Membership & Stewardship
Members are stewards, not subscribers.
The point of this program is belonging, not fundraising. We are inviting you to become a steward of the places, people, and stories that make the Maumee River and Lake Erie watershed worth belonging to. The dues are how that gets paid for.
Why membership
Dues are the difference between a plan and a program.
Grant money follows track record, and we do not have one yet. Most regional funders want to see several years of operation and a real budget before they will consider an application. Membership is how a new organization builds both.
It also settles the independence question. An organization funded by its founder is a project. An organization funded by a few hundred neighbors is an institution, and it can say things a project cannot.
Our 501(c)(3) application is still in preparation, so dues and gifts are not currently tax-deductible. If exemption is granted it is normally retroactive to our formation date, and we will write to every member and donor when that happens. Details are on the About page.
Three levels
Monthly, so it is small enough to keep.
Annual is available at the same rate if you would rather do it once. Every level can be cancelled at any time, and nobody chases you if you do.
Friend of the Collective
$6per month
or $72 a year
The entry point, and the one we expect most people to take. It is the price of two coffees a month and it is the number that decides whether this works.
- Member pricing on every event, workshop, and recording day
- 10% discount on books and River House purchases
- The member newsletter — news, and notes from inside the work
- Early access to announcements and event registration before the public
- Volunteer days, and first call when we need hands
River Steward
$15per month · most common
or $180 a year
For the people who want to be in the room. A book a year, the events that are not advertised, and a say in what we take on next.
- Everything in Friend of the Collective
- One signed new title each year, chosen by our editors
- First right to order everything else we release, at member price
- Member-only events, readings, and recording days
- The quarterly field report — what we are making, and what it is costing us
- An advisory vote on which projects we take on next
Founders Circle
$25per month
or $300 a year
For the people building this with us. Three books a year, the authors before the books exist, and a voice in what the Collective does with its money.
- Everything in River Steward
- Three new titles a year, our pick across the three imprints, shipped as they publish
- First right to order every other release, at member price
- Private author sessions — small-group conversations before a book is finished
- The annual artists and authors dinner
- The editorial letter — the decisions, the arguments, and what we turned down
- An advisory vote on projects, and a members’ recommendation on fellowship awards
Business, family, and classroom memberships are available — write to us. If money is the only thing standing between you and membership, tell us and we will waive it. Volunteers are members.
About the member vote. Members rank the projects on the table each year and that ranking is published, in full, alongside what the board decided. On fellowships and grants the members’ vote is a recommendation and the board makes the award — not a formality we invented, but a requirement of the charitable rules we intend to qualify under. Nobody who votes is eligible to receive one.
Join
Become a steward.
Online enrollment opens with our public launch. Until then, tell us which level you want and we will send a payment link or a mailing address the same week — no autopay set up behind your back, no card on file until you put it there.
How the tax side will work
- Once exemption is granted, the deductible part of a membership is the amount you pay minus the fair market value of what you receive back.
- Friend is built to stay simple. At $72 a year it sits under the federal threshold for annual membership benefits you can use repeatedly — discounts, member pricing, early access — so there is nothing to subtract.
- At Steward and Founders you receive books and a dinner, which have a real value. Federal rules require a written good-faith estimate of that value on any payment over $75, and we will send one with every receipt at those levels.
- The dinner is priced at what the plate costs us and billed separately, so your dues stay dues.
- We would rather over-disclose than have a member discover the difference at tax time.
Not ready to commit monthly?
A one-time gift does real work and carries no obligation. You can also direct it at the part of the mission you care about most.
Give a collection
Photographs, letters, maps, recordings, business records, artwork. We will tell you plainly whether we are the right home for it, and if we are not, who is.
Give time
Interviewers, scanners, catalogers, drivers, planting crews, and someone who actually enjoys spreadsheets. Volunteers are counted as members.
Get involved
Stewardship is a habit, not a transaction.
A few hundred people at six, fifteen, and twenty-five dollars a month is a functioning institution. That is the entire funding model, and it is deliberately unglamorous.