One of the most consequential elections in our nation’s history is just weeks away.
If your inbox looks anything like mine, it is overflowing with emails from candidates and political committees.
And — given the gravity of the upcoming midterms — many Americans are responding to those solicitations.
That makes perfect sense, but it has also resulted in a severe drop-off in donations to Public Citizen.
Even though we can’t take a break — not between now and Election Day, and certainly not after — from our ongoing work as a counterbalance to corporate power and government inaction.
Work we’ve been doing for half a century, by the way. And, as always, we do not take money from Big Business or Uncle Sam. Our independence and integrity are not for sale. Never have been. Never will be.
This election season drop-off is most acute when we look at people joining (or not joining, as it happens) our Monthly Donor program.
By signing up to make a recurring donation each month, Monthly Donors help make sure we have a baseline level of support to carry out our work.
So let me show you some data. This is the number of new Monthly Donors each month over the past year:
123 — October 2021
213 — November 2021
381 — December 2021
141 — January 2022
151 — February 2022
109 — March 2022
143 — April 2022
119 — May 2022
100 — June 2022
253 — July 2022
138 — August 2022
176 — September 2022
And here’s where things stand as of today:
26 — October 2022
That’s not a typo.
Just 26 people have joined our Monthly Donor program so far this October, which puts us on pace to finish the month with fewer than 50 new Monthly Donors.
If we can’t bring that number up — even with the impending election consuming people’s attention and support — it would be the first time in two years that we have ended a month with fewer than 100 new Monthly Donors.
Much more importantly, there is critical work in the months ahead that we simply would not be able to do.
Thankfully, a group of longtime benefactors has made an offer that we hope will help.
If you become a Monthly Donor today, your contribution will be matched dollar-for-dollar each and every month for an entire year!
That means the support you’ll be providing for everything you and Public Citizen do together will be doubled month in and month out — for one full year — at no additional cost to you.
BECOME A MONTHLY DONOR NOW
I understand that a monthly donation may not be in the cards for many folks.
If a monthly donation is not a good fit, please consider making a one-time contribution right now to help us weather this election season drop-off.
OR MAKE A ONE-TIME DONATION
And if a donation of any kind today is not right for you, that’s okay. I hope you’ll understand that I need to ask from time to time so that we have the resources to carry out all the essential work you and Public Citizen are doing together.
Thank you for being part of this shared project called Public Citizen.
For progress,
- Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen
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