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We’re fundraising until DECEMBER 18. If what we’re doing is important to you, show your support: Give at least $1 right now!
The World's Leading Voice for Gay Dads (Is Going Mobile!)
Gays With Kids® is the first and only global resource for gay dads and gay men considering fatherhood. Our mission is to make sure every gay dad feels welcome, represented and connected regardless of his path to fatherhood or where he lives. Please donate now to help us build an app that will connect gay dads.
Co-founders Brian and Ferd (husbands and fathers of three young children) launched Gays With Kids® last year. It’s a full-time effort, and until now we've covered the cost for everything as a labor of love: a website with hundreds of feature articles, gay dad blog posts, videos, and the world’s largest online collection of gay dad family photos; engaged and growing communities on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter; and a robust YouTube channel with total viewership surpassing one million!
We're raising money to transition from a labor of love into a sustainable, long-term business. The first thing we'll do is build our app so gay dads can connect locally and around the world.
Since our launch we’ve reached hundreds of thousands of gay dads from across the globe. We’re overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and support that we receive each week. Many of these messages bring us close to tears.
In your feedback, you've made it clear that there's more we can do: You want help connecting with other gay dads. That's why we're going to build you the world’s first app and website designed exclusively for gay dads. Whether you’re already part of our community, or this is your first interaction with us and you like what you see, please show your appreciation and support by contributing now — even if it's just one dollar.
Can $1 Really Help?
YES! As we embark on this new adventure, we need to know that you’re out there, and your gift of even just one dollar means you’ll stand out and be counted. Beyond helping us show the strength of our community, if every Gays With Kids® follower donated even a dollar, we can start building this next phase of Gays With Kids® tomorrow.
Our Big (Gay Dad!) Vision
We've dreamed up an incredibly awesome website and an accompanying mobile app with more of what you love plus guest blogging, private networking, and other social features. Once built, our app will enable you to:
• Connect with gay dads in your local community • Arrange play dates with other gay dad families • Find single gay dads to date • Seek advice from mentors for help in your own journey to fatherhood • Get support from an empathic gay dad who’s already ‘been there, done that’
Watch this video for more details.
Here's How Your Contributions Will Be Applied
In the Fall of this year, we met with several software development teams to talk about our plans for the future. We hired the smartest and most innovative of these firms for a two-week project that would enable them to provide us with the blueprints for a prototype of Gays With Kids® 2.0. This prototype includes all the features members of our community have asked for. The bid we were quoted to build it is $200,000.
If we raise less than $100,000: Each month we incur many expenses to maintain our website and social media, including the cost to create and edit written and video content, as well as pay for web hosting, freelancers and business consultants. If we raise up to $50,000 from this campaign, we will use the money to fund the continuation of the site while we pursue other funding opportunities to build the app and new website. The more backers we can show as interested, the easier it will be to find other funding.
If we raise $100,000 or more: We will commence work on the mobile app and re-designed website. The first step we’ll take will be to hire an experienced and talented project manager. He or she will then source a software development firm while we pursue other funding opportunities to raise the remaining budget.
If we raise the full $200,000: The funding will be allocated for the payment for a contract project manager, the actual cost of construction for Gays With Kids® 2.0, beginning immediately. Here's the timeline after $200,000 is raised:
What's In It For You
Check out the perks at right! When you make a contribution, you could receive Gays With Kids® stickers, a photo album for your own family memories, an early invite to our mobile app and social network or inclusion in our advisory board as we develop Gays With Kids® 2.0, and a special badge on your future social profile, so everyone you meet on the future Gays With Kids® social network will know it exists because of YOUR help. An example:
Who We Are
Brian Rosenberg and Ferd van Gameren are husbands, dads (with three young kids) and business partners. (Yep, we spend way too much time together!) The idea for Gays With Kids® was born shortly after the birth of our oldest child, and our launch a few years later coincided with the disposal of one of our twin daughter's last diaper! While this started out as a passion project, as part of our plans for Gays With Kids® 2.0 we hope to transition from a labor of love to an ongoing sustainable business that will continue to provide tremendous value to gay dads around the world.
Brian, CEO, credits an innate entrepreneurial drive for his successful 20+ year career in business-to-business and humanitarian services sales and fundraising, marketing and business development. He has an unbridled passion for the subject of gay fatherhood and loves connecting with gay dads and dads-to-be from across the globe.
Ferd, Executive Editor, is a native of the Netherlands. After teaching classical and modern languages in the Netherlands and the United States for many years, he now bears ultimate responsibility for all of Gays With Kids’ written content.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the risks and challenges involved? Brian is an experienced entrepreneur and successful sales and marketing executive. More importantly, we (Brian and Ferd) are both gay and we are proud and loving husbands and dads. We created our family of five through adoption and surrogacy. We launched Gays With Kids® in June of 2014 because we are passionate about showing our families in a positive and accurate light and about building a safe and welcoming community in which gay dads can connect. All of this has been completely self-funded until now, and to great success. The funding we receive from this campaign will enable us to do more and better serve our fast-growing global community.
How can I get more involved helping to promote your campaign? We VERY much welcome your support! Please contact brian@gayswithkids.com to talk about how you can help us out further.
Would you like my feedback or ideas I have of things I’d like to see implemented in Gays With Kids® 2.0? Absolutely! Please get in touch! brian@gayswithkids.com.
Is Gays With Kids® up and running now? Yes, it sure is! We launched our website June of 2014. Visit gayswithkids.com and check out more than 600 feature articles, gay dad blog posts, gay dad family profiles, videos and photo diaries.
Is it free? Yes! You can read all our content for free.
How do I get to be featured on the website? There are many, many different ways to be featured on our website too numerous to elaborate here so please contact brian@gayswithkids.com to discuss.
Are you looking for writers? Absolutely! We have the world’s largest community of gay dads blogging about their experiences creating and raising families and we welcome more! We also have freelance writing opportunities for talented writers interested in profiling gay dad families or writing on topics of interest to gay dad families. Please contact ferd@gayswithkids.com.
Do you have other opportunities for me to get involved? We’re very interested in working with volunteers and freelancers and we offer flexible hours that should be especially interesting to stay-at-home dads. We especially want to hear from you if you have experience as a community manager or just love to spend time on Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter. Please contact brian@gayswithkids.com
Are you a non-profit? To date, Gays With Kids® has been a complete labor of love and we have funded everything out of our own pockets. We recently incorporated as a for-profit business entity as we plan to incorporate revenue streams when we launch Gays With Kids® 2.0. Our hope is that we will become self-sustaining in order to provide ongoing value to gay dads and dads-to-be for many, many years.
What is the Gays With Kids® reader profile? Visitors to our website, our Facebook page, YouTube channel, Instagram page and Twitter channel come from all over the world and represent gay dads, gay men who have already started their journeys to fatherhood, others from the LGBT community, and family members, friends, neighbors and colleagues who support us.
How are you going to develop the social network platform and apps? Agile methodology is a software development project management style that provides opportunities to assess the direction of a project throughout the development lifecycle. We like it because when a team stops and re-evaluates the direction of a project every two weeks, there’s always time to steer it in another direction.
We want to hire a software development firm that uses this methodology to build Gays With Kids® 2.0 because the results of this “inspect-and-adapt” approach to development greatly reduce both development costs and time to market. Because teams can develop software at the same time they’re gathering requirements, the phenomenon known as “analysis paralysis” is less likely to impede a team from making progress. And because a team’s work cycle is limited to two weeks, it gives stakeholders recurring opportunities to calibrate releases for success in the real world.
Be counted among the Gays With Kids community as we continue to plan for our future! Donate as little as $1 and receive an early invitation to join the future Gays With Kids social network and mobile app.
Estimated Shipping
July 2016
5 claimed
Free Month—Premium Membership!
$5 USD
• A free month of the premium level of membership when the app is launched
• A "Founding Member" badge on your member profile!
• Social media shout-out
• Our eternal gratitude!!!
Estimated Shipping
July 2016
12 claimed
Ships worldwide.
Stickers, 3 Months of Premium!
$25 USD
• 2 Gays With Kids stickers!
• 3 free months premium membership to our social network and mobile app
• All previous perks!
Estimated Shipping
July 2016
14 claimed
Ships worldwide.
Magnets, Membership, & more!
$50 USD
• Gays With Kids magnets for hanging your family photos on the fridge :)
• 6 free months of premium membership to our social network and mobile app
• All previous perks!
Estimated Shipping
July 2016
11 claimed
Ships worldwide.
Be Featured on Our Website!
$100 USD
• Your (or your family) photo featured as a friend of Gays With Kids on our website and social media!
• A year of free premium membership to our social network and mobile app
• A special invitation to beta test our social network and mobile app
• All previous perks
• All our love!!!
19 claimed
Photo Album + Year Membership!
$500 USD
• A Gays With Kids photo album / memory book to showcase your family's important moments
• A"Founding Patron" badge on your member profile
• All previous perks including a year of free membership to our social network and mobile app!
• You're our hero forever!!!
Estimated Shipping
July 2016
1 claimed
Ships worldwide.
PREMIUM MEMBER FOR LIFE!
$1,000 USD
• A lifetime of premium membership to the Gays With Kids social network and mobile app
• The photo album, stickers, magnets... ALL previous perks
• A special invitation to beta test what we're building
• A"Founding Patron" badge on your app profile
• All our love! Seriously, all of it!