We're shutting down College Brief

Good afternoon. I’m sad to share that we’re shutting down College Brief before the new school year begins.

The reality is that we didn’t have the resources to institutionalize the organization: to make sure it didn’t rely on college students in leadership roles like me and Gil Rubinstein, our director of development, spending hundreds of unpaid hours on it.

We began fundraising in October of last year, and incurred our first expenses in December ahead of our January editorial launch. From then on, we operated on a month-to-month basis, struggling to raise more than a month’s worth of breathing room in the budget.

The Bay Area fundraiser in March was a godsend. It accounted for about half the $19,500 we raised between October 2023 and July 2024, and it allowed us to continue editorial operations through June.

That event was meant to give us breathing room to apply for grants and search for major donors. But we struggled to continue our momentum, and by May, it was clear we’d need to close a long-shot grant over the summer if we wanted to resume operations in full force once the fall semester began.

Our budget was defined by the fair wage ($20/hr) we promised to pay our staff of eight writers, copy editors and designers. Those staffers worked early mornings to publish a total of 360 newsletters in six months. That content was viewed over 120,000 times by college students who hadn’t regularly read real news before. We executed the mission using what resources we had.

A quick breakdown of expenses:

• Staff wages (66.6%)

• Fiscal sponsor and donation transaction fees (13.5%) 

• Program expenses like newsletter software and Google Workspace (12.7%)

• Marketing and fundraising (7%)

Compensation for Gil and myself was not a priority. I earned the equivalent of $2.85 per hour, and invested the majority of it back into the project. Gil donated more money to College Brief than he was paid.

All this meant that we faced a difficult decision when offered jobs elsewhere. (Me, at The San Francisco Standard, and Gil, at a congressional campaign.)

Our best hope for continuing College Brief was to become profitable from business sponsorships within a year or two, but we struggled to raise the “prove it” capital we needed despite our encouraging metrics.

We did not want to give up on the organization. Donors and supporters like you generously gave time and money to see College Brief grow. All of you gave serious financial contributions, hours of advice, or vouched for us in your networks. Many did a combination of the three.

Ultimately, our team decided that it was best to shut the project down. Some key staff members, not just Gil and I, were offered opportunities elsewhere. Some had other academic or professional commitments that would’ve prevented them from spending more time on College Brief.

We’re proud of what we accomplished over College Brief’s nine-month tenure. It meant the world to us that all of you so generously supported the organization.

Thank you for your support of College Brief.