While volunteer work has always been the moving force behind this magazine, it has always been a great challenge as well. Nobody should be expected to act as a full time volunteer over an extended period of time - particularly not young people. And it turned out that producing a magazine of this kind indeed required full time involvement of at least 3 individuals.

The team members of Libertas kept changing over time, as young people volunteered for limited periods of time. It has always been very difficult to find a professional graphic designed who would spend at least one week each month designing a youth magazine for free. Or a professional journalist who would act as an editor providing on-going support to tens of contributors who are just starting their careers as writers and journalists.

Many times this has been made possible thanks to EVS (European Voluntary Service) and American Peace Corps volunteers. But we have always struggled with sustainability, and sometimes we were not able to publish the magazine on time, or at all.

Sadly, the last issue of Libertas was published in May 2013. That was the time when our last group of volunteers got exhausted and when we concluded that it was not possible to run the magazine without any funds. But we did not lose hope for revival of Libertas, and this is why we decided to ask for public help to keep the magazine alive and to help it grow.

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We made calculations and we concluded that 4980 euro is the minimum we need to publish the magazine per year. This money is not enough for real salaries, but it is still enough to provide some kind of reimbursement for the time to motivated young professionals who want to help us.

If we reach our aim, we will be able to pay a professional young designer 100 euro per issue (1200 euro in total) and 100 euro a month to a young journalist who will be in charge of editing the magazine (1200 euro in total). We are also planning to pay 60 euro a month to a young social media expert for advertising the magazine, along with 80 euro a month that could be spent on online advertising (1560 euro in total). We would also like to spend 600 euro for new web page of the magazine, and 35 euro per month for purchasing awards to stimulate the contributors - such as vouchers for online stores (420 euro in total). If we manage to exceed our goal we will be able to pay more to the team members and spend more on online advertising.

We believe that you should support this project because it is a unique example of youth activism that goes beyond nations and continents. It is a media that is completely free of advertisements, influences and profit-driven agendas, and is only shaped by young people's wishes and interests. If we get funding for Libertas we will be able to spread the word and reach many other young people from around the world, bringing them closer to their peers and making them feel like global citizens.

Digital Youth Magazine Libertas

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