Matier & Ross report that the $5 million in seed money Bay Citizen got from philanthropist Warren Hellman is only expected to last for a year. That’s forced the nonprofit to hire a half-dozen paid fundraisers to hit the streets to find new members at $50 a pop.

“Of course, we want to be sustainable and rely on a variety of funding sources, and one of the most crucial is memberships,” Bay Citizen membership director Rose Roll told M&R.

Roll wouldn’t say how many people have signed up to become members.

Where did the money go? M&R said a chuck of it went to hiring top executives. In January, the SF Weekly reported that Bay Citizen CEO Lisa Frazier would be paid $400,000 a year.