grateful for the outpouring of support you gave us last month. Throughout the year, VOICE readers are extremely supportive and involved, but the past month has been extraordinary. We still have a long way to go and we still need your help.

In August we started a major fundraising drive, with a need to raise $68,000 by the end of the year to keep the VOICE alive. Your generosity has helped us nock that down to $61,000.  In one month, supporters have given $7,000; if we can get that to $15,000 then we have a donor who will match that amount!

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The Vendor Issue

By Tim Covi

This issue of the paper is dedicated to Denver VOICE vendors, the hardworking folks that hustle hour after hour each day peddling this monthly newsmagazine.

It’s not an easy job. It takes no small amount of grit to handle such a social enterprise, one that involves as much rejection as it does reward. Almost every vendor doubles down on the emotional impact of the work: most people who are homeless at some point internalize that state of being. They begin to feel that they’re not capable of accomplishing much; their self-worth decays; their self-image gets as beat up as hanger meat. So every “no” can be potentially personal at first. And the flip side, every “yes” can be potentially transformational. If you’re reading this, you’ve taken part in that.

I can be pretty disconnected at times from the street side of the paper as an editor. My focus is on putting together a product that will make our vendors’ jobs easier, a product that people will want to pick up each month. Of course some buyers will simply give our vendors a dollar, take the paper and toss it.  But our hope is that by constantly improving our content, we’ll help our vendors get out of that charity niche. Maybe I’m naively optimistic, but I imagine that very few people actually want to live off charity. When it comes to our vendors, I’m quite sure that most want to work for their money, and take pride in their jobs.

I think this synthesis between our vendors and our newspaper is crucial to our product.

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