How Morning Coffee Thoughts Quietly Became Crowdfunded

I was just supposed to write. That’s all this ever was.

A quiet space to sit with my thoughts and try to make sense of what’s going on in this country. With all the noise online, it’s hard to tell what’s real and what’s manufactured. Everyone’s posting. Everyone’s angry. Everyone’s so sure of what they think they know.

But truth—actual truth—takes time to untangle.

That’s why I started Morning Coffee Thoughts.

At first, it lived on www.ginoborlado.org, back when I used the site as my writing portfolio for Upwork. Nothing fancy. Just my thoughts—professional content for clients during the day, personal reflections on politics, life, and society when I had time.

Then Threads happened.

I met fellow Kakampinks, started sharing what I was thinking, and unexpectedly, people responded. I was getting DMs, reposts, long comment threads. People started saying, “Please make a Facebook page.” I brushed it off at first. But the messages didn’t stop.

So on June 15, 2025, I made the page.

Eleven days later, it had 10,000 followers.

As of this writing, that number has climbed to 18,788. The page has reached 16.8 million views, 4.7 million reach, and close to 500,000 interactions.

And it’s still climbing.

I don’t know how to explain it, really. I wasn’t chasing viral posts. I wasn’t trying to build a brand. I just wanted to keep writing.

But then something else happened.

Today, July 6, 2025, I checked GCash.
₱19,815.22.
Maya? ₱2,531.00.
PayPal? $101 (around ₱5,800).

All from people who simply wanted to help.

No conditions. No contracts. Just, “Here’s something to keep you going.”

That’s when it sank in.

This isn’t just a blog anymore.

I Didn't Want to Turn This Into a Funded Page, But…

I overthink things. Always have.

So when a few followers messaged me the other week asking how they could help or where they could send support, my default reaction was hesitation. I publicly said I didn’t want to monetize this page. Not because I didn’t need the help, but because I was afraid it would shift something inside me.

When you start earning from something, whether you admit it or not, you begin to think differently.

You start thinking in numbers. You worry about reach. You plan your next post based on what performs, not what matters.

And that’s not what Morning Coffee Thoughts is about.

This wasn’t built for clicks or visibility. It was built for peace. For truth. For the quiet people who still want to understand what's going on in this country without drowning in noise.

But life doesn’t care much about your principles when it starts falling apart.

I lost all my Upwork clients—projects that used to pay the bills, fund my tools, and keep the lights on. Then came the health scare I never saw coming: a minor heart attack. The doctor confirmed that part of my heart is no longer working. I’m now scheduled for an angiogram. If they find blockages, I’ll need angioplasty.

So what happens when you're trying to tell the truth, but real life pulls the rug from under you?

You ask for help. And you hope someone listens.

Because Morning Coffee Thoughts isn’t just emotional writing. It’s fact-based. That means research. That means tools. That means monthly subscriptions for archives, cross-checking, data access—all invisible costs most people don’t see when they’re just scrolling.

When the first donations came in—₱7,000 one week, then another ₱1,000 the next—I made it a point to announce them. I believe in transparency. If people are helping me continue this work, they deserve to know where their support goes.

I used that money to pay for internet, buy the domain, and cover hosting for www.morningcoffeethoughts.org. I couldn’t afford to hire a designer, so I taught myself how to build the site. It’s not perfect, but it works. It loads. It holds what needs to be said.

I didn’t know it at the time, but I think I was laying the foundation for something bigger.

And now, with ₱20,000 in donations received in one day—on top of what’s already been given—I can’t deny what this has become.

Morning Coffee Thoughts is now a crowdfunded project.

And whether you gave ₱10 or ₱5,000, whether you shared a post or left a kind message when I was barely holding it together—I see you. And I’m grateful.

I didn’t want to turn this into a funded page.

But now that it is, I’ll treat it with the care it deserves.

What ₱20,000 Really Means

To someone else, ₱20,000 might not seem like much.

But to me, it’s two months of breathing room.

No fundraising goal. No fancy campaign. Just a simple, quiet lifeline from people who said, “We see what you’re doing. Keep going.”

And so I will.

That amount—₱18,515.22 from GCash, ₱2,531.00 from Maya, and $101 via PayPal—doesn’t go to luxury. It doesn’t go to ads. It goes to the real, quiet costs of telling the truth.

Every peso helps me keep the internet connection steady, renew the subscriptions I use for research and verification, and buy me time—not rest time, writing time. Time to process, dig, cross-check, and build each post not on vibes or outrage, but on facts.

The domain and hosting for www.morningcoffeethoughts.org are already paid for, thanks to earlier donations. That’s one thing off my shoulders.

But this blog doesn’t run on passion alone.

It runs on bandwidth, tools, and hours no one sees.

Those tools? They’re not free. Some are monthly. Some are annual. And all of them are essential to keep this page from becoming just another opinion blog. Because that’s not what this is—and never what it was meant to be.

