April 30, 2012

Dear readers and friends of the Prospect,

The American Prospect needs your urgent help. 

We’ve launched a campaign that is, quite literally, do or die. I hope you will contribute to help Save the Prospect.

Last fall we expanded our reporting, improved the web site, and invested in broadening our reach through social media. We made these investments because the times were demanding it—the need for what the Prospect does has never been greater. 

In many important ways that expansion has paid off. Through the site, the print and digital editions of the Prospect magazine, the work of our social media team and the appearances of our writers, editors and stories on TV and radio, the Prospect has increased its impact and solidified its role as a critical nerve center for progressive thought, a unique and influential source of new reporting. 

But some big gifts we were counting on to support that new investment fell through, and we are now deeply in the red for the fiscal year that ends June 30.

We are immediately putting in place changes that will allow us to continue publishing on a slimmer budget without sacrificing quality. But to get to that point we need to escape a $500,000 hole by May 31^st.

$500,000 in four weeks.

It’s a daunting figure, much more than most of us have at hand, but it’s not impossibly big—if we go in together. Will you pitch in to help save the Prospect’s future? 

We are asking you – and all of our loyal readers, donors, friends and friends of friends—to help us bring in $200,000 of that goal.  

Since Monday, when the news of our situation broke, we have received more than $90,000 in donations from friends like you.  Our outreach is just beginning, and with your help, we believe we can raise this money.

We are in discussion with a number of individuals who are sympathetic to the Prospect and are capable of making very large contributions toward the total needed. But they in turn are looking for evidence of the vitality of our community and the Prospect’s importance within it. 

If you and the others in this network will contribute as generously as you can – and help us spread the word to others—the response will speak volumes to other possible contributors, and The American Prospect can survive. 

If not, the Prospect as we’ve known it will be forced to radically scale back or close.

This is real. And the stakes are high.

If the Prospect has to fold, a key part of America’s progressive infrastructure will unravel at the worst possible time. The country is in the midst of a titanic struggle between two radically different views of America’s future. Our national story—what Americans tell each other about what our country stands for—is hotly contested ground. The Prospect was created to help make the strongest possible case for an economy that works for all of us; a democracy alive with participation and deliberation; and a government of, by, and for the people, working for our common good.

So, to all of our friends—magazine subscribers, email receivers, former and current donors, and yet-to-be donors—this is your moment.  All of us here care deeply about The American Prospect.  We’re committed to helping it grow and thrive and make the difference needed at this critical moment in history.  We believe there is a significant community of people who feel the same way.  But we need your financial support now.  

Warmly,

Kit Rachlis, editor of The American Prospect

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