Our organization is the exception to the rule. We receive no operating funds from any arts council or level of government. We have received some capital grants and so on. It made it doubly hard for us. We reached out to our stakeholders and our audience. We held one very successful campaign, an online fifty-fifty. In a year we brought in over $800,000 that helped sustain us. That showed proof of commitment by our stakeholders who want us to survive, who want us to come back.
Someone mentioned earlier about online activity. Back in late 2020, we created online, 10-week, hour-long episodes to stay connected with our audience. The first one was free. I think we had about 5,000 viewers per episode. This week we just launched a sequel to it, but this time we're charging $15. Unfortunately, it dropped to 500 subscribers from the 5,000 who accepted it for free.
We have tried innovative ways to stay connected. Other than as a lifeline to our operations, I'm really worried about behaviour changing, pattern of behaviour changing and losing stakeholders who have been with us for 30 years.