An amazing thing happened last night.
With about five hours left in The Tyee's 3-week campaign to bring more independent reporting to national issues, we were about $25,000 short of the $100,000 goal.
Not too shabby, really. We had recruited more than 600 new Tyee Builders and made it to three-quarters of the goal. A great start to our plan to bring more outside-of-Ottawa perspectives to the national discussion.
But as the evening inched closer to the midnight deadline, the tweets started flying.
Some from Tyee contributors:
Others from folks who just signed up:
And the campaign tracker started ticking up and up and up. By midnight, Tyee readers and supporters had pledged more than $96,000. Almost $25,000 in five hours. And the number of supporters jumped to more than a thousand.
As you might imagine, all of us watching here at The Tyee were slack-jawed and astounded. Senior editor Robyn Smith summed up the feelings:
"AHHH, this is outrageous! Who are these beautiful, beautiful giving people? My heart may explode."
Since it seemed there was still a hunger to support credible, fact-driven national reporting, we left the form open over night.
It's now hovering around $100,000.
Wow.
Technically, the campaign is over. We've removed all of the campaign ads from the site. There's still some work to do to reconcile the final figures and include offline support (cheques and such). But we think we made it. Just in case anyone missed the campaign window, the registration form will remain open for the time being:
We'll report back in the coming weeks with final tallies and specific plans.
For now, from everyone here at The Tyee, thank you all so much. You beautiful, beautiful giving people.
Read more: Media
Tyee Commenting Guidelines
Comments that violate guidelines risk being deleted, and violations may result in a temporary or permanent user ban. Maintain the spirit of good conversation to stay in the discussion.
*Please note The Tyee is not a forum for spreading misinformation about COVID-19, denying its existence or minimizing its risk to public health.
Do:
Do not: