Dear Friends of FCIR:
Even as traditional journalism in Florida faces more cuts, there is a growing demand for substantive news of government and public officials.
The Florida Center for Investigative Reporting is among dozens of nonprofit sites dedicated to public service reporting. Now, we need your help to meet a fundraising challenge so we can do more of the watchdog journalism you want.
We hope you also will continue to support your local or community newspaper or broadcast outlet and their online sites, because we’re not in competition. In fact, we work with and sometimes for traditional journalism organizations.
But FCIR is different: We’re statewide, bilingual, investigative and digital. We’re nonprofit, and we have modest resources. To provide serious coverage of serious issues in Florida, your financial support really can make a difference.
For the next year, the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation, our main funder, has renewed our annual grant – with a twist.
The grant is for $100,000, and we have received $75,000. To get the other $25,000, we have to raise $25,000. We have several months to accomplish this and would like to do so as soon as possible to put the money to work.
Still, it’s a lot of money to raise. And we can only do it with generous support.
If you’ve never donated to FCIR, please consider giving now.
And if you previously have contributed, please consider giving again.
While the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation wants us to broaden our financial base, we also want to keep previous donors. The matching funds agreement applies only to a donor “who has not given… during the preceding twelve months.” That means if you made a contribution Dec. 1, 2012, a new donation on Dec. 2, 2013 would count for the match.
Please contact me — rosenhause@fcir.org — if you’re not sure when you donated or if you have any questions.
The philanthropic groups that support non-profit journalism do not promise support forever. They want us to be self-sustaining.
Here is a link to a recently released Knight Foundation study of 18 nonprofit sites, including FCIR, that looks at sustainability.
In addition to foundation support, we sell our content though we provide it at no cost to ethnic, and Spanish- and Creole-language media.
We work with and for partner news organizations across Florida, including the Miami Herald, News6 in Miami, The (Lakeland) Ledger, Tampa Tribune, Florida Times-Union, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers, El Nuevo Herald, Tampa Bay Times, WGCU News, WUSF 89.7 News, WLRN Miami.
And we raise money. If you want more news and more in-depth news, we hope you see the value in supporting public service journalism and FCIR at whatever level you can afford.
For the dollar-to-dollar match, every donation – from $1 to $10 to $100 – is in effect doubled until we hit $25,000.
Our fingers are crossed that those donations will add up, enough to get us to the $25,000 match. And we’ll tell you how it’s going.
What can you expect for your donation? We’ll produce watchdog journalism you won’t read anywhere else. Those stories take time, often require documents, public records, data analysis, travel and translation.
All donations are tax deductible.
It’s easy to contribute. Go to the DONATE button on the top horizontal bar on this page, or click here. That page will give you a choice of making a donation with Visa, Master Card, Discover, American Express and PayPal.
Or you can send a check to Florida Center for Investigative Reporting, P.O. Box 460068, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33346. Please write EEJF match in the memo line.
There is another option for donors this week. Starting at midnight on Nov. 20 for 24 hours, the Miami Foundation is sponsoring the second annual Give Miami Day when donations can be made to a wide range of nonprofit organizations, including FCIR. Donations made at Givemiamiday.com are only by credit card and with a $25 minimum.
Whatever you can do, thanks for your support for FCIR and investigative journalism
– Sharon Rosenhause, Florida Center for Investigative Reporting board president