Short, sweet, and sincere on this Monday evening.

Also: quite urgent.   [Mother Jones + The Center for Investigative Reporting]( MoJo Reader, I’ll keep this as brief and blunt as I possibly can: Our First $500,000 fundraising campaign ends in 12 days and it’s looking rough—with about $250,000 still needed and some seriously slow days of late. If you can [part with $5, $35, or $50](, it would mean the world to us right now. We urgently need your help, and a lot of help, to pay for the one-of-a-kind journalism we do. In fact, key to our success is being able to [earn the support]( of more regular readers, like you, who care about our work enough to open these emails and can afford to, but haven’t [pitched in]( recently or ever. Journalism is in trouble. We are losing newspapers at a rate of [10 a month](. Some of the biggest newsrooms of the digital age have [shut down]( or [are circling the drain](. Layoffs are happening at a record pace ([at least 500 of them]( in January alone, on top of a record layoff year in 2023). Not to mention the Baltimore Sun[,]( [purchased]( by the conservative billionaire who owns Sinclair Broadcast Group (of [anchors-reading-canned-editorial]( fame). Propaganda is overwhelming people’s social feeds. Fox News is radicalizing a large part of the conservative movement toward authoritarian and fascist ideas. But here’s a bit of hope: Mother Jones joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting so that our hard-hitting, wide-reaching journalism can push back against all the bullies and BS. Our [people-powered]( nonprofit model helps keep reporters on the beat, and it lets us get solid information in the public interest to everyone who demands it, wherever they get their news. [Donations big and small]( from our community make up almost 60 percent of our $26 million budget. There is no backup, no alternative source we can turn to if we come up short on these fundraising goals. Every stone has been turned over. There are no frills to trim from our budget. And it’s looking rough based on these last couple of weeks. One reason: Website traffic is down about 40 percent from this time last year and almost 70 percent from two years ago—because tech companies have chosen to downgrade news. It’s that way across the industry. That makes [the donations we’re able to earn from you](, people who read these emails, even more important. Honestly, with so much uncertainty, we don’t yet know where we’ll find all the funding to keep this new, stronger, more impactful organization going for the long term. But we live and die by how much we can [bring in]( month after month, year after year. Most years, it requires a pretty big leap of faith—and now that leap of faith is bigger. It’s scary. But it’s also amazing to have the chance to try. Because we’ve known for a long time that what it takes to save journalism is being willing to build something better than the media we used to have. That’s why we took a big swing and built a far-reaching, impact-making news operation that all of you—people who want journalism that fights for truth and democracy—can be part of. That’s not something an investor is going to write a giant check for. But it is what we can make happen together, at this scary, urgent, and, dammit, also hopeful time. You can learn more in “[Less Dreading, More Doing](,” where we lay out this wild moment and how we can keep charging hard for you. One last time: Please help if you can—[every gift from every person]( truly matters as we face down a huge $250,000 gap over these next 12 days. Thanks for reading, and for everything you do make Mother Jones what it is. Onward, [Monika Bauerlein, CEO] Monika Bauerlein, CEO Mother Jones [Donate](   [Mother Jones]( [Donate]( [Donate Monthly]( [Subscribe]( This message was sent to {EMAIL}. To change the messages you receive from us, you can [edit your email preferences]( or [unsubscribe from all mailings.]( For advertising opportunities see our online [media kit.]( Were you forwarded this email? [Sign up for Mother Jones' newsletters today.]( [www.MotherJones.com]( PO Box 8539, Big Sandy, TX 75755