UPDATE: We've officially hit our first goal of £1500 that will help us stay open until August! Help us raise £3000 so that we can keep going until the end of September!
Lesflicks is an independent, lesbian-owned and LGBTQ+ run streaming platform that is home to the world's largest collection of authentic sapphic independent movies.
We have shorts, series and features. As at 24 May 2023 we have 293 titles and we add a new title every week. Many of our titles cannot be found anywhere else.
Why is Lesflicks different?
- we are a social enterprise, so we don't aim to make a huge profit. We reinvest back into sapphic stories because we know that is the only way to increase budgets and access to titles
- we pay fairly. 50% of your subscription goes to the content creators for their work. This means they can pay off investors, and make more content. We've already seen a number of our clients doing just that! Right now the other 50% goes to running costs. It is not cheap to run a streaming platform - which is why all the major players are cancelling content and increasing subscription prices.
- we curate content that we know is what our community wants to see. Storylines with depth of character, authenticity and stories that go beyond their sexual orientation, and that are more than a side-story or sub-plot. Many of the titles we have cannot be found on any mainstream platforms, and many are not on other independent LGBTQ+ platforms either.
Lesflicks launched in 2019 and were massively impacted by the pandemic. We launched early to support our community and went from 15 titles to weekly events and weekly releases. But it hasn't been easy in these early days. We've been running with a team of volunteers and interns. And whilst we've helped many women to get jobs in the industry and get out of the "you don't have any experience" rut - it isn't sustainable.
The current cost of living crisis has seen some of our core costs increase and also has put strain on our volunteer team and our founder. We've also had DMs from subscribers struggling and having to choose to pause their subscription due to financial worries. We know if we can get through this period, and reach more of our community we can survive and thrive, but we can't do it alone.
So what are we fundraising for?
If you can't afford to support us financially, scroll down for free ways to help our campaign!
Our monthly running costs
These are £2500 per month. Mainly music licenses, hosting the platform and the apps and a little bit of admin.
We're hoping to raise £10,000 to cover the next 4 months.
Staffing
I really want to pay our team. It will take the pressure off and also reward them for their hard work to date.
We have 2 core members who currently work 10 hours each a week unpaid as volunteers. It isn't enough hours and they are having to job hunt around this.
In addition our founder has really struggled to work 50-60 hours a week unpaid for the last 3 years with less than a handful of days off in this time. Undertaking the many hats of HR, training, strategy, management, marketing, business outreach, client management, administration etc. She is burnt out and also has run out of savings and energy to do consultancy on the side.
We're hoping to raise £10,000 for each of our team to cover them working 20 hours a week for the next 6 months.
We're hoping to raise £30,000.
Marketing
One of our biggest challenges is marketing. We're the community's best kept secret and we've realised we cannot rely on mainstream or LGBTQ+ media outlets for support. Our community is disconnected, disparate and really hard to reach. We need someone with time and experience to help with marketing. We also need a marketing budget to reach people.
We're looking to raise £40,000 for the next 6 months.
If you're interested in investing in Lesflicks, or perhaps buying it please reach out to us for a discussion with our founder and CEO, Naomi.
What's in it for you?
Well, aside from helping to preserve the largest independent library of sapphic film and tv shows on the web, supporting sapphic filmmakers and the sapphic community, we've also got some great prizes to give away as a token of our gratitude if you donate.
These include DVDs, CDs, Lesflicks merchandise, Wynonna Earp merchandise and some amazing signed photos from some of the stars of sapphic screen! There's also some limited edition historical Lesflicks merchandise on offer.
Donating just £5 will grant you entry into our prize draw to win any of these prizes. Every £5 = another entry! Winners announced after the campaign has ended.
We know not everyone can afford to help us right now. However there are FREE ways you can support us.
FREE: help promoting Lesflicks at events
We're looking for queer women to wear a bag or backpack when attending pride events and hand out Lesflicks business cards to help reach people. Face to face is the easiest way to reach our community. It doesn't cost anything. If you'd like to help us then please email [email protected] with PRIDE OUTREACH SUPPORT in the subject line. Don't forget to tell us where in the world you are and when there is an event near you.
Recommend Lesflicks
If you are happy to recommend Lesflicks, you can use this URL to offer anyone their second month completely free. The URL is https://bit.ly/Lesflicks2ndMonthFree. In addition, if they input coupon code SAPPHICUTOPIA in the checkout they will get a lifetime 25% discount.
What will happen if we don't reach this goal?
We will sadly have to shut down the platform. Much of the content will disappear and the creators' revenue to make more content will stop.
What will happen if we exceed this goal?
We will be able to invest in curating more content of greater quality and also open up our funding pool so filmmakers can make more content. Once we cover the high initial costs we're much more free to be creative! Also, if we gain more subscribers that will also cover our costs. We need to reach an additional 2000 subscribers to cover costs and be self-sustainable. With a potential global audience of at least 11 million worldwide this number seems more than reachable - but remember how disparate and disconnected our community is; how people are struggling financially. It isn't as easy as it should be!