About

In January 1993, we published the first issue of Big River. We’ve been blessed to have many smart and interesting people working on the magazine since. We’ve also been blessed with a growing number of loyal subscribers and advertisers.

For a long time Big River was an expense rather than a source of income, so we did contract writing, editing, design and publishing work to pay the bills. About nine years ago, we started turning down contracts because Big River was finally carrying its own weight.

Now, 32 years later, the reasons for starting Big River have become even more important.

To ensure that Big River continues for at least another 32 years, we’re converting from a private company into a nonprofit and expanding some of the things we do.

The new nonprofit, Big River Voice, is raising $75,000 from contributions and grants to buy Big River. We are nearly halfway there. The current staff at Big River Magazine will not change. Big River will continue to be a subscription-based, printed magazine with advertising. Our address, phone number and email addresses will stay the same. We plan to keep subscription and advertising prices steady, while using contributions and grants to expand our offerings.

Our new structure will enable us to pursue more in-depth work on complex stories that call for time-consuming research. We’ll create a searchable, online database of all of our back issues. We’ll produce a more usable digital version of Big River and more frequent newsletters.

We also want to resume holding in-person forums in the communities that we cover. We did this before the Covid outbreak, but have not resumed them in order to focus on this nonprofit conversion process.

We appreciate the encouragement we get from our readers, but now we’re asking for more, if you can afford it. No donation is too small or too large.

Tax-exempt donations can be made directly to Big River Voice, PO Box 204, Winona, MN 55987 or the link below.

We’re looking forward to some exciting changes. We hope that you can lend a hand.

And, thank you for all you have already done for Big River.

Big River Voice is a member of the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits and the Winona Nonprofit Alliance.