Editorial: Support local news and double your impact

This week we’re kicking off a new fundraising effort to raise $50,000 by Dec. 31. Thanks to The Recorder’s participation in the national NewsMatch campaign for nonprofit newsrooms like ours, every contribution is doubled.

We can’t stress enough how important donations are to us. 

In purely financial terms, donations fill the gap from our two other sources of revenue — advertising and paid subscriptions — which cover only about 60% of our operating expenses. But the community impact goes way beyond that. 

Additional financial support enables us to produce high-quality, independent local journalism, delivered to you both in print as a weekly newspaper and digitally on our website. 

It helps us continue to build a trusted source of local news and information that promotes civic dialogue and engagement, as evidenced by The Recorder’s public forums on school board races, town supervisor elections and affordable housing. It also helps us invest in our reporting and respond to the needs of our readers.

As a subscriber, you already know that we bring you original, fact-based stories that you can’t find anywhere else. Examples include coverage of this week’s down-ballot races for state, county and town offices; the formation of the water district in Scotts Corners; real estate development projects in Bedford Village and Katonah; and the impact of the ongoing closure of the Preston Way bridge in Mount Kisco. 

We also write about many other aspects of our communities that make them unique — what’s going on in our schools, churches and synagogues; the real estate market; the people and nonprofit organizations that are making a difference; police reports, high school sports, arts and culture offerings; and the latest in the local food and restaurant scene.

Who will tell these and other local stories if we don’t? 

The Recorder is pleased to have qualified once again to join the Institute for Nonprofit News’s match fundraising campaign. 

According to the Institute for Nonprofit News, this year, 437 newsrooms will leverage over $7 million in funding from a network of 19 local and national funders, such as the Knight Foundation, “to spark community giving, building a base of donors who sustain fact-based reporting.” NewsMatch also supplies fundraising training and resources that help participating newsrooms like ours attract donations while strengthening their long-term fundraising strategies to ensure sustainability.

Help us keep independent local news thriving by donating to our match campaign today.

If you’re already a donor, thank you. If you’re able to renew your support or give a little extra this year, we’d be grateful. And if you’ve never donated before, now is a great time to join the community that keeps local journalism strong. 

Visit therecorder.org/make-a-donation to make a tax-deductible contribution and double your impact.