January 28, 2018

A Tour of My Closet

Blogging is all about personal voice, which means you guys need to know who I really am. Well, how about a tour of my brand new closet, installed earlier this week? It’s been months in preparation, and it has room not only for my vast wardrobe, but also for my vast collection of felines. Let’s take a look around:

That’s it! Were you expecting more? Come on: I’m not Oprah, you know. Actually, I’m a bit like Steve Jobs, but slightly more colorful. I have two or three pairs of pants to choose from plus a whole galaxy of colorful but otherwise identical polo shirts. They get replaced periodically, and right now I’m in the process of slowly replacing all the old shirts without pockets for new shirts with pockets. The pockets give me a place to put my glasses when I’m out taking pictures.

So now you know the truth: unlike a true blogger, I don’t blog in my pajamas. I blog in stretchy pants and stretchy polo shirts. Exciting, isn’t it?

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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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