Publisher’s Update on ELi’s Fundraising Campaign for 2020

However much you and your loved ones can give to ELi, we so greatly appreciate your generosity in providing for ELi’s work for another year!

ELi needs to raise $125,000 in donations and monthly commitments before the clock strikes midnight on December 31, 2019, to be sure we will have funds available to keep reporting through 2020.

Jodi Spicer, ELi’s fundraising maestro extraordinaire, has given me the most up to date numbers to share with you. I’m excited to bring this, because

As of today, we have exceeded the half-way mark!

Donations and monthly commitments to ELi (including matching funds for those donations and commitments) have now reached a total of just short of $64,000. That’s wonderful!

Is this figure good for fifteen days left in the fundraising cycle?

Yes! According to figures from previous years, we know we can reach our 2020 sustainability campaign goal of $125,000 – if folks continue to give. Keep reading to see how you can help, even if you’ve given all you can financially at this point.

Thanks to our fabulous core local supporters, we still have an additional $23,000 committed in matching funds!

That means we can still double every new donation that comes in!

Remember: new monthly commitments are matched at the annual rate, so a new commitment of $20 per month gets us $480! (That’s $240 from you through 2020, and $240 in matching funds.) To set up a monthly donation, go to our NewsMatch page, choose an amount to give monthly, and check the box for “make this a recurring gift.”

Also remember, if we obtain a “bundled” donation of $500 or more from 3 or more donors, that gets triple-matched, supercharging us towards the goal!

The bundled-donation triple-match thing – what’s with that? Why not triple-match everything?

We know from experience that when our donor base is narrow, we just can’t reach our goal. The triple-match bundle option (described here) is being used to motivate our wonderful supporters to help us pull in more donors.

Also: We have only $10,000 as a triple-match offer from a local anonymous donor. So we want to maximize the good that money does. The bundle option works for that!

We find that our supporters enjoy pulling together a bundle!

They LOVE having an individualized ELi support goal of “$500 from 3 or more people” to work towards. And we LOVE when we hear from them that they hit the bundle-bell of $500, taking us $1,500 higher in support!

By the way, YES, you can count your spouse as a second person in a bundle! Any adult human counts!

Are lump-sum donations or monthly commitments better?

Lump-sum puts money right into the bank, but if you can give ELi more for our work in 2020 through a monthly commitment, then please do that! Click here to see your donation options.

What’s the best method for giving?

Checks cost us nothing in overhead, so those are our most preferred method of receiving donations. You can make a check payable to “ELi” and mail it to PO Box 115, East Lansing, MI 48826.

But credit card donations come to us fast, so we appreciate those, too! To donate by credit card, go here to see your options.

What can you do if you’ve already given all you can?

First, you can tell us why YOU donate to ELi, so we can add your reason to the list we’re making up for our final fundraising push. Send your reason to fundraise@eastlansinginfo.org.

Second, you can tell your friends and neighbors why you’ve given to ELi and encourage them to do the same!

Third, if you’re up for it, you can work on a triple-match bundle!

How close are we to obtaining the NewsMatch bonus that we will get if we bring in 100 new donors from November 1 through December 31?

We are at 58 new donors! So we need just 42 more!

How close are we to obtaining the NewsMatch bonus that we will get if we bring more individual donors in 2019 than in 2018?

We are at 335 and we need 471 or more. Remember, this includes new AND prior donors! This gives us, again, a reason to ask ALL our supporters to help us find more people to donate to ELi right now!

Thank you for your support!