Friend,

I want to give you a little inside peek into how Common Dreams is funded—and explain why this is such a troubling time.

There are three big sources of grassroots donations that power our work:

1. One-time donations from readers on the website who become inspired to chip in;
2. Recurring contributions from people who give what they can each month—$5, $12, $27, or any amount—to support our independent journalism; and
3. Donations prompted by emails like this one. (Yes, I’m about to ask you to donate.)

We first started seeing trouble last year, right before the U.S. elections, when suddenly, for no apparent reason, the number of visitors to our website from Google and Facebook fell off a cliff. We can’t prove that the big tech companies intentionally targeted us—but it’s clear that something in their algorithms changed or a throttle was pulled, resulting in much less traffic to Common Dreams. In the long run, fewer readers means fewer donations.

Then, over the last few months, our second big source of donations took a hit as the number of people signing up as monthly donors dipped. In fact, the number of new recurring donors per week has dropped in half compared to what we saw under Donald Trump.

That’s two legs of the stool kicked out from under us in the last year. We can’t afford to lose the last.

That’s why it’s so important that we reach our Summer Campaign goal of $75,000 by the end of this month. We accept no advertising. We don’t charge a subscription fee. Your donations are essential to power the independent journalism of Common Dreams.

Please support the independent media and progressive mission of Common Dreams in this difficult time.

Thank you,

Aaron Kaufman
Director of Development
for the whole Common Dreams news team

P.S. Want to make an even greater impact? Please click here to become a recurring donor and help to sustain our work in the future.