Help Us Fund More Tyee Fellowships

Dear Tyee reader,

Please consider giving to The Tyee's Fellowship Funds for Investigative and Solutions Reporting.

You will help fund independent journalists who want to tackle big, important stories the rest of the media is ignoring.

You will receive a tax deduction for your charitable online donation.

And, if you are among the early contributors, your dollars will double thanks to generous donors committed to matching your amount. This year, our goal is to raise $10,000 from readers like you: $20,000 once matched.

Plus, you'll be eligible win a cool Jorg & Olif bicycle or other great prizes.

Contribute to make a difference

What are the Tyee fellowships? Independent journalists propose projects to an independent, blue-ribbon panel who select the best for $5000 fellowship grants. The projects must shed light on critical issues for British Columbians, with the aim of educating the citizenry

The reporting must be investigative or focused on solutions.

The Tyee publishes the resulting work, and shares it for free with other publications, with approval of the author.

Result: You the reader are able to directly fund the kind of journalism you crave: hard hitting, independent, educational.

And you can be confident the work you support will have an impact. Our first round of Fellowship series broke major news of dangerously low dikes along the Fraser River, and threats to B.C. groundwater levels. They've mapped fresh solutions to shared challenges: free public transit, First Nations reconciliation, and dealing with global warming in B.C.

A hopeful model

By making a secure online donation to this year's drive, you can provide the support independent journalists need to conduct in-depth research, file freedom of information requests, run up phone bills, and travel to the far-flung corners of the province where these stories are unfolding.

Media watchers in and beyond Canada have cited The Tyee Fellowships as an effective experiment in reader-funded journalism, a hopeful alternative to Big Media.

Now it's time to replenish our Fellowship Funds to support a new round of great reporting.

Tell us what matters to you

We are interested in what you think deserves more coverage, deeper investigation, more thoughtful problem solving. Please tell us, as you give us the resources to make it happen. We at The Tyee are fortunate to have such an engaged, supportive community of readers and contributors. We thank you for your involvement as we strive to build a lasting, independent source of news and views here in British Columbia.

Just to remind: Matching donors are prepared to turn the first $10,000 from our readers into $20,000 -- enough to fund four major new fellowship series. So every little bit does help!

Click here to easily donate online. (All your info is, of course, kept confidential.)

Thanks very much for your support. A very peaceful holiday season to all.

David Beers Founding Editor

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HOW IT WORKS

All online donations of $10 or more will receive an automatic charitable tax receipt by e-mail. If you would like to learn about other ways to donate, please visit our site: http://thetyee.ca/About/Donate/.

A blue ribbon, independent advisory board will select winning applicants. The resulting series will be published first on The Tyee, but will be available for publication elsewhere to ensure the widest possible readership.

The two funds are held at and managed by Tides Canada Foundation, a national public foundation that guarantees your tax deductible, charitable donation goes directly to supporting individual journalists.

Donate $50 or more by Dec. 19 and you'll be entered into a draw for one of 10 Tyee tote bags filled with Harper Collins Canada, New Society Publishers and coffee and tea from Ethical Bean.

Donate $100 or more by Dec. 19 and you'll also be entered into a draw to win an "affordably cool" Jorg&Olif Scout city bike.

Is $50 or $100 more than you can do today? We'd greatly appreciate any amount you can give -- every bit helps!

Those interesting in applying for a Tyee Fellowship can find out more here. The deadline for applying is Dec.15, 2007.