You’re probably getting a lot of emails right now from organizations like Public Citizen.

Let me explain what’s going on.

If — after reading this note — you still think it’s too much, at least it will be clear where things stand.

This is a peek behind the curtain that many of the groups filling up your inbox won’t show you.

Let’s start with the numbers, which really don’t look good:
What’s happening?

As you may know, December is the most important month of the year for nonprofit organizations like Public Citizen that depend on individual supporters like you — as opposed to subsidies from Big Business and Uncle Sam — to power our work.

But three developments have formed a “perfect storm” that is making for extremely choppy waters of late.

FIRST

The 2022 midterms were among the most consequential elections in our nation’s history.

Millions of Americans donated to candidates and political committees as part of fighting the corporate puppets, right-wing reactionaries, and unhinged Trumpists who ran for office all across the country.

And now, not even two months later, folks are still feeling tapped out.

SECOND

Public Citizen was a pioneer in harnessing email as a key tool our supporters could use to learn about, and to be part of, our work — by signing petitions, communicating with elected officials and government agencies, and, yes, funding our modest operating expenses.

We never shied away from including donation requests in our email outreach. But we didn’t ask constantly. And when we did ask, we avoided gimmicks like ALL-CAPS subject lines, garish formatting, gratuitous graphics, misleading “membership status” alerts, and more.

But over the years — unfortunately for the utility of email itself — more and more organizations and politicians have adopted abusive strategies and cheap techniques that were once confined to spammers.

Email is still one of the best ways for a budget-conscious nonprofit like Public Citizen to connect with our 500,000 activists and supporters all across America. But we do need to email a little more often than we used to.

THIRD

The pandemic has shaken the global economy and left millions here in America facing financial uncertainty (or worse).

How has Big Business responded? With an unprecedented binge of price gouging, jacking up the prices of seemingly everything beyond all reason.

That has left many people feeling like they have less capacity to support a nonprofit like Public Citizen, no matter how much they value our work.

Which is understandable.

And this is also true:

These next few days are absolutely critical to how strong Public Citizen will be in 2023.

So, if you’re able, I’m hoping I can count on you to make a year-end donation today and help give Public Citizen the real-world resources it will take to do our part in fighting for progress.

Anything you contribute right now will be matched dollar-for-dollar.

DOLLAR-FOR-DOLLAR MATCH IS ON — DONATE NOW

Or sign up as a Monthly Donor today and your contribution will be matched dollar-for-dollar each month for a full year!

Thank you for reading this.

Thank you for anything you can chip in.

And thank you for everything you do as part of this shared project called Public Citizen.

- Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen

P.S. If donating today is not a good fit, that’s okay. I hope you’ll understand that I need to ask now and again — especially at this time of year — so we have the resources to carry out all the essential work you and Public Citizen are doing together.
 
 
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