Estonian World recently applied for a small state support for its non-profit cultural sections, but the modest request of €4,500 was turned down – despite the fact that three Estonian founders have out of pure sense of mission invested time and money worth of hundreds of thousands of euros over seven years; therefore, we turn to our readers to ensure the continuation of those two sections that highlight Estonian culture around the world.
Please consider supporting us in our efforts – here’s how you can support us via Patreon or PayPal (see Donate via PayPal button).
Alternatively, you can also use bank transfer:
Bank: LHV Pank (Estonia)
Name: Estonian World Media OÜ
Account: EE477700771002519475
When we – three private individuals – founded Estonian World in 2012, we didn’t do it for money. We did it because as young Estonian expats, working in London, we wanted more people in the world to know about how Estonians do things and what Estonia is all about. We’ve offered our online content for free, but that comes with a price for us – as the staff and technical costs need to be covered.
Against all odds, we have survived – it has meant a lot of personal and financial sacrifices from us. With almost 50,000 followers in the social media and 100,000 readers per month around the world, we feel a sense of responsibility to carry on. Thankfully, from time to time, we have also received small donations from a small amount of loyal readers. Increasingly, we have started to sell marketed content for companies that want to introduce their services internationally and to Estonia-based expats.
But our cultural sections – Culture and Books – are purely a non-profit mission. It’s impossible to sell marketed content in sections that help highlight the Estonian arts, music or literature in the world – as the artists and writers are usually barely making the ends meet themselves.
That is why we recently applied for small support from the state-run fund, the Cultural Endowment of Estonia – that is supposed to “support Estonian culture”. Our request for €4,500 was to support our cultural sections, and, especially, to fund our newly launched Books section.
For writers from such a small country, it’s very difficult to reach out internationally. Yet, an increasing number of Estonian books are translated into English and as a global outlet, Estonian World is best placed to introduce and highlight the translated Estonian literature internationally. Unfortunately, our request was turned down, with no proper explanation given.
Estonian World is now in a situation where we are forced to close our cultural sections, unless we find a financial support. Hence, in the last hope, we are turning to our readers – if you deem our coverage of Estonian literature, music, film and the arts worthy, please help us to raise up to €4,500 to continue with the sections that are read by approximately 200,000 people per year around the world.
People and companies that support us with at least €300 will be added to our public supporters’ list.
