The Receipts
Where the Money Goes.
MIX is small enough that you can read its whole year in a couple of minutes, so here it is: what came in, what it paid for, and what we would do with more. Every figure comes straight from our bank account.
Last Year
What We Collected, and What We Spent
August 2025 – August 2026 — measured from last year’s picnic to this one, straight from our bank account. It is a small budget, and we would rather show you exactly where it went than round it into something that sounds bigger. The numbers add up, and every dollar we spent is in the list below. Please check them.
Where the spending went
All $4,353 of it.
Events & gatherings
54.9%$2,389Getting people in a room, or on a river: the tubing outfitter, venue rentals, permits, ticketing and supplies, plus our presence at Nashville Pride. More than half of what we spent went to the part you actually turn up to.
Merch & printed swag
23.0%$999Stickers, printed swag and the Bonfire store. It roughly pays for itself — the store exists so you can wear the logo, not to fund us.
Insurance, filings & fees
7.8%$339Liability cover ($257), our Tennessee state filing ($20) and the permits an event needs: the dull things that have to be paid before anyone can host anything.
Website, email & software
9.0%$394This site, the newsletter, the podcast tooling and our email. Most of it is new since the summer, so a full twelve months of it will cost closer to $1,091.
Education & materials
5.3%$232Books, for the resources library and for workshops. This is the smallest line on the list, and it is the thing you told us you wanted more of, which is why it grows in the plan below.
Where It Goes
What We’re Raising For
Here is what we would do with it, and what each figure is based on. The smallest of them — about $1,377a year to keep the lights on — is the only part that isn't a choice. One line is marked planned, which means we have not fully costed it yet; we would rather tell you that than let it sit here looking as settled as the rest.
Keeping the lights on
Insurance, our state filing, this website and the newsletter. About $1,377 a year has to be paid before MIX can put on anything at all, so this is the one part of the list that is not a choice.
More events, in more places
We spent $2,389 on events last year. You asked for more of them, further out from downtown, with more notice — Friendsgiving, the picnic, and Pride again in 2027.
Education & materials
Workshops, discussion series and books to lend. This was $232 last year, and after simply having somewhere to go, education is the thing you asked for most.
Community outreachPlanned
Consent and bystander training built to be useful beyond our own events, offered together with other local and allied non-profits and community groups. We have not fully costed it yet, so we have marked it planned rather than imply it is settled.
Helping people afford to be there
Reduced-price tickets, so a tight month is not what keeps someone home. It is capped per event, which means every dollar of it ends up in a seat somebody actually used.
A little breathing room
MIX has dipped to a $266 balance within the last year. A small cushion means one quiet month does not cancel somebody’s evening.
Total · $10,000
What a free event actually costs
A documentary screening at The Mark, September 2025. Free to walk into, like almost everything we put on. Nothing was sold at the door, so nothing came back through it.
- Room rental for the evening
- −$80.00
- Its share of the year’s insurance, filing, website and email ($1,377 a year, across 41 events)
- −$33.59
- Tickets sold — it was free
- $0.00
- What it cost us
- −$113.59
Seen enough?
If this makes the case, you can give right here without going back. Monthly gifts help most, whatever the amount — a steady figure is what lets us plan a year instead of hoping for one.
Rather do it in person? Come find us at an event.