By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews
Although there’s never really any deadline for donations, YachatsNews has entered the last week of its October campaign to encourage more small, monthly subscribers to help support its work.
As of Monday, Oct. 28, 25 people have signed up to donate $5 to $10 monthly for an additional $210 a month toward our operating expenses. That adds up to more than $2,500 over a year’s time and join the 55 people who had been doing that previously. Another 29 readers have opted to make one-time contributions this month totaling $2,775 for a total of nearly $5,300 for the October campaign.
A local donor and his employer have agreed to match contributions for a year up to $10,000. So there’s room for more, obviously.
I have no problem asking readers for money so long as I’m clear what it will be used for.
In this case, it’s to help defray our operating expenses, which are about $7,500 a month. That goes for everything from our reporter’s salary and benefits, pay to freelancers who help chase stories, to our web guy (who unfortunately has been busy lately chasing glitches in our WordPress system and with our hosting service), and the dozens of other small but important expenses it takes to keep this operation functioning.
YachatsNews is also trying to raise enough money to hire a second reporter to be based in Newport to better cover Lincoln County government, schools and education, the city of Newport, the bustling port and its related institutions, and the best story of the week in that area.
YachatsNews has applied for and received a handful of grants from Oregon foundations the past three years. But more and more it’s becoming clear to me that readers – who have access to our site for free – are the bedrock of support in our effort to do more and better.
That was brought home to me recently when in the span of two days I received emails from an Oregon and national foundation that we were not awarded grants from them. But just the day before I received an email from the Library of Congress letting me know that YachatsNews had been selected for its news web archive “which is part of a larger collection of historically and culturally significant websites that have been designated for preservation.”
We are proud of that.
Like I said, YachatsNews just wants to do more and better. And we need your help to do that.
So, as the month draws to a close, consider signing up through PayPal to make a small, monthly donation so we can use the full match from your year-long amount from that donor and his employer. That means if you sign up to donate $5 a month through PayPal the donor will contribute $60. If you donate $10, the donor will contribute $120, or if you sign up to donate $20 a month, the donor will contribute $240.
To become a monthly donor or to make a one-time donation, go to this link.
Other ways to help
There are other ways to contribute if doing so by a small, monthly donation does not fit your charitable giving plan. You can:
- Write a check and drop it into the mail to YachatsNews, P.O Box 284, Yachats, Ore., 97498;
- Use the “Donate” button on the website to make a one-time contribution through PayPal;
- Advertise your business or organization on the site. Not only will you gain the additional exposure that 140,000 page views a month can bring, but you will be helping sustain this operation. Here is a link to rates and how to get that process started.
If, as always, there are questions please feel free to reach out to me by email at YachatsNews@gmail.com or simply call me at 503-970-3867.
The staff and board at YachatsNews appreciates your support.