Sustainability or Bust: We Have a Deadline

As of January 20, we have $1,553/month committed from 133 monthly supporters.

East Lansing Info (ELi) is a nonprofit public service organization dedicated to providing critically important news and information to the people of East Lansing. We recently explained why we need only about $48,000/year for ELi to function. We are now in a push to achieve economic sustainability by recruiting enough committed monthly sponsors to guarantee ELi a donation income of $3,000/month gross for 2017.

If we supplement that amount with bulk donations we receive online and by check, including from our corporate sponsors, we can achieve sustainability.

The Board of Directors of ELi has decided to take until January 31, 2017, to try to attain this level of monthly patronage. If we can achieve this by January 31, ELi will:

• continue operations;
• develop a Community Advisory Board to help guide, shape, advise, and sustain ELi;
• keep our free e-mailers going;
• partner with local educators at the high school and college levels to develop more opportunities for student reporters
• be able to obtain additional already-pledged corporate sponsorship.

If we do not attain that level by January 31, we will:

• acknowledge that this is not a service that obtains enough local support to continue;
• turn off the Patreon and PayPal pledge systems for ELi, so that donors are not further charged;
• cease operations.

On the fence about whether to be a patron of ELi? Consider that ELi is the only independent real news source dedicated specifically to the concerns of people who live and/or work in East Lansing