For nonprofits, this time of year is focused on hitting big fundraising goals. But this year, we’ve decided to get creative. The political turmoil of 2025 has put financial strain on so many members of our community. We wanted to focus on a goal that anyone reading this can help us work towards.
To be clear, we do still need to be raising money to ensure we can keep bringing you quality reporting. There’s exciting news on that front: Through December 31, we’re participating for the first time in a program called Newsmatch, which doubles donations to small nonprofit newsrooms like ours. That means if you’re able to support us, your membership or one-time donation will go twice as far. Your $51 becomes $102, or $500 becomes $1,000… etc.
But, we’re setting a goal at the center of our end-of-2025 campaign that doesn’t cost a thing to achieve.
We need your help finding 3,000 new newsletter subscribers by the end of the year. Whether they’re paid or free, any new subscriber via 51st.news/signup will count towards this goal!
Why is growing subscribers important? There are so many reasons — but I’ll give you my top two:
Everyone in D.C. is better off when more of us have access to reliable, independent information. In a time of so much division and misinformation on the national level, particularly focused on our community, local news like The 51st is a critical tool for us to fight back.
To grow into the newsroom that D.C. deserves, with enough reporters and editors to take on all the stories currently going untold, takes funding we don’t yet have! In growing our readership, we’re building for the long-term: More people learning we exist, and coming to value our work like you do, means more potential paid members supporting our newsroom in the months and years to come.
We don’t have a paywall for a reason: Everyone in D.C. deserves access to independent local news. But to stay reader-supported, we need our community to pitch in. So … how can you help? We want you to run your mouth about us, pretty please.
Text your friends about subscribing with a link to a story you’ve loved. They can get on the list at 51st.news/signup!
Share this campaign in your work Slack or neighborhood WhatsApp chat. Your colleagues and neighbors can subscribe at ... 51st.news/signup!
Yap about us at the dog park, write about us to your pen pal, or even make your next craft project a call to action to subscribe to The 51st. Can you embroider 51st.news/signup??
No idea’s a bad idea — we’re deeply inspired by how far we’ve come thanks to the power of community. It’s also what is going to take us to the next level. We’ll be sending you updates on our progress together through Dec. 31.
Have other ideas for how you might help us reach more people in D.C. looking for reliable local news? Reach out, I’d love to scheme!
With your help, we pursue stories that hold leaders to account, demystify opaque city and civic processes, and celebrate the idiosyncrasies that make us proud to call D.C. home. Put simply, our mission is to make it easier — and more fun — to live in the District. Our members help keep local news free and independent for all:
