Nonprofit YachatsNews launches local, monthlong fundraising campaign with a goal of $50,000 from readers

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews

Another year of turmoil in Yachats city government, burgeoning municipal projects in Waldport, fights over vacation rentals in Lincoln County, stories from the ever-changing beaches and ocean just to our west, abandoned RVs, important elections, and features on groups, events and people that help stitch together our communities.

Those were among the topics of more than 1,000 stories published by YachatsNews in the past 12 months.

In years past residents of south Lincoln County would not have heard much of anything about those topics. In the last 4½ years YachatsNews has published more than 4,300 stories, added statewide news from partner organizations, and more recently began sharing events-related content from Oregon Coast TODAY.

But it doesn’t come without substantial effort, dedicated reporters – and money.

A year ago, YachatsNews asked readers for help to sustain its operation and you generously donated enough money to help us hire a full-time reporter to help cover the news in south Lincoln County.

Now we’re asking again.

Today, YachatsNews is launching its second annual month-long fundraising campaign with a goal of $50,000 to sustain its local news operation for the next 12 months. Readers donated $53,000 during last year’s campaign.

This once-a-year request is part of our overall financial plan that includes grants from charitable foundations, paid advertising, and small, regular monthly donations from readers.

I launched YachatsNews in January 2019 as a self-funded community service project to provide local, straightforward news and features for an area of Lincoln County that had become a “news desert” – no one or organization covering essential stories that help inform the community.

Our growth has been strong and steady. By the end of its first year in 2019 YachatsNews averaged 15,000 “unique page views” of its stories each month. By the end of 2022 that had grown to 100,000 a month – a total of more than 1 million unique page views for the year.

But we needed help.

To sustain its operations, YachatsNews became a 501(c)3 nonprofit last October and hired its first full-time reporter in December to take much of the reporting load off myself and our freelancers, and to help expand our reach.

Our first reporter, Kenneth Lipp, left in April to become Lincoln County’s public information officer – but not before reporting and writing the first of a two-part series on homelessness and housing that appears Friday. Garret Jaros joined YachatsNews on May 15 and is well under way getting to know south Lincoln County and reporting important stories.

But this effort is not without expense.

YachatsNews is paying its reporter a fair, living wage with full health benefits – a total compensation package that many small news organizations in Oregon do not provide. It is the fair and right thing to do.

But with that comes lots of other related expenses ranging from four (!) insurance policies, payroll taxes, paying freelance writers, web services, rent for a small office in Waldport, and dozens of expenses that crop up while covering the news.

This year we expect to spend $81,000 to provide basic news that we think is vital to our communities.

Since last fall YachatsNews has been fortunate to receive a total of $36,873 in grants from four charitable foundations – the Thompson Foundation of Corvallis, the Ford Family Foundation of Roseburg, the Roundhouse Foundation of Sisters, and the Siletz Tribal Charitable Contributions Fund – to support our work. Rather than using those grants on month-to-month expenses, however, we want to put that aside for reserves.

We know there are lots of organizations or causes in the area that need and deserve your support. We believe – and there is a growing number of academics and others who agree with us — that a strong source of local news is vital to community engagement and involvement.

It is the contributions from readers during this June campaign that will make up the bulk of our finances until this time next year. This month’s effort is being launched with two $5,000 “challenge” donations totaling $10,000 from two local readers to get the campaign off to a strong start.

You can help by contributing one of three ways:

• Write a check to YachatsNews and drop it in the mail to: Yachats News, P.O. Box 284, Yachats, Ore. 97498. For tax purposes, you will get a letter acknowledging your donation;
• Use the PayPal feature on the fundraising “thermometer” graphic with this article or via the “Donate” button of this website;
• Use the GoFundMe donation portal on the fundraising “thermometer” with this article.

Because we are a 501c3 nonprofit, any contributions are tax deductible.

If you have questions, please email me at YachatsNews@gmail.com or call me at 503-970-3867. I am happy to answer questions and share any nuances of the campaign, the transition, future plans, and operations the past 4½ years.

• Quinton Smith is the founder and editor of YachatsNews.com