Hello From YearlyKos!

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


I’m at the YearlyKos convention in Chicago, a literal wonderland for political junkies of the left-leaning, internet-savvy type. The next three days will be packed with seminars called things like, “Outfoxing Fox,” “Mock Iowa Caucus,” “Creating a Culture of Grassroots Giving,” “The Art of the Killer Campaign Ad,” and on and on. Liberal bloggers and internet gurus (and those seeking to court both groups) will be all over the McCormick Center on the shores of Lake Michigan.

I’ll have all the facts and all the color. According to a convention organizer, the convention is “sold out” at 1,500 attendees, with 250 credential press members from 200 outlets. But only one, I can assure you, forgot his pen on the first morning — that’s the kind of quality work you can expect here on MoJoBlog.

We’re off to slow start, though. The first event I’m attending, “Holding Congress Accountable for a Progressive Agenda,” is in a massive room with over 300 seats. Just under 50 people are here. But such luminaries as Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Howard Dean, and Nancy Pelosi are scheduled to make appearances later, so things should pick up. The weather is here, wish you were beautiful!

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.

payment methods

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.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate