Hooray! Met Our Second Target Handily! On to the Third: Continuing Expanded News Coverage and Maybe Meetups

Thanks to our early bird readers for their prompt and generous donations! We hit our first and second goals each in a bit more than day despite launching during a major holiday weekend. Because Lambert, the Master of the Fundraiser Thermometers, is off the grid, our thermometer is behind where you have gotten us. He will refresh it when he comes back on duty.

We’ve already closing in on 500 donations towards fundraiser target of 1100 donors and have gotten messages of support like this one from Lynn H:

…the check is in the mail (as soon as I walk the dog!). I don’t even know how many years it has been that I have counted on Naked Capitalism as my most important source of information and insight on politics, national and global events and issues, and now Covid. The postings and analysis you all provide, as well as the comments and ongoing dialog by the NC community, are absolutely invaluable.

Thank you again for all you and your team do every day!

And Paul:

Love links, love the site.
Alerted friends to the site.
I am in awe at the amount of work entailed.
It gives me anxiety attacks thinking about it.

And Jan G:

NC is my trusted news and information source.
Thanks for everything.

Even more important, we blew past our first two goals, The first was $23,000 to provide for more technology investments in the site. We’ve had to invest heavily here in recent years due to a more hostile external environment, including moving our main and backup servers out of the US. So good for you for helping us support mundane but absolutely critical budget items. This is our foundation for all the content we provide. The second was $20,500 for supporting the comments section. Again. you speedy donations showed how much you value those robust and information-rich discussions, just as we value the keen-eyed reactions to our posts.

But these are only our initial targets. If you haven’t had time to contribute yet, we hope you’ll go to our Tip Jar pronto, which shows you how to give by check, debit or credit card or PayPal.

Our next goal $23,500 for continuing our expanded Links section, and if we return to something dimly resembling the old normal by next summer, some meetups too. Readers very much enjoyed the opportunity to meet and mingle with the like-minded, but travel and site coverage when writers are absent do not come for free!

As of 1 AM EDT, we already have $675 towards that target.

As we explained in our kickoff post, we expanded our Links section from the pre-Covid maximum of 45 links to now 55 to 60. This may not seem like much, but it represents a day-in, day-out commitment of additional staffing, as in an ongoing increase of manning of the site, which means more budget needs. So it takes more effort to provide your morning guide to what’s happening. As nycTerrist once said:

so grateful for this site! my daily news filter,
antidote to gaslighting

If we wind up stuck in the new normal (as in no meetups) and don’t use all the funds donated for this goal, we’ll use any surplus to fund more original reporting.

So those of you who have contributed already, thanks again for your generous support, and we look forward to those NC fans who have just found out about the fundraiser donating through the Tip Jar to help make the site more successful.