So: you love, rabble, right?
rabble.ca has an operating budget of $200 000 per year. $200 000 per year. That includes the salaries of almost twenty employees, tech support, domain and website hosting, events and administration. For comparison, The Tyee, a strictly regional publication, has a budget of $600 000 per year and mainstream papers have budgets which figure in the billions.
The point here is that rabble.ca makes every dollar count.
Now think about how much money you give to mainstream media every month: newspaper and magazine subscriptions, internet and cable costs, phone and data plans, etc. Why not consider redirecting a fraction of that money rabble's way? We promise we'll make the best of it.
It's almost a ritual to say that rabble.ca is a non-profit, progressive, independent news website, but take a moment to think about what that actually means:
It means we have to work harder for each dollar, because most advertisers won't touch us, or we won't touch them. It means that we have to designate a large portion of our work hours (already at a premium! See above!) to chasing major donor partners year after year to renew their subscription because we can't rely on a third-party equity partner, for-profit motives or other traditional sources of funding.
It means that we're dedicated to providing left-wing, progressive perspectives: something not even The Tyee will do. We don't give right-wing, anti-democratic positions a platform to offer some false notion of "fairness." We want to expand leftist political thought in this country--and that's quite limiting when you're looking for money.
It means that we rely heavily on our readers' good will to support us, because we don't want to rely on a larger corporation or organization whose intentions with the news might not suit ours.
All this on a measly $200 000 a year! So we're asking babblers, some of our most dedicated readers, to consider supporting rabble through a monthly donation. We promise we'll make it worth your while. Here's something that is perhaps not as well-known as it should be: Rebecca and I sit in on two staff and editorial meetings each month and we regularly report on thoughts and recommendations of babblers there--which are thoughtfully considered by the rest of the staff, and especially by our publisher Kim Elliott. So you have a direct voice to how rabble is governed and run.
So please consider donating--think about how much you give mainstream media, who hates you, each month and then consider how much rabble.ca loves you.
Here is a link to our latest fundraising drive, with information about some prizes you can win.
And here is a direct link to our donation page.
Keep us going. Match your media!
