June 3, 2020

A Midweek Birthday Boost and a March for Change

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Lightning round of Recharge boosts, and back to long-form tomorrow, but today’s drumbeat is too quick, the news cycle too fast, and the pace of our moment too—I’m out of adjectives. You know who is excellent at adjectives and thoughtful descriptions, critical thinking, and powerful storytelling that lifts readers? Someone whose birthday is today. Someone who deserves all the retweets, likes, and digital presents. Her name begins with D and ends with odai Stewart and her birthday revolution will be tweeted @dodaistewart. “On this one day, I accept random good vibes” is not a quote she gave me for this Recharge. It’s not, just like no reader should email me with inspiring, energizing, good-news stories of justice and hope at recharge@motherjones.com. Now make sure not to celebrate with @dodaistewart. Or do. Go ahead!

Elsewhere in the Recharge galaxy, my colleague Sam Van Pykeren shares this story of a Minnesota woman who set out on “her own march” in peaceful solidarity with protesters when friends weren’t able to join her, gaining 1.1 million likes for taking the initiative, her son tweeted: “We walked along the lake for about half a mile. No one even drove by, but my parents wanted to do something and that’s what we did.” She posted a video along with it, to an outpouring of support. “Mom is over the moon and is so grateful to all of you for the overwhelming love and support! Thanks everyone so much you seriously have no idea.”

There are countless parents drawing and providing strength and earned recognition and love at this moment. Send stories to recharge@motherjones.com, even if you’d just like your parents hat-tipped, and spin the daily blog at motherjones.com/recharge.

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AN IMPORTANT UPDATE ON MOTHER JONES' FINANCES

We need to start being more upfront about how hard it is keeping a newsroom like Mother Jones afloat these days.

Because it is, and because we're fresh off finishing a fiscal year, on June 30, that came up a bit short of where we needed to be. And this next one simply has to be a year of growth—particularly for donations from online readers to help counter the brutal economics of journalism right now.

Straight up: We need this pitch, what you're reading right now, to start earning significantly more donations than normal. We need people who care enough about Mother Jones’ journalism to be reading a blurb like this to decide to pitch in and support it if you can right now.

Urgent, for sure. But it's not all doom and gloom!

Because over the challenging last year, and thanks to feedback from readers, we've started to see a better way to go about asking you to support our work: Level-headedly communicating the urgency of hitting our fundraising goals, being transparent about our finances, challenges, and opportunities, and explaining how being funded primarily by donations big and small, from ordinary (and extraordinary!) people like you, is the thing that lets us do the type of journalism you look to Mother Jones for—that is so very much needed right now.

And it's really been resonating with folks! Thankfully. Because corporations, powerful people with deep pockets, and market forces will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. Only people like you will.

There's more about our finances in "News Never Pays," or "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," and we'll have details about the year ahead for you soon. But we already know this: The fundraising for our next deadline, $350,000 by the time September 30 rolls around, has to start now, and it has to be stronger than normal so that we don't fall behind and risk coming up short again.

Please 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.

—Monika Bauerlein, CEO, and Brian Hiatt, Online Membership Director

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