CREATED BY LOCALS, FOR LOCALS 📍

What is the purpose of The Richmond Experience (RVAx)? +

Our mission is to be your one-stop-shop for what to eat, drink, see, and do in Richmond, Virginia — independently owned and created by locals, for locals. As a small business and media outlet, our goals are to:

1. Create content that makes it easier for folks living in Richmond to get out and make the most of the city they call home, whether that means offering outdoor adventure ideas, food and drink recommendations, weekend trip inspiration, or anything else our members may be interested in
2. Educate our audience about local businesses with which they may not be familiar, and to encourage them to patronize those businesses
3. Support and promote small businesses around Richmond that we stand behind and believe in.
   

Who runs RVAx? +

The Richmond Experience was founded by Samantha and Sean Kanipe in 2017. In 2022, Paige Poprocky joined the team as our social media manager, and shortly thereafter, Kelsey Heintz joined as our managing editor.

Alex Smith-Scales supports us as a social media contributor, and RVAx is also the proud home to an ever-growing team of contributing writers with various expertises (from specializing in regional wines to knowing everything about the local music scene and more) to help us better serve our audience.

Our goal is to continue to diversify this team to be as represenatitive of the true "Richmond experience" as possible — please see below for how to apply!

Is RVAx an influencer, a media outlet, or something else? +

The Richmond Experience is a small, independently owned, woman-owned-and-operated, and queer-led business. The RVAx team uses both digital and social media to curate and share Richmond-specific content, engage with the community, and provide value to our paid members.

We craft several new "best-of" and "how-to" City Guides per week, send out two weekly newsletters (one focused on must-know social news and one featuring top weekend events), curate a calendar of local events, and coordinate member perks with businesses around the city — so, we consider ourselves to be both a small business and a media outlet.

In what ways does RVAx support the greater Richmond community? +

We will touch on this below, but historically, the vast majority of the content we have produced (and continue to produce) is "organic," meaning that no one has paid us to mention them or their businesses in most of the posts we create.

In this way, we utilize our reach to promote small businesses we stand behind to inform and encourage our audience to check out their products or services. We strive to support Richmond's small businesses and our local economy.

Beyond that, our team individually and collectively works with a variety of nonprofit organizations in the area.

Which local nonprofit organizations does RVAx support? +

We have proudly donated to the following organizations:

ART 180
Blue Sky Fund
Brain Injury Association of Virginia
Celebrate RVA
Children's Hospital Foundation (ChoR)
Climate Action Virginia
Diversity Richmond
Elegba Folklore Society
Feed More
Girls for a Change
The Holli Fund
The Jackson Ward Collective
James River Association
Keep Virginia Cozy
Latinos in Virginia Empowerment Center
The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society - VA Chapter
Massey Cancer Center
Men To Heal
RACC Foundation
ReEstablish Richmond
Richmond Animal Care & Control
Richmond Doula Project
Richmond Mutual Aid (MAD RVA)
Richmond Public Schools
Richmond SPCA
Richmond Symphony
Ronald McDonald House Charities of Richmond
Side by Side Virginia
VCU Health
YMCA Greater Richmond

And we continue to donate to important causes in our community! A portion of each annual membership purchased for The Richmond Experience goes to rotating nonprofits each month. You can find our upcoming schedule below:

June 2023: Beyond Boundaries
July 2023: UMFS & Journey House Recovery
August 2023: Birth In Color RVA
September 2023: Equality Virginia
October 2023: VALHEN
November 2023: Tablespoon Bakery
December 2023: Safe Harbor Shelter
January 2024: Legal Aid Justice Center
February 2024: Shalom Farms
March 2024: Brown Ballerinas For Change
April 2024: Sportable
May 2024: Fetch-A-Cure
June 2024: The Doorways
July 2024: VA Moms for Change

What commitments has RVAx made to inclusivity and the support of diverse, underrepresented, and marginalized communities? +

In an effort to support Richmond's BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities, The Richmond Experience guarantees free coverage of a minimum of two businesses from each of these communities per month through our social media platform.

We are also proud to offer a 20% discount on any of our business partnerships to any local business owned by members of these communities.

In terms of our staff itself, The Richmond Experience hopes to recruit and advance BIPOC communities, women, LGBTQ+, persons with disabilities, and veterans — we welcome and encourage all applicants! Our goal is for our team and culture to reflect the diversity of the community we serve.

How does RVAx make money? +

The Richmond Experience has three main revenue streams:

1. Membership - RVAx members pay $39/year to access the content on our website including City Guides, Member Perks, a curated Event Calendar, as well as our Weekly Insider and Weekender emails through annual memberships.

2. Business Partnerships - Local businesses can work with us directly through business partnership opportunities to spread the word about their products or services (but only if we truly stand behind them as a company — more on that below).

3. Merchandise - Our smallest revenue stream, but a fun one, is our online shop featuring "Richmond, Virginia" merchandise, sold through local online retailer Bonfire.

Why does RVAx charge a membership fee? +

The short answer: So we can pay our team a fair wage to produce the content that we create in support of local businesses and of Richmond as an awesome place to live, work, and play.

The long answer: We don't believe in sharing or selling our members' personal information, and we don't believe in bombarding them with ads. Since those are the two primary ways that "free" media outlets make money, we chose the alternate route of charging an annual fee to members directly so they could enjoy content unimpeded by pop-ups and without fear of data breaches.

An Andrew Lewis quote often comes to mind when we explain this, which reads, "If you are not paying for it, you're not the customer; you're the product being sold." We want you to be the customer, not the product being sold.

What percentage of the content RVAx produces is organic vs. paid? +

On average, we've historically landed somewhere around 15 - 25% sponsored content, 75 - 85 % organic content. The specific number varies from month to month, depending on how many local businesses we're working with. For instance, there would typically be more partner posts going up in the summer months rather than in January or February, just because the types of small businesses we partner with tend to be more active when it's warmer outside.

It's important to note that we're scrupulous when it comes to determining which businesses we partner with, as we aim to ensure that their values align with ours and that we'd be comfortable recommending their products or services to our audience. If that's not the case, we don't move forward with a partnership.

Which is to say: We stand behind the folks we promote and are incredibly grateful for the chance to educate our followers about what they have to offer and to empower our audience to support them as a small local business.

How does RVAx indicate when content is paid/sponsored? +

On our website, any content that is sponsored will be indicated with a note at the top of the page that says "Powered by BUSINESS" along with a linked logo to that business at the bottom of the page that says "Thank you to BUSINESS for powering this City Guide!"

On our social media platforms, any content that is sponsored will be indicated with the following note in the caption: "Heads up, this is a paid post. We selectively work with locally owned businesses in RVA whose missions we support, and this is one of 'em! Just letting y'all know because transparency is important." If the caption doesn't include this disclaimer, then the content you're seeing is organic, not paid.

We are not food or business critics, and we pride ourselves on only sharing positive experiences. On the rare occasion that we elect to partner with a new business and have a negative experience, we discuss any issues we have with the business owner directly one-on-one rather than blasting it out to our audience. In these scenarios, we either work with the business to address the issues and move forward, or we mutually agree to part ways.

How does RVAx decide what to feature in its content? +

Hours of research! We dedicate an insane amount of time to scrolling through social media posts and email newsletters from local businesses, reading local media publications, and engaging with our members and followers to determine what topics will be the most relevant to post about each week.

Sometimes this is based on what's timely (for instance, we know people will always be looking for things to do on a holiday weekend, so we'll pull together a thorough roundup of local events celebrating whatever holiday is coming up). Sometimes it's based on historical metrics we've gathered around what performs well with our audience overall (they're big fans of unique food and dining options, what brand new spots have opened up most recently, and what hidden gems they shouldn't forget about). And sometimes it's based on our own preferences and what we think we'd want to learn from us if we were our followers.

Does RVAx currently have any job openings? +

We are not currently in a place where we have the funds to hire another full-time employee (yet!), but we are always looking to expand our team of contributing writers.

The Richmond Experience hopes to recruit and advance BIPOC communities, women, LGBTQ+, persons with disabilities, and veterans — we welcome and encourage all applicants! Our goal is for our team and culture to reflect the diversity of the community we serve.

Please email your resume, cover letter, and writing samples to rvax@therichmondexperience.com to apply.

How can my business work with RVAx? +

Take a peek at our Partners page to check out our available business partnership opportunities, including a variety of marketing options that are free of charge! If any of those are of interest, please submit a contact form and we'll get back to you to see if a partnership between our brands would be a good fit.