The Pixel Project: Five Great Reasons to Give to the 12th Annual Fall Read For Pixels Campaign For Domestic Violence Awareness Month 2026

*Straightens up, squares her shoulders, and tiptoes onto the stage of Chuck’s Terrible Minds blog.*

*Chuck holds up a poster saying “GO FOR IT! YOU CAN DO IT!”*

*Nods at Chuck, takes a deep breath and clears her throat.*

Salutations, everybody! Is this mic working? *Blows on mic. Jumps a little at the high-pitched squeal coming from the speakers.*  All right – here we go:

The Pixel Project, a 501(c)3 anti-violence against women nonprofit, is proud to announce that our Read For Pixels campaign has reached its 12^th annual fall edition in September 2026.

Read For Pixels has come a long way since September 2014 when Chuck himself, Joe Hill, Sarah J. Maas, and nine other award-winning bestselling SF/F, Horror, and YA authors helped us reach out to their readers and fandoms about violence against women (VAW) and raise funds to keep our anti-VAW work alive. Just over a decade on with almost 300 author livestreams, over 100 AMAs, 24 fundraisers, and 1 Shirley Jackson Award- and Audie Award-nominated charity anthology under our belt, we are continuing to grow our archive of globally accessible resources about VAW for geeks, book lovers, fandoms, parents, teachers, and kids, as well as leveraging the power of genre fiction and storytelling to educate people about VAW. Authors, editors, publishers, and agents have also helped us raise approximately $10,000 per year by providing exclusive goodies as thank-you treats for readers, fans, and book collectors who donate to support our work.

You’re probably thinking: “Oooh! Let’s see what the fuss is all about!  So why the guest post on Chuck’s blog?”

The short answer: “Because we need your help to reach our $5,000 goal for the 12^th Annual Fall Edition of Read For Pixels and keep our work alive in this [insert expletive of your choice] year of 2026.”

Fighting the good fight while grappling with the effects of increased geopolitical turbulence worldwide in 2026 is continuing to take a toll on our organization, as it has with many small grassroots-run nonprofits. Women’s organizations have experienced decades of scarce funding for the overall women’s rights movement and women’s human rights are often one of the first casualties in turbulent times such as these. In fact, UN Women sounded the alarm in summer 2025 that the funding situation is so dire that up to 60% of nonprofits and charities working on women’s rights are at risk of shutting down. The ongoing – and seemingly neverending – war on Iran has relentlessly sent global inflation further spiraling, and our 12^th annual fall fundraiser is now officially the SLOWEST fundraiser the history of the campaign, moving so slowly that we feel as stuck as Atreyu’s horse Artax who perished in the Swamps of Sadness in The Neverending Story.  It’s been a month and we’re stuck at $2,527, which is just 50% of the way to our very modest $5,000 in a single fundraiser so you can imagine our growing concern. While we are 100% volunteer-staffed, we do have bills to pay so that we can keep our campaigns, programs, and services running.

Chuck, who has been a solid supporter of our work for years, received our SOS and leaped into action by publishing this blog post to boost the signal for our fundraiser.

So here my team and I are, as Domestic Violence Awareness Month 2026 kicks off, presenting five fabulous reasons why you should consider giving to our fundraiser to help get us to our $5,000 finish line by our extended deadline of October 15^th 2026:

Great Reason to Give Today #1: Support accessible information for victims and survivors of VAW… while acing your holiday gift list

One of the core services The Pixel Project provides is bridging the information gap that victims and survivors encounter when trying to get help. Our daily helpline retweet session, which tweets out domestic violence and rape/sexual assault helplines for women in 205 countries worldwide from 8.00PM to midnight Eastern Time, 24/7, 365 days a year, has now transitioned to Bluesky. Additionally, we continue to respond to individuals contacting us for help, doing the research legwork to provide them with information about specific victim assistance services in their part of the world, and incorporating this life-saving information in the books, videos, social media posts and other awareness-raising tools we deploy.

THE WIN-WIN FACTOR: Donate to our fundraiser and tackle your holiday season gift list at the same time! From signed rare/limited/luxe editions to goodie bundles stuffed with books and handmade treats to poetry written just for you, we have treats for every donation level from literary luminaries across different genres such as Kelsea Yu, Linda D. Addison, Milton J. Davis, Sarah Read, Sylvain Neuvel, Zig Zag Claybourne, Subterranean Press and more. And while you’re savoring the satisfaction of squaring away some of your holiday gifts early, also savor the fact that your donation will be going towards running programs and initiatives that connect victims and survivors of VAW with the help that they need. BONUS: You’ll have an interesting story to tell your loved ones about where their holiday gift came from. It might even be a great opener for chatting with them about VAW.

Great Reason to Give Today #2: Support resources for educating folks about VAW… while getting help for your writing

We have built an ever-expanding archive of nearly 300 resource articles to date about everything from how to stop street harassment to lists of organizations tackling everything from child marriage to MMIW (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women). Additionally, our website has beginner-level primers about different types of VAW, including violence against trans women, online violence against women, bride trafficking/kidnapping, and obstetric violence, and our Facebook page is an excellent just-in-time source for the latest headlines and articles about VAW.

