Friend,
This is Craig Brown, the co-founder of Common Dreams. I'm writing to you today to share some hard truths about the future of Common Dreams — and democracy.
I came up in the progressive movement as an organizer in the early 1970s and through the 1980s. I lived through Nixon, Reagan, and Bush and witnessed first-hand the rightward, neoliberal shift of the Democratic Party under Clinton.
But today, the U.S. is on a fast track to authoritarianism like nothing I've ever seen. Meanwhile, corporate news outlets are utterly capitulating to Trump, twisting their coverage to avoid drawing his ire while lining up to stuff cash in his pockets.
That's why I believe that Common Dreams is doing the best and most consequential reporting that we've ever done.
Our small but mighty team is a progressive reporting powerhouse, covering the news every day that the corporate media never will. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. And to ignite change for the common good.
Now here's the key piece that I want all our readers to understand: None of this would be possible without your financial support.
That's not just some fundraising cliche. It's the absolute and literal truth. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you.
One additional factor that I want our readers to be aware of is that it's become harder than ever for new readers to find us due to search engines and social media companies using AI and algorithms to suppress links to our stories. Many digital news outlets have been forced to shut down as a result, and nothing is stopping us from meeting the same fate — except you.
The bottom line is simple. If readers don’t donate to support our journalism, it will die.
Today, we're launching our Summer Campaign fundraising drive and need to raise $100,000 by September 1 to keep our newsroom funded in the critical weeks to come. Will you make a donation to help power the nonprofit, independent reporting of Common Dreams?
