‘Free access’ requires investment; how your donation helps
I know you’ve heard this before, but it bears repeating. As a nonprofit, independent newsroom, Investigate Midwest is free from:
- Shareholder expectations
- Corporate mandates, click-bait quotas and cookie-cutter templated content
- Influence over our coverage
- Paywalls to access our investigative reporting
So how are we funded? A mix of grants, gifts, donations and sponsorships. This business model allows us to freely pursue our mission: To serve as a watchdog for the public good, focused on investigating the power, practices and influence of Big Ag and expose its impact on our communities, our climate, and our food, water and air. Our work also provides a platform for the people most affected by these issues to be heard.
But meaningful investigative reporting doesn't happen by accident. Each story requires time to gather records, analyze data, interview sources and follow leads wherever they go. All powered by skilled reporters, editors, visual journalists and support staff. Which takes money.
Reader support is critical to making this work possible and freely accessible for all. Our goal is to grow reader support to become a bigger piece of our business model. Why? To better balance that mix I mentioned above. The largest slice of our funding comes from grants, but this fluctuates year-to-year. Reader support, while a much slimmer slice of the pie, is more constant. And, we know that of our newsletter reader base, less than 8% donate.
Last summer, nearly 70 readers contributed more than $5,500 to support Investigate Midwest. Nearly three out of every four donors gave less than $100, and 20 supporters gave under $25.
All of which directly supported reporting costs like records fees, time spent analyzing data and interviewing sources.
This year, we're asking you to join them. Whether it's your first gift or an increase to your existing support, every donation helps us continue investigating the power, practices and influence of Big Ag and making that reporting freely available to everyone.
— Erin Orr,
executive director
Investigate Midwest
P.S. As a reader, we know you value Investigate Midwest’s reporting. Please share it with your community and invite others to the table.