And when the numbers keep growing—18,788 followers, 16.8 million views, 4.7 million reach, and almost half a million interactions—it’s easy to forget that behind the metrics is just one person. Still recovering. Still figuring things out. Still typing with a defective heart and a tired brain.

This isn’t a brand.

It’s me, doing what I can, with whatever time and clarity I still have.

So what does ₱20,000 mean?

It means I can take a breather from chasing short-term gigs and buy time to look for something more stable. It means I can pay the bills, cover tuition, and still have enough left to keep this page alive.

It means I can afford to tell the truth a little longer, without selling my voice to someone who wants to control it.

It’s a lifeline.

And lifelines, by nature, run out.

But for now, I can breathe.

And for that, I’m deeply, quietly grateful.

From the Bottom of My Ailing Heart

When the donations started coming in, I didn’t know how to react.

It wasn’t just the amount. It was the intention behind it.

People weren’t just helping. They were saying, “We believe in what you’re doing.”

And that hits different.

₱50, ₱500, ₱5,000—each one landed like a message. Not loud. Not boastful. Just real. Just quietly generous. And if I’m being honest, I didn’t expect this kind of support. Not from strangers. Not like this.

But here you are.

Some of you donated. Some shared posts. Some left long comments. Others just read, silently, every morning. All of you are part of this.

Even if you’ve never sent a peso—but you keep showing up, keep reading, keep thinking—you’ve helped more than you know.

Because this didn’t come at a time when everything was okay. It came at a time when everything was uncertain.

Work had dried up. My body was failing in ways I never anticipated. And I was starting to wonder if I could really keep doing this—writing, researching, showing up with something thoughtful when my own thoughts were starting to feel heavy.

Support like this—coming at a time like this—feels like the universe telling me not to give up just yet.

You didn’t just donate.

You kept something honest alive.

And I want to say thank you. Not just for the money, but for the trust. The belief. The quiet messages that say, “This still matters.”

I don’t know exactly what comes next. I still have bills to pay, tuition to think about, projects to chase. But I know one thing:

As long as there’s breath in me, and words worth writing, I’ll be here.

And for now, thanks to you, I can keep going.

Two Months Is a Lifeline—But What Happens After?

This started with one intention: to understand the truth.

I just wanted to write my way through the confusion—especially before the elections. I wanted to think clearly, away from propaganda, away from rage-posting, away from the crowd noise pretending to be consensus.

But somewhere along the way, it became more than that.

Morning Coffee Thoughts started pulling people in. Not by force. Not with ads. Just by being real. Just by saying what needed to be said, without trying to win anyone over.

And now, it’s something else entirely.

It’s a crowdfunded, truth-telling advocacy.

And that changes everything.

But it also brings a different kind of weight.

The donations I received—generous and overwhelming—give me two months of time. Two months to keep writing without constantly thinking about the next bill, the next subscription, the next deadline I need to take just to survive. Two months to focus. To breathe. To write without distraction.

But what happens after that?

That’s the question I keep circling back to.

Sustaining something like this is harder than I thought. It’s not just about heart anymore—it’s about hours, resources, and the mental clarity to show up every single day with something that isn’t rushed, recycled, or reactive.

And right now, I’m still trying to figure it out.

Do I go back to freelancing? Try to land new clients who’ll give me the flexibility to keep this going on the side? Do I offer my services as a researcher—for companies, advocacy groups, even journalists who need help but don’t have the time?

Do I look for sponsors or low-key advertisers for the site? Something ethical, non-intrusive—nothing that would ever shape what I write or how I write it?

I’ve also been thinking about selling merch. Maybe shirts. Mugs. Nothing big. Just enough to cover another month or two. A few people have asked if I’ll ever do video content. I’d love to. But building that takes time—and right now, time feels expensive.

I don’t have a business model.

I never thought I’d need one.

But I know this: I want to keep going.

And if there’s a way to sustain this without turning it into something it was never meant to be, I’ll find it.

I’m not ready.

But I’m willing.

From a Quiet Post to a Crowdfunded Voice

I was just supposed to write.

That’s all this was ever meant to be—one person’s way of staying sane in a country that makes less and less sense each day.

But now, Morning Coffee Thoughts is something else.

It’s a website, a page, a daily routine for some, a conversation starter for others. It’s a space that people now return to—not just to read, but to feel that they’re not alone in what they’re thinking.

And now, it’s also crowdfunded.

That changes a lot. But it doesn’t change the most important thing.

This will remain honest.

It will remain grounded.

It will remain mine—but also yours.

I don’t have a grand plan. I still have an ailing and defective heart. I still have bills to pay, tuition to think about, and days when I’m not sure what comes next. I’m still learning as I go.

But I’m here.

And because of you—because you showed up, shared, supported, donated, believed—I can keep showing up, too.

Even just for another two months.

Maybe longer, if I figure it out.

All I know is this: the moment people started saying “We believe in what you’re doing”—that’s when this blog stopped being just mine.