Way back when, Way back when, The American Prospect began to amass a team of remarkably smart and talented young writers. TAPPED, the community blog of the Prospect, gave folks like Ezra Klein and Dana Goldstein and Matt Yglesias a platform to show how smart they were, but it also gave them an opportunity to grow as writers. Over the years the names have changed; Adele Stan and Kay Steiger and Matt Duss and Tom Schaller have come and have gone, often leaving for bigger platforms. Occasionally, less smart, less young writers like myself and Scott Lemieux have been added, but the overall quality has nevertheless remained high. Through it all, editors like Sam Rosenfeld and Ann Friedman and Sam Boyd and Phoebe Connelly have maintained that quality, and kept TAPPED moving forward. And the latest iteration of TAPPED includes smart young writers like Tim Fernholz and Adam Serwer, and we get to watch them grow and develop, too. It's the opportunity to grow that's the critical part; it's the most important contribution that the Prospect makes to journalism and to progressivism, and it's fun to watch. Most of this has been about the blog, but of course there's also a print magazine, and when it's not giving space to ridiculously absurd ideas like the case for abolishing the Air Force, it's pretty good, too. And so yes, you could do a lot worse with your money that giving some of it to The American Prospect, and ensuring that new waves of smart up-and-coming writers have the opportunities that so many have already enjoyed. --Robert Farley
