July 21, 2020

EU Starts Long Trek Toward Coronavirus Bailout

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The EU has finally agreed on a financial rescue plan that involves rich countries raising money to help out poor countries:

Leaders ultimately agreed on a €750 billion recovery plan. Of that, €390 billion will be offered in grants and the rest will come in the form of loans. That is down from €500 billion recently proposed by Brussels.

Don’t get too excited yet, though. The real fireworks are yet to come as this deal starts going through the approval process at the national level. Some countries will approve it quickly but there are bound to be a few holdouts—and it seems likely that at least one of the holdouts will take things to the very last second and then either approve or disapprove by a tiny margin. That’s the EU for you.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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