We've never faced challenges like we do right now.

Friend,

Common Dreams was founded on the ambitious idea—some would say a little crazy—that an entire nonprofit news outlet could be funded through voluntary donations of readers.

For us, this isn’t just about paying bills. It’s about guaranteeing our editorial independence and giving our readers the information they need daily to fight for social change.

But a major annual survey tracking charitable giving in the U.S. found that individual donations to nonprofit organizations declined overall by a whopping 13.4 percent last year—the largest drop adjusted for inflation ever recorded.

That’s why today, as we launch our Summer Campaign fundraising drive, we’re asking our readers, with a special urgency, to donate as much as you can to help keep Common Dreams alive.

Make no mistake. For more than 20 years, we’ve proven the doubters wrong. With your unstinting support, we’ve shown that you don’t need to sell ads or take corporate money to provide daily coverage of the most critical issues of our time.

Yet we’ve never faced challenges like we do now: Rising costs. Falling donations. Big tech throttling traffic to our website.

Because you’re a Common Dreams reader, we don’t have to tell you how dangerous this moment is for democracy and the planet. However, at this moment, with so many Americans cutting back on their donations and countless news outlets cutting back or shutting down entirely, we need our readers to step up and do more.

So here’s the bottom line: To meet our goal and keep Common Dreams alive, we must raise $80,000 by September 1. Please help get our Summer Campaign off to a successful start by donating today.