April 11, 2000

It costs to Discover

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Discover Card customers and shareholders are discovering what their money is helping to finance — and many of them aren’t pleased. The VILLAGE VOICE reports that an environmental group is leading a boycott of the Discover Card, whose parent company, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, is helping to sponsor the construction of China’s Three Gorges Dam. According to activists, the dam — scheduled for completion in 2009 — is one of the most socially and ecologically destructive projects in history.

The boycott, led by the International Rivers Network, marks a shift in environmentalist strategy, as protestors have changed their focus from attacking the builders of exploitative third-world industries to pressuring their Western financers. The strategy is proving effective. A Morgan Stanley-shareholder campaign demanding that the company make only socially responsible investments has been gaining steam, as have similar movements within other major investment firms.

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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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