A Mother Jones magazine from the late ’90s.

This story stuck with me. [Mother Jones]( MoJo Reader, Hi, I'm Brian and I'm stoked to be writing you with a short personal story today. I work with Monika, who usually writes these, on Mother Jones’ online membership program—finding ways to listen to, learn from, and connect with our community of readers—and right now that includes being responsible for our fundraising push to [rally $350,000 in donations from readers]( by July 17 that [we wrote about here](. It's a joy! It's hard! It's stressful! But it's so damn rewarding and there's no one else I'd rather work with than Mother Jones and you all. And this being Mother Jones, I better back that claim up. Last week, Monika wrote to you about our first-ever [impact report]( to show how [your support]( adds up to reporting that makes a real difference, and there was one line that really spoke to me: "It’s also about how storytelling can really change how people look at something—if it’s done with intention, with a human face, and with a genuine push to reach people with respect and empathy." Mother Jones magazine did that for me. I couldn't tell you the year or what any of the stories were about, but picking up an issue of Mother Jones (and the Progressive) from a suburban Barnes & Noble newsstand outside of Dayton, Ohio, sometime in the late 1990s opened my eyes and helped set me on the path I’m on today: asking millions of readers who come across [this incredible institution's work to support it](. That's so awesome. By the time I was thumbing through my first MoJo I already knew I was a bit of a hellraiser and definitely wanted to stick it to the man, but I didn't really know how or where to start. Progressive politics weren't on many of us high schoolers' radars (despite having Rage Against the Machine's [first two tapes]( in heavy rotation), and reading every word of that Mother Jones magazine showed me there's a whole world of folks out there who shared my budding thoughts and values—so off I went to join it a few years later when leaving home. "Impact" like that can never be quantified and it can't be broken down for foundation reports or major donor proposals, but it's absolutely part of the magic that happens when a newsroom and its community of readers—who incredibly [make it all possible with their donations](—are driven by a mission to create change and show up for each other. That's powerful, especially for young readers like I was, or any reader, who is making sense of the world and doesn't have this type of tribe around them. So many of us share that Mother Jones DNA. This is a fairly odd fundraising email, talking about my story instead of the stories from my colleagues in the newsroom that you're here for. But that's another part of what makes working with Mother Jones and you all so rewarding. Back in 2015, when we were new in our roles, Monika and I discovered that taking the time to write about our work and [why it matters]( can be an effective way to [earn your donations]( instead of over-relying on fundraising gimmicks that don't really respect your intelligence like so many in my field hew to. There was an honest-to-goodness meeting where "[Let's just level with people](" became our strategy. It feels good, doing that instead of cranking out the type of fundraising appeals that almost any organization could fill in the blanks for and call their own. Thank you for keeping my job interesting and worth doing! I also hope it works today and that you'll [support our team's journalism with a donation if you can right now to help me reach my $350,000 goal](. These next three-plus weeks truly are crunch time for Mother Jones even if it doesn't feel like it. It's no BS when Monika [says]( the budget being finalized for July 1 is the hardest we've ever experienced. And we don't lightly share that we talked with our staff about which benefits matter most and need to be protected as we navigate it (our team overwhelmingly said that preventing layoffs is their number one priority). We tell you that because it's the matter-of-fact truth, and it makes good on the second part of that line above: "Done with intention, with a human face, and with a genuine push to reach people with respect and empathy." It's still too early to tell how things are shaping up to get to $350,000 by July 17—most campaigns end with a bang at the deadline—but the last handful of days have been a lot slower than we’d hoped after getting off to a good start. If only it was as easy as me saying, "We need to pick up the pace," and voila, it happens—but it's not, and I hope that sharing how Mother Jones had a big impact on me might be an effective way to do my job today and personally ask you to [consider supporting our team's journalism if you can](. Thanks for reading, and for being such an incredible group of people I have the good fortune of working with on our mission to create change and raise some hell. Onward, Brian Hiatt Mother Jones [Donate]( P.S. 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