Not just financial support but inspiration: your role in advancing Mondoweiss

Starting July 15, we asked you to help Mondoweiss increase its impact for justice and freedom in Palestine. We asked you How much truth is needed? and you have answered with generous contributions as well as thoughtful comments.

Mondoweiss has already grown dramatically in the recent past. As of August 1, 2014 Mondoweiss had 825 donors. Today the number is over 1800—more than double. Since that time, our Facebook audience and Twitter following have more than doubled. And our budget that year was less than $250,000. This year, we have raised nearly twice that thanks to your belief in the value of Mondoweiss journalism—and our budget for the year to come will be over half a million dollars.

Of course, numbers are a convenient measure for size and scope, but there are so many other ways to describe the growth of Mondoweiss. We have covered new aspects of the occupation and U.S. attitudes; we have brought on new, talented staff and freelance contributors; and we’ve begun producing regular video reporting and a new series of print publications.

We’ve also identified new directions and initiatives that we believe will not only strengthen our reporting and broaden its influence, but also serve to support the movement for change in U.S. policy toward Israel/Palestine.

When we started this campaign a few weeks ago, we asked you, our readers, to guide us on whether to keep growing, and how fast. Your response has been a resounding endorsement—more gifts, in a shorter period, than we anticipated. And readers have sent not just financial support but inspiration.

One donor sent us the Mahmoud Darwish poems shown here, with the comment “In addition to the donation, these poems are the best gift I can give you.” We hold Darwish and his work very dear, and have published many articles about the Israeli government’s defensive response to his art, so this offering was very touching.

Another donor wrote, “I am 80 years old and monthly social security payments are my sole source of income, so I’m not always able to contribute. Without Mondoweiss, however, I would not know the true Palestinian living conditions in the occupied territories and the magnitude of those terrible living conditions. Often equally useful, and sometimes entertaining as well, are responses to your articles. So thank you for your dedication to providing such valuable information. It is most appreciated.”

Combined with the input readers provided through our survey this spring, our team takes the response to this drive as a true vote of confidence in our plan to raise Mondoweiss to new heights.

Today is our last message in the current campaign, and we hope that any of you who have put off giving will take action now. We can’t offer not to ask for donations again in the future, because they are the lifeblood that keeps the site functioning. But we can say that every gift, large or small, is truly appreciated and makes a difference in our ability to deliver more information to more people.

How much truth is needed? During these few weeks, our readers have told us that the movement for justice requires us to deliver more—and soon. If you have not yet invested in a more powerful future for Mondoweiss, an expanded capacity to spread the truth far and wide, please join hundreds of others by donating today.

We are grateful for the community we serve, and we will continue doing all we can to live up to readers’ trust and the funds they provide for Mondoweiss’s increased impact.