We set a goal to raise $550,000 in August. Here's why that is so important right now:

Friend, Daily Kos is in a bit of a slump. [Can you help us hit our monthly fundraising goal by donating $5 right now?]( [DONATE]( Daily Kos set a goal of raising $550,000 this month, as you can see from my colleague Amanda's email below. Here's why that's so important: - Daily Kos doesn't rely on ad revenue alone to make ends meet. We can't. As Big Tech companies like Amazon, Facebook and Google have gobbled up the online ad market, the money that we make from ads doesn't come close to covering the cost of operations—and it hasn't for more than a decade. - The Big Tech invasion of the online ad space has driven many outlets out of business, but Daily Kos has survived because hundreds of thousands of readers and activists like you chip in a few bucks each to support our work every month. - Those small contributions add up! In fact, small donations make up more than half our income! That's what makes hitting our monthly fundraising goals so important [Summer is usually a slow fundraising season, but we started August off strong. Now we need your help to make sure we don't come up short. Please donate $5 now if you haven't already.]( [DONATE]( Thank you again, Michael Langenmayr, Daily Kos P.S. Here's the email Amanda sent you earlier in the month: --------------------------------------------------------------- I'm going to be upfront with you, friend: We have set a goal to raise to $550,000 in August. [Can you help us reach this goal by donating $5? Here's why it is so important:]( [DONATE]( Every dollar that we raise goes to supporting our work of creating progressive change. We do that by delivering the news from a progressive perspective, providing the tools so our readers can take immediate and effective action on what they are reading, and electing not just more, but better Democrats up and down the ballot. By far, Daily Kos' largest expense is our payroll for our staff of writers, editors, campaign organizers, and administrative support—the people putting in the hard work to create progressive change. The next big expense is our site hosting and technology development. There are other expenses, like legal (we are being sued by anti-vaxxer and Nazi-cavortor Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.), rent for office space in Oakland, CA, and supplies, but for the most part, Daily Kos is pretty simple: We produce news you can do something about—this involves people and a functioning website. Unlike other news media outlets, or even other progressive organizations, Daily Kos doesn't rely on just one source of revenue—we rely on three: community fundraising, advertising, and list building, in which Democratic and progressive campaigns pay for the opportunity to make their case to our readers over email. Unfortunately, two of these sources of revenue have been lagging behind projections for the majority of the year. We knew that heading into the summer months we would see a dip in our grassroots donations. In past years we wouldn't sweat this downturn as much, but as I mentioned, Daily Kos has been facing some financial struggles this year. Back in January we were forced to make deep financial cuts and other changes in hopes of improving our revenue. Finally, after months of work, we are starting to see the impacts of those changes, but we can't backtrack now. Donations of just a few dollars from our readers and activists has been our largest source of income to pay our bills and fuel our work. To be honest, we prefer it this way. We know that in order to keep operating, we have to fight and deliver for what you believe in. [Please support progressive, independent news and activism by making a donation of $5 to Daily Kos or whatever amount is meaningful to you.]( [DONATE]( Thank you for all you do, Amanda McKay, Daily Kos If you wish to donate by mail instead, please send a check to Daily Kos, PO Box 70036, Oakland, CA, 94612. Contributions to Daily Kos are not tax deductible. Sent via [ActionNetwork.org](. To update your email address, change your name or address, or to stop receiving emails from Daily Kos, please [click here](.