December 19, 2009

Protesting with Doughnuts

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If you’re ever curious about why so many people hate teachers unions, check out this little story in the LA Times today about the Centinela Valley Union High School District.  Long story short, on the last day of school before break, a minimum day, the district planned to feed their mostly low-income kids the usual mid-morning snack.  The union was pissed about this because it would extend the day by 15 minutes, so teachers all kept the kids in class and fed them Krispy Kreme doughnuts instead.  Result: the district had to throw away the unused snack food, they lost $10,000 in federal funds, and teachers got to leave 15 minutes earlier.

“A lot of teachers are very protective of their time,” said the union rep.  No kidding.

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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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