Dear FCIR Supporters,

We did it — thanks to your generosity and commitment to public service journalism. There are not enough ways to thank you.

The Florida Center for Investigative Reporting’s annual fundraising campaign, which ended Jan. 19, raised more money from individual donors than we have raised in any of our previous six years of nonprofit journalism. 

In all, we raised $80,049 from individual donors, including more than $18,000 between Dec. 19 and Jan. 19 that counted toward a dollar-for-dollar match from the Knight Foundation. And I don’t mean a couple of dozen contributors. More than 350 individuals from Pensacola to Miami, and about a dozen from out of state, stepped up to support FCIR’s work. Most of the donations were for $50 or less, demonstrating the power of small donors.

We can’t do public accountability journalism without you. While FCIR has always been funded by foundations and individual giving, we’ve seen institutional support decline in recent years, as have nonprofit journalism organizations around the nation.

That means individual donors like you have become increasingly critical to funding FCIR’s journalism every year. Thanks to your generosity, we can continue to make a difference in Florida in 2017. And this is a critical time for investigative journalism in the nation and in this state, as a new president takes on major issues that affect Florida, from climate change to health care to immigration.

This year, we’ll continue to serve as a fiscal sponsor to startup journalism organizations and individual journalists who are receiving foundation funding. We also will continue our groundbreaking reporting on national security and civil liberties for national media outlets, including The Intercept, and monitor bigotry and religious intolerance through the Islamophobia Project on Facebook.

And perhaps most important, we’ll invest in ambitious, serious Florida journalism projects, whether traditional reportage for which we are best known or documentary storytelling, such as our recently released short film “Unforgiven.”

We always want to hear from you, our supporters, about what type of journalism you’d like to see us take on or how you think FCIR can better serve Florida. As always, you can email me directly.

Thank you again for your support.

A very special thank you goes to journalist and author Carl Hiaasen, whose fundraising letter helped introduce many of you to FCIR and our journalism. And thanks to the Miami-based Knight Foundation for its commitment to nonprofit journalism.

It’s a little late for New Year’s resolutions, but we pledge in 2017 to make you proud to have supported FCIR. 

Sincerely,

Trevor Aaronson
Executive Director

More than 350 individuals from Pensacola to Miami, and about a dozen from out of state, stepped up to support FCIR’s work. Most of the donations were for $50 or less, demonstrating the power of small donors.