Guidelines for Fund Requests

 As of June 2024, while we are still offering emergency funds for first time requests and through groups vouching for street based workers, we are moving away from an emergency based model for ongoing needs and are investing more heavily in providing more substantial supplemental income stipends to our general membership for participating in paid member activities. If you are reviewing this page as a returning fund recipient who is not on the member list, please reach out to us about filling out the member form for which you can receive a sliding scale 10-20 stipend while we loop you in to our current member activity!

-We take requests through our email, lysistratamccf@protonmail.com or through vouches by community members we trust and are familiar with

This allows us to keep everything in one easy to keep track of place and to keep your information and identity as safe as reasonably possible. While we do use social media as a verification tool we cannot keep up with requests on multiple platforms at once. 

 -We typically check the email Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday evenings (timing dependent on our volunteer’s other work scheduled that day)!

Please keep in mind that this is a community run and funded group by and for SWs and these requests are currently being answered by one unpaid volunteer so there are occasionally personal circumstances that can lead to us running late or missing a day, but this happens rarely. While we will not deny people from future services, we do need people who reach out to us to understand that our boundaries around our time and funding amounts/frequency exist for very specific sustainability reasons. We understand if you are upset to not receive funds as often as you need them but due to our capacity limits as volunteers maintaining a national resource we will not engage in ongoing arguments and explanations with people who are unhappy with what assistance we are able to provide them with.

To be able to complete your request as quickly as possible we need to have the following information:

1.Verification that you are a struggling, US based SW. 

For verification we are currently accepting ads, work websites, SW social media, screenshots of messages with clients (screenshot option only available to gender marginalized people at this time), or a vouch from a mutual member of our community who we know and trust

If you are comfortable reaching out on FB https://m.facebook.com/lysistratamccf/ IG @lysistratamccf or twitter @LysistrataMCCF this often gives us a better feel for who you are and if we have mutual friends who we can reach out to for verification. For your safety, do not mention anything explicit about SW, just that you emailed and the name you used to contact us. For the safety of your information we conduct the majority of our verification correspondence exclusively through our encrypted email lysistratamccf@protonmail.com.

We understand that it is often not easy for everyone to come up with verification of their involvement in the industry and we are working on finding more ways to make these funds accessible to these SWs in need. We will still work with you to at least give you some assistance if you are struggling and multiply marginalized even if you are not able to provide verification that you are a SW! 

If you are currently working in a legal or low physical contact part of the industry or this is work that is temporarily accessible to you (such as in dungeons, clubs, camming, twitter findom etc…) you have the option of support from your family or partner, you are a cis white presenting man, or you have the privilege to able to find work in a different industry please be considerate of the fact that this resource is primarily intended for folks who do not have access these privileges or options. 

2. The amount you need/what you need it for. 

We are currently typically able to offer a ONE TIME sliding scale $50-$100 amount for emergency assistance before offering further support through crowdfunding and to loop fund recipients into our quarterly supplemental income member stipend program and do not offer amounts larger than $50 for white cis workers, cis straight men only advertising to and/or working with women, and often the amount we offer to low contact/no contact workers in legal/lower risk parts of the industry especially during times of increased danger to criminalized, in person workers. As per our general member vote in July 2023 cis, white men without SW verification will be asked to seek other resources.

When we have funds available to offer larger amounts larger amounts, priority goes to multiply marginalized people (ex caretakers, chronically ill/disabled, houseless, POC and trans folks), and we typically cap these amounts at $200 per individual. If you have a large expense or more ongoing needs to cover we are happy to promote a crowdfunding campaign on our social media to try to cover needs beyond the amounts we are able to support through our fund.

Since we cover requests nationally, we sometimes experience high request volumes and because it is difficult to provide reliable long term funding for work like this, we prioritize the needs of multiply marginalized workers who are at higher risk of experiencing violence on the job, and more urgent, immediate needs. We generally ask folks requesting help for things like rent and bills that are not overdue to wait and check in with us closer to the end of the month or the bill due date before we send funds. For more ongoing assistance, the option to join as a member is offered after we complete your first-time request which will make you eligible to participate in member activities for quarterly supplemental income stipends and we are transitioning to this system rather than continuing our previous emergency-based model for repeat requests.

3. Verification that you are the intended recipient of these funds and not someone who is using someone else’s ads/social media or an individual we have already assisted very recently. We may ask you to join a video chat and/or send a brief video or a quick selfie to confirm that you are you (we will request this follow up verification on a case by case basis)

We have encountered several more privileged workers who intentionally misrepresent their identities to gain access to resources that are not intended for them over our years operating this resource. This has unfortunately meant we cannot operate entirely on a basis of trust and barriers that we have put in place to avoid these individuals draining the fund also present an accessibility issue for workers who do not have internet access or working cameras. If this is the case for you, we may try to connect you with a trusted sex worker community member in your area who we know and trust who can vouch for you and who also may be able to help connect you with additional material resources.

4. Where you are located in the US.

This can help us connect you with other local community members or refer you to local resources you might be able to qualify for!

5. Your payment details. We are able to send funds via Cashapp, Venmo (we are experiencing issues with Venmo, please provide a backup method if this is your preferred payment platform), Paypal and Western Union

THIS RESOURCE IS CURRENTLY BEING MANAGED BY ONE UNPAID SW VOLUNTEER providing funds within our community, not a fully funded/staffed government or non-profit agency and we will not report any of the info you send to us to anyone outside of our group UNLESS WE HAVE CAUGHT YOU SCAMMING US OR OTHER RESOURCES in which case we may update other sex worker mutual aid funds, especially if we have caught you misrepresenting your identity or location on multiple occasions. We do NOT need things like photos of your ID and actually prefer that you do not provide too much overly identifying legal info for both your safety and ours!