There is plenty of precedent for “porn” … well, erotic businesses … supporting progressive work, including issues related to civil liberties and reproductive rights, most famously the Playboy Foundation from about the early 60s to the mid- to late-80s. If you are interested in learning more about it though here’s a couple links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playboy_Foundation

http://www.playboyenterprises.com/foundation

Their history, mission, etc, is something worth studying and maybe emulating for people inclined to use some of the profits from the contemporary porn industry for nonprofit purposes. Just one thing to add though, in light of this example, what helped make their support of so much of progressive cultural trends over a few decades was that they were a foundation with a mission, a philosophy, and a conventional tax-exempt nonprofit structure, which wasn’t related the so-called “Playboy philosophy”, a hedonistic mis-mash which never got beyond a few articles ran in the magazine in the early 1960s.

We’ve got no idea if the so-called porn industry has a similar foundation but if it does we won’t be in line to ask for funds. It’s not because we don’t want to be connected with “porn,” because as any pro-choice activist knows when it comes to name-calling we can get called a lot worse things than “pro-porn.” We’re not going to be seeking their funding because we have had a commitment since starting over twenty years ago to never take on more of an overhead in expenses beyond the kitchen-table-produced fanzines of that day, so we’ve always been able to independently raise all the money we need to produce our newsletter and action alerts and such. We want to inspire prochoice little student groups to get started on their own and do their own thing in raising funds, and they’re going to do that by benefits and dealing with student government in their colleges and high schools and by doing things more like bake sales and not by anything related to, um, porn. Plus there’s so much free porn to be had by going online that we’re sure we could never compete by producing or marketing our own. :)

But anyway if the porn industry does not have something similar in the way of an independent foundation created to do charitable work — and they probably have had something like that at least in the past related to STD awareness in the industry — it’s something that would help enormously in building a rationale and strategy for appropriately funding nonprofits, especially awesome efforts like Scarleteen.

To paraphrase Margaret Mead, it takes VERY little money to move a group of committed citizens along on their way to changing the world. Progressives taking a small amount of money with the right intentions from producers of works with erotic content has decades of precedent. It’s not easy money, but no cause worth working hard for is likely going to be especially “easy” — if it was easy, it wouldn’t be so worth doing.

We also took a bunch of garbage a whole bunch of years ago because Babeland supported us. Don’t even get me started on the COPA case. I’ve taken many hits from all kinds of places over the twelve years I’ve run Scarleteen: we can handle it.

Perhaps even more to the point, while it’s so awesome when parents give teens our URL — and some do! — my impression is that most who do are very progressive. Those who are not would/do have objections to our content alone, simply because we do talk about sex, and often even more to the point, because we have a mostly-queer staff and are fully inclusive of all sexual orientations and gender identities. So, for the most part, I’d just honestly say that while I appreciate the concerns, I think the folks you’re concerned about censoring it or objecting already do based on other things entirely.

@Mike: many of our fiscal supporters are anonymous. So, this needn’t even be an issue at all.

We also do not make our content or organizational choices based on anything those who donate may want, nor are they even consulted. So, effectively, it would be a non-issue by that token.

At Scarleteen, we can’t/don’t outlink to 18+ sites, including in donor listings, but I can certainly say here that we did receive a donation last year from Feck, who expressed that what Violet is talking about — and the fact that they didn’t think porn should be substituting for sex ed — was why they were donating. Jiz Lee also did some fundraising this year. While again, plenty of donations are anonymous, so I don’t even know sometimes who an individual making one might be connected to, I’d say this is fairly unusual so far 9and apologize if I have overlooked anyone), but agree with Violet that it should not be, whether it’s about support for Scarleteen or any other sound, accessible sex education org.

In the off-chance a parent took issue with that, I’d have no trouble at all taking the time to express both our editorial policy (per not basing it on funders, ever, as we never have and don’t ever intend to) and why I’d also agree that some fiscal support from the adult entertainment industry would be very sound.

Scarleteen is a sex education website and parental resource — especially for what kids encounter online — it is not a “sex website” for kids — HUGE distinction.

Porn companies make a big deal about protecting kids, and they throw a lot of money at (and social pressure to support) ASACP. Their sponsors are huge, and rich:

http://www.asacp.org/index.php?content=sponsorlist

But I see Scarleteen doing more harm reduction and online sex education and protection for under-18s than anyone else. They are on the front lines, where the kids are — online. I’d just like to see adult webmasters giving as much to help where it’s needed (Scarleteen) as they are to cover their own asses (ASACP).