Hi and Happy MaxFunDrive!
I recently promised to tell you some VERY BIG NEWS. Well, it’s the first day of MaxFunDrive and it’s finally time to bring you in on this fantastic thing we’ve had to keep secret. Okay, ARE YOU READY?! Here we go…
The big news…
MAXIMUM FUN IS BECOMING A WORKER-OWNED COOPERATIVE THIS SUMMER!!!!!!!!!!!!
MaxFun was founded on the idea that artists should own their own work. Now, MaxFun’s employees will own their own work, too. If you’d like to learn more about why we’re doing this and what it means, go to maximumfun.org/co-op.
Thank you so much for being a part of the MaxFun community and helping to get us here! We’re really excited about where MaxFun is heading, and we hope you are, too.
MaxFunDrive 2023 starts today and ends Friday, March 31!
If you’re excited about the fact that MaxFun is becoming a 100% employee-owned cooperative, we hope you’ll consider becoming a monthly member if you have the means.
Most of your contributions will go straight to your shows, and a small portion goes to MaxFun’s operational costs. Here are some of things we’ve been able to do since the last MaxFunDrive thanks to audience support:
- launched Sleeping with Celebrities and brought Comfort Creatures, Let’s Learn Everything!, and Secretly Incredibly Fascinating onto the network;
- donated over $50,000 to charity;
- hired additional producers and a bookkeeper;
- launched a new merch store;
- dipped a toe into video;
- improved our Bonus Content system;
- learned how to become a co-op; and
- started work on projects that we hope to tell you about later this year!
As you know, MaxFunDrive is the main way our audience-supported shows get their funding for the whole year. You can read more about our business model in this infographic (not this tiny one, the big one).
A steady monthly income allows shows to plan for the future and maintain a regular release schedule. It also helps MaxFun plan and budget, which is especially important right now while the podcast industry is, uh… kind of a mess.
Anyway, mostly MaxFunDrive is two weeks jam-packed with delightful episodes, limited-edition thank-you gifts for new and upgrading members, events, hangouts and more fun surprises!
Thank-you gifts for new and upgrading members
$5/month: BoCo–Everyone who joins at the $5/month level gets our most popular gift: over 500 hours of Bonus Content! And now we have a way for you to get one RSS feed with all of the BoCo and one custom feed with only BoCo from the shows of your choice! In addition to podcast eps, we have videos and other funsies–like a handy measurement converter and Carrie Poppy’s vegan replacement chart!
$10/month: Re-stickable stickers–This year we teamed up with artist Olivia Fields, who illustrated a beautiful 4″-ish restickable sticker for every show on the network. If you join at the $10 monthly level you can choose your favorite high-quality, low-commitment sticker to stick and unstick many times over! They’re scratch-proof, weatherproof, and UV-protected for outdoor use.
$20/month Culinary Kit (or Rocket Hat)–The MaxFun Family Cookbook was one of our most popular gifts five years ago, so we created a whole new one! This community cookbook features a fresh batch of recipes from your favorite shows and new illustrations by Tom Deja. If you become a monthly member at the $20 level, you can get the cookbook AND a jar of our Maximum Flavor spice blend! (Or you can opt for our embroidered rocket hat.)
MaxFunDrive events!
Besides our two big upcoming events this week (more on those later), there’s a lot going on! We update our calendar of events throughout the Drive and throughout the year, so bookmark it if you’re interested!
We’ve already got events from:
Reading Glasses
The Beef and Dairy Network
The Flop House
We Got This with Mark and Hal
Go Fact Yourself
The McElroy Family
… and there’s more to come, so bookmark that page!
MaxFunDrive Grand Opening
TODAY, March 20 at 4pm
Hosts Janet Varney, Dan McCoy, and Ellen Weatherford take part in a friendly competition that could be described as “The Joy of Painting” meets “Nailed It!” Plus we’ll show the gifts and you can meet some more HQ staff members.
MaxFun Meetup Day
Thursday, March 23 wherever you are
Folks in Southern California can come to the LA meetup to meet MaxFunHQ staff in person! Find (or host) a meetup near you! It’s also not too late to get one started in your area!
We hope you’ll join us at those events and on social media! If you’re already a member, thank you so much! And even if you can’t become a member this year, we hope you’ll join us for all the fun stuff.
If you like what we do and what we stand for, please help us spread the word about our shows, our network, and the Drive. Thank you so much for being a part of our community!
– Future founding worker-owner, Stacey, and all your friends at Maximum Fun