How We Spent Our Patreon Membership’s Gifted Funds in October of 2026

Published: October 31, 2026 — Saturday
A Quick Note From Tamara Rubin

Hello friends!

We decided to start sharing this new simplified graphic (above) at the end of each month to show how we are allocating undesignated gifted funds contributed by the Lead Safe Mama Patreon Community (via Patreon) on a monthly basis.

To see our previous summaries detailing allocations of gifted funds, please click here. Thank you.

We were previously managing this as running total across many months (and across years) – which got a bit unwieldy (and was also depressing to look at given the shortfall was so significant over the past year or so – when looked at over time!) We’re hoping these monthly (month-specific) summaries present a more manageable picture of where things stand (including showing the shortfall of our lab testing initiative by month – which is a portion of Lead Safe Mama, LLC’s overall operating shortfall each month).  This graphic also demonstrates how much we would need to earn via monthly Patreon support to fully cover our current output of lab testing and reporting, so supports why we have set our goals as we have.

For this month (October 2026) had we reached a goal of $4,880.00, that would have allowed us to fully cover the shortfall to cover testing and reporting for  10 products (above and beyond the designated gifts contributed, and the testing and reporting that was fully covered for October). This would have resulted in a total of 11 fully funded lab reports published for October 2026 (since one product had a fully funded GoFundMe campaign and is therefore not included on the list above), with an average amount of additonal funds needed per not-fully-funded product of $488.00.

All products tested and reported on this month:

Here’s a link to see all of the articles with product-specific lab reports published in October 2026  in one place. A numbered list with direct links to each product-specific article (for which the lab report can always be found at the very bottom of the article), and with the campaign link for the noted product (if the campaign is still open and active) is below as well:

1. Kokua SPF 50 Sunscreen (fully funded, GoFundMe, Campaign Closed)
2. Gimme Seaweed Snack – Teriyaki (partly funded, GoFundMe) – Campaign Link: https://gofund.me/359e5aeeb
3. Gimme Seaweed Snack – Chile Lime (partly funded, GoFundMe) – Campaign Link: https://gofund.me/359e5aeeb
4. Gimme Seaweed Snack – Sea Salt (partly funded, GoFundMe) – Campaign Link: https://gofund.me/359e5aeeb
5. Gimme Seaweed Snack – Korean BBQ (partly funded, GoFundMe) – Campaign Link: https://gofund.me/359e5aeeb
6. Orajel Naturals Anti-Cavity Super Mario Toothpaste (mostly funded, private gift)
7. Tate + Lyle Pure Cane Granulate Sugar (not funded, no campaign – community nominated)
8. Needed Prenatal Multi Gummies (Patreon Member Nominated – not otherwise funded)
9. Something Nice Toothpaste (Patreon Member Nominated – not otherwise funded)
10. Colorescience Color Balm (Patreon Member Nominated – not otherwise funded)
11. Hiya Kids Daily Multivitamin (partly funded, GoFundMe) – report pending – Campaign Link: https://gofund.me/bf6ecda6d

Hopefully a simple monthly graphic like this will be a good way to both communicate how much we spent on our lab testing initiative each month, how much was covered by Patreon support, and – when relevant – how much was not fully covered  (the monthly shortfall specifically from the our lab testing initiative program, which is just one of the many programs for Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention and Consumer Goods Safety coordinated by Lead Safe Mama, LLC).

If you have questions about the costs covered (as noted in the graphic) and would like to see our detailed budget for lab testing and reporting, here’s the link with more info: https://tamararubin.com/budget/

If you have other questions (if this new graphic presentation is confusing at all), please do let us know and we will make adjustments based on feedback. I also wanted to remind y’all that I personally volunteer my time for the lab testing initiative related work, and this is noted in the budget.

If you would like to make a one-time gift to help us cover our $1,725.00 Lab Testing Initiative shortfall from October 2026, contributions* can be made via any of the methods below (thank you!)

• Zelle: Testing@LeadSafeMama.com (fee-free & preferred)
• Venmo: @LeadSafeMama
• PayPal: Testing@LeadSafeMama.com
• General Fund GoFundME: https://gofund.me/015fe9244
  • As of the time of publishing this update, this GoFundMe link shows that $66,741.00 has been contributed to our General Fund (for legal costs, testing costs, and operating costs) via GoFundMe over the past nine years since the campaign was launched.
  • This works out to just about $7,416.00 per year (since 2017) contributed in support of our work through this GoFundMe campaign.
  • Anything above that amount is what has been contributed since this was posted on October 31, 2026.
  • Thank you!
• Open (Not-Yet-Fully-Funded) GoFundMe Product-Specific Campaigns: https://www.gofundme.com/s/fundraisers?time-period=&q=lead+safe+mama+&c=342

If you are not yet part of our Patreon community and would like to join us there, please click the following link (you can join us on Patreon for FREE or with a small monthly contribution in support of the Lead Safe Mama, LLC Community Collaborative Laboratory Testing Initiative):
https://www.patreon.com/leadsafemama/membership 

Thank you for being part of the worldwide Lead Safe Mama community!

Tamara Elise Rubin
Owner – Lead Safe Mama, LLC
& The Lead Safe Mama Team

*Lead Safe Mama, LLC is not a 501(c)3 nonprofit, so while your contributions are critical in supporting the community-focused / community-directed work we do, gifts made in support of our work are not classified as tax-deductible contributions to charity (for tax purposes).