It’s crunch time, in ways big and small.

A few days makes all the difference.   [Mother Jones]( MoJo Reader, So, the high-stakes fundraising email we sent on Wednesday tanked. That’s rough. We were hoping it would help kickstart a big [spike in giving]( ahead of Saturday’s deadline, like we usually see during the final days of a campaign, but it didn’t. At all. We have no choice but to extend the deadline of this short, [vitally important]( fall fundraising drive through next Wednesday, October 11, to get the job done and come up with [the money]( it takes to keep Mother Jones charging hard. We’re looking at a $110,000 gap between where we are and where we need to be. And after Wednesday’s much worse than we thought it would be email, we’re majorly concerned about the bottom falling out and coming up way shorter than seemed likely just a few days ago. It’s not good. A rough day or two can mean upwards of a $50,000 difference. Please help us avoid a real budget crunch with [a donation of any amount]( today. We need to see a huge [outpouring of support](. We need a final, deadline-driven, oh-crap-it’s-looking-rough [surge in giving]( to get us where we need to be. It’s all so fraught and incredibly uncertain right now, with everything coming down to the wire, and our fate relying on an unpredictable [last-chance spike](. Will it be enough? Will one even happen to begin with? There’s no guarantee—we can’t will it into existence. But we can do our best damn job trying to [earn your support](. And since a few emails have fallen flat of late and have us freaked out, we’ll quickly hit on what’s been resonating with your fellow readers. THE URGENCY The crisis facing journalism is the [new normal](, and we learned the hard way that we need to be [more upfront with you]( about how incredibly challenging it is keeping a newsroom afloat these days. It’s brutal. That’s why so many face huge cuts or closure. And it’s why, last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have a chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. Despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of. All while expenses keep rising and other industry-wide pressures only increase and squeeze us in ways big and small. Consider: Advertising used to reliably bring in between 11 and 15 percent of our budget. Now it’s 6 percent, despite our tiny team’s tremendous hustle and smarts. Foundations are fickle and often more inclined to give to startups than to organizations with a history and track record. On the expense side of the ledger: [Paper]( and postage for our magazine and mailings went up 30 percent. Insurance and lawyers to defend against [attacks on the truth]( and powerful interests who [take issue]( with what we investigate used to be $85,000 per year. Now it’s $250,000. Our budget has been stripped to its core several times over. The $110,000 we need right now: It keeps us right on track and we simply can’t fall behind and risk coming up short or making big cuts again. [Please help if you can](. THE JOURNALISM You’re here for reporting you don’t find elsewhere, and we’ve heard from so many readers about what draws you to our work of late. You told us you turn to Mother Jones for a trusted voice to help you cut through the noise and know which stories really matter; for [deep dives]( and [investigations]( that are all too rare in today’s media landscape; for coverage of [underreported]( beats that we [get out ahead]( of and [stick with](; for [unique perspectives]( and a [fiery and fact-based]( voice that add something to the day’s news. To a T, these are the very things we can do only because [support from a broad base of readers]( is our biggest source of funding. It’s that simple. It’s exactly why Mother Jones was established as a nonprofit [47 years ago](, to do things different than the corporate media. It is also the exact type of journalism the moment demands. Big time. Recall that the frontrunner for his party’s nomination in next year’s election faces 91 felony charges, including for attempting to overthrow the government, which we all watched play out live on television, and yet that candidate could well prevail again. David Corn [breaks this all down]( better than the two of us can, looking at the [bogus impeachment]( and Trump as [a stochastic terrorist](, and how the media is dropping the ball again. Beyond the chaos of DC, because that matters too, you can also read about Samantha Michaels’ [huge investigation]( into the racist, sexist, and previously under the radar, “failure to protect” laws that has raked in so many big, prestigious awards—and how, in [our email that landed with folks](, we can’t do ambitious projects like that if we don’t hit our online fundraising numbers and stay ahead. Coming up short doesn’t mean lights out or that other L word so many newsrooms face, but it 100 percent means serious belt-tightening (again ugh) for big, important projects, as well as other short-term hardships we’ll have to figure out. [Please help if you can](. THE COMMUNITY None of this works without you, people who expect better from journalism and can [pitch in]( from time to time, when you’re able to, so we can keep doing it—and keep it free for everyone, because access to quality information shouldn’t only be for those who can afford it when so much BS is free. It all comes down to trust, and we really love that. You trust that we’ll [put your gift to use]( doing the type of hard-hitting journalism you expect from us, and we trust that [enough donations]( will come in so we can keep doing it. Been that way for 47 years now. And we’ve been told this is a terrible way to do things, but that’s crap. No doubt, it’s not for everyone. It’s hard as hell coming up with the money it takes to keep our heads above water when our [funding comes from tens of thousands of you]( instead of corporate overlords, or a handful of deep-pocketed donors who can write fat checks. And it’s beyond stressful right now, trusting that we’ll see the big deadline-driven, oh-crap-it’s-looking-rough [surge in giving]( we absolutely need to hit our number, but there’s no way we’d rather have it than being [powered by readers](. It’s truly awesome. Because you know what’s more powerful and more durable than a few millionaires or billionaires and their whims? A large and steady group of people who care immensely about journalism. A community. And a cause—[something else]( David Corn recently hit on. That kind of support, that belief in journalism that exists to bring about change, doesn't go poof all at once. And especially right now, a strong and steady base of [tens of thousands of donors]( like you is vital to help us shore up what we can given the forces that are decimating journalism. It’s crunch time, in ways big and small. And we need readers to show up big time—again. We’ll finish where we started: We have a $110,000 gap between where we are and where we need to be. After a rough email Wednesday, and with just six days left, we’re majorly concerned about the bottom falling out and coming up way shorter than seemed likely just a few days ago. Please help us avoid a real budget crunch with [a donation of any amount]( today. Thanks for reading, for bearing with us as we scramble to raise the money it takes to keep us going, and for everything you do to make the Mother Jones community what it is. Onward, Monika Bauerlein CEO Brian Hiatt Online Membership Director [Donate](   [Mother Jones]( [Donate]( [Donate Monthly]( [Subscribe]( This message was sent to {EMAIL}. To change the messages you receive from us, you can [edit your email preferences]( or [unsubscribe from all mailings.]( For advertising opportunities see our online [media kit.]( Were you forwarded this email? [Sign up for Mother Jones' newsletters today.]( [www.MotherJones.com]( PO Box 8539, Big Sandy, TX 75755