Purpose Isn’t Enough: Why I’m Turning My Nonprofit Into a For-Profit
After two decades, I’m done doing the work for free.
I built AudacityMagazine.com on passion and fumes. It was a digital magazine for disabled writers, run on volunteer power, empty wallets, and relentless belief. We didn’t just create content. We created community. For years, we built quietly. Then someone tried to buy it.
At first, I was flattered. Someone saw value in what I’d built. But it didn’t take long to realize they weren’t here for the mission.
They were scooping up every disability media platform they could find, trying to monopolize a community. I told our nonprofit’s board treasurer. He looked at me and said, "You can't sell it. Nonprofits can't be sold." That was the end of the conversation.
Two years later, that company? Gone. AudacityMagazine.com? Still here. They chased profit. I built purpose.
And I’m still building. The site launched in 2003, but its roots are deeper. Long before we had a domain, I was connecting with other disabled writers—people who never saw themselves in mainstream media.
One of them was my cousin, Frankie Gomez Jr., who had muscular dystrophy. Reuniting with him through our shared vision changed everything. He didn’t live to see the magazine's first anniversary, but his spirit shaped its soul.
I’ve been building AudacityMagazine.com for him ever since. Disability lifestyle content still lives at two extremes: medical advice or empty inspiration. And even now, in 2025, we’re still mostly invisible in mainstream media.
Nothing that actually reflects our real lives. The mess. The humor. The politics. The swag. That’s why AudacityMagazine.com exists. And that’s why I’m rebuilding it—this time, as a for-profit platform.
Everyone said becoming a non-profit was the smart move: grant funding, donations, community support. But no one tells you how it chokes you. The red tape. The endless explanations. The constant fear that being too bold, too political, or too real will get you penalized.
And then there was the IRS.
For the last five years, my accountant worked to get our nonprofit status renewed—just like we’d done since 2004. We followed the process exactly. But this time? Nothing. No final decision. Just silence.
That’s when I started asking harder questions.
Why am I stuck in limbo trying to fit into a system that was never built for me, or for Audacity?
If for-profit platforms can serve our community—and get paid for it—why can’t I do the same?
The truth is, I’d been asking those questions quietly for years. And every year, the silence got louder.
Fundraising felt like shouting into the void. So I did it all myself—paying writers, editing, promoting, fixing tech issues, managing content—just to keep the site alive.
And I almost never paid myself. Not because the work didn’t deserve it. Because I’d believed something toxic: that being noble meant being broke. That doing good meant suffering for it.
Because guilt.
Just guilt. It took me years to unlearn that lie.
So now? I’m turning AudacityMagazine.com into a for-profit platform. Not because the mission changed. Because I did. The heart stays the same: amplify disabled voices.
But now I’m designing it to thrive. No more whispering around what we deserve. No more IRS paranoia every time I want to launch a contest or write something "too political."
Here’s what comes next:
– Pay writers real market rates
– Launch new columns on culture, politics, style
– Work with sponsors who actually get it
– Build a space that’s bold, messy, and ours
And until we’re funded, I’ll be doing most of the writing myself. That’s fine. Because this time, I’m not apologizing for building something that lasts.
If you’ve made this leap from nonprofit to for-profit, I want to hear from you.
If you’ve got story ideas, column concepts, or things you wish a disability lifestyle magazine would cover—send them.
And if you just want to follow along as I rebuild this thing from the ground up, you’re in the right place.
Let’s make it audacious.