How It Works

The paper you just paid for was bought by someone else first, otherwise it wouldn’t exist. That’s how The Contributor works. A vendor who experienced homelessness paid 50 cents for this paper and then sold it to you. By buying it and taking it with you, you’ve just encouraged that vendor to buy another. When they return to the office to do so, they join a sophisticated ecosystem that empowers them on a path to establishing micro-businesses, earning income, finding housing, and self-advocating, all of which restore their self-confidence, their dignity, and their community.

Two decades ago, The Contributor began as a small street paper, sold by homeless adults–our “vendors”–not only as a means of immediate income, but also as a vehicle to challenge stereotypes surrounding homelessness. We evolved from this micro-business platform into a mainstay housing and service provider because we affirm the same ethos reflected in the pages of our biweekly publication: the dignity and inclusion of our vendor team at all levels of our operation. From vendor councils to organizational votes, their voices shape our program. Because we listen, we’ve established relationships with over 4,100 people who have fallen through the gaps of Nashville’s safety nets for years and empowered people to transition from the street to housing.

The Contributor is a different kind of non-profit, social enterprise. We sell newspapers to homeless people who work for themselves. They train to learn how to sell papers to you, they keep the money they earn, and they buy more when they need to replace their stock.   And we walk with and support them- finding housing, moving furniture, getting health insurance, seeking education, etc.- as they regain stability, rejoin their community, and achieve quality of life.

Our biggest fans, don’t always get this. They see the humanity of the vendor but misunderstand the model, seeking to help the vendor by not taking the paper. This strips the dignity, relationship, and support we offer through continued visits from the vendor. Taking the paper makes our model work, not taking it breaks it.

Taking the paper funds housing and change. With every repeat visit to our office to buy papers, we empower our vendors’ endeavors for a better quality of life. They don’t consider your buying the paper a “contribution.” It is a sale. When they sell out, they buy more and build the paper trail of a profitable business. Until making these sales, many of our vendors had never experienced the satisfaction of seeing their investment pay off. And when it does, it liberates! They have become “contributors” to their own destiny.