Gratitude is too small a word for the thanks the Ark Valley Voice (AVV) crew feels for the support from our community during the recent NewsMatch campaign. The final tally from the just-ended NewsMatch campaign has raised a bit more than $27,100 in donations which will help support our working journalists.
This is what we call a “WOW!”. In the last 36 hours of the NewsMatch, your gifts so far exceeded our expectations that all we can do is be humble in the face of the trust you have placed with AVV.
As the numbers go, nearly 130 individuals donated to support AVV, in gifts ranging from $10.00 checks to $1,000 donations and $2,500 charitable distributions. The average donation was $147 — significantly higher than in earlier years of our participation in prior NewsMatch challenges.
As we head into the new year, we’re reflecting on the amazing community of readers who helped us not just reach our $15,000 NewsMatch goal in community donations — but significantly exceed that number. Early in the campaign, we learned that your community support qualified us for an additional $4,000 democracy grant from an anonymous donor through the Miami Foundation, for our work supporting democracy. Both matches will arrive in March 2023.
This year as never before, the delivery of fact-based, unbiased news — considered so important by our founders that freedom of the press was enshrined in the United States Constitution — is more important than ever.
Your tax-deductible donations will immediately be put to work in our community — as the next quarter wages for AVV reporters and tech crew covering the local news you need to understand to make decisions about your lives, as well as critical reporting on the threats to our democracy, our environment, our health and livelihoods.
That we continue to make this free to readers demonstrates another critical aspect; that fact-based journalism should be available to all, not just those who can afford a subscription or a cable bill.
Strengthening fact-based journalism strengthens democracy from the bottom to the very top of government. None of us should ever take for granted that the truth doesn’t make a difference. It does. We will do everything we can to live up to your trust in us, to ensure that “Truth has a Voice”.
Stay tuned in the coming weeks for some important announcements related to our delivery of the news. In the meantime, you can come to www.arkvalleyvoice.com throughout the day, every day, as we load news stories in real-time, or you can sign up for daily or weekly delivery to your inbox.
With gratitude to our Donors and Readers and the entire Community, the AVV Crew
I appreciate when an organization lets its supporters know what was raised from an “ask.” I can say it inspires me more to learn how many other people think the way I do, support the things I support. There are organizations that choose not to “reveal” what was donated; I don’t understand that thinking. So, thanks for letting us know your good news.