THE WIN-WIN FACTOR: Whether you are a budding writer or experienced author who is considering making a donation, we have a stellar line-up of Read For Pixels author alumni offering critique bundles for WIPs (works-in-progress) and query letters, and/or 1-to-1 video chats focused on the craft of writing and/or tips about the publishing industry. Participating authors include Karen Odden (Historical Fiction), Keith Rosson (Horror), Juliette Wade (Speculative Fiction), Pintip Dunn (YA Fantasy and Romance), Romina Garber (YA Fantasy), Sara Tantlinger (Horror and Poetry) and more. Enjoy knowing that while you are getting expert help for your WIP or fixing a seemingly intractable writing challenge, you’re also supporting the creation and expansion of online resources for educating folks around the world about VAW.

Great Reason to Give Today #3: Support online platforms for people to speak up about VAW… while having a chat with your favourite author

A key pillar of our activism and advocacy work is providing digital platforms that are safe spaces for people from different walks of life to speak up about VAW. Every October for the past 10 years, we have hosted the “People and Pets Say NO!” photo statement campaign via Facebook and Instagram for people and furbabies from all walks of life to step up and publicly call for an end to VAW during Domestic Violence Awareness Month. We also offer VAW survivors and dads who are male allies opportunities to speak up via blog interview initiatives such as the Survivor Stories series and the Voices of Dads Against VAW series.

THE WIN-WIN FACTOR: While your donation keeps our platforms available for folks to speak up about VAW, you can enjoy a chat with your favorite author in the name of supporting a good cause. For this fundraiser, Clay McLeod Chapman (Horror), Mercedes M. Yardley (Horror and Poetry), Pintip Dunn (YA Fiction), Susan Elia MacNeal (Historical Crime/Mystery), and Rachel Howzell Hall (Mystery/Crime and Romantasy) are all happy to have a video chat with donors to natter about everything from writing and the publishing industry to Victorian crime history and geeky hobbies. These video chats are all open to individual donors, with some also open to groups (Book clubs or library groups or even just a group of like-minded geeky friends/fans are welcome to pool together the donation to get one or more of these chat sessions). 

Great Reason to Give Today #4: Help us boost the signal for anti-VAW activists and advocates worldwide… while getting your Fall Reading Fix

A longstanding part of our work involves spotlighting how anti-VAW advocates, activists, and organizations worldwide are changing the world for women and girls, as well as their ideas about what people can do to help stop VAW in their communities and countries. Our Inspirational Interviews series has been running for a decade and counting. We also run topical sessions with anti-VAW advocates and activists speaking about their work and educating people about VAW. This year, we also collaborated with a criminologist from the University of Cambridge to disseminate her White paper on the role of ‘weaponised attachment’ in trapping domestic violence victims to anti-violence against women charities, nonprofits, and NGOs worldwide.

THE WIN-WIN FACTOR: Donate to our fundraiser and stock up your stack of fall 2026 reads at the same time! From good bundles stuff with books and swag to e-book bundles to single signed titles, we have book-filled treats for every donation level from acclaimed authors such as Angela Sylvaine, Grace R. Reynolds, Kendare Blake, Marisca Pichette, Padma Venkatraman, and more. And while you’re feeling the satisfaction of ensuring you don’t run out of great stories to fill your fall days, also know that you are helping amplify the voices of activists and organizations around the world striving to bring an end to VAW.

Great Reason to Give Today #5: Support the right of women and girls to live a life without violence

Nearly 1 in 3 women and girls worldwide experience some form of violence in their lifetime. In terms of domestic violence alone, over 1 in 4 women under 50 have experienced physical or sexual violence from a male partner.

So donate to our fundraiser because you believe in supporting efforts to prevent, stop, and end VAW. Whether you can give us $5, $50 or $500 to help us reach our $5,000 goal (or even zoom past it to a stretch goal), every cent counts.

(And when you donate to us, please also consider donating either cash or supplies to your local women’s shelter or rape crisis center. Like us, they need all the help they can get.)

It’s time to stop violence against women. Together.

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Interested in checking out The Pixel Project’s anti-violence against women work? Visit us at https://www.thepixelproject.net/

Interested in checking out our Read For Pixels fundraiser and making a donation to help keep our work alive? Go here.

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Regina Yau is the founder and president of The Pixel Project, a virtual volunteer-led global 501(c)3 nonprofit organization on a mission to raise awareness, funds and volunteer power for the cause to end violence against women at the intersection of social media, new technologies, and popular culture/the Arts. A Rhodes Scholar with a double Masters in Women’s Studies and Chinese Studies, she has a lifelong commitment to fighting for women’s rights. In addition to running The Pixel Project, Regina also teaches English to middle-schoolers and high-schoolers, writes stories about cheeky little fox spirits and terrorist chickens, bakes far too many carb-and-sugar-loaded goodies, and can be found artistically posing upside down in Aerial Yoga class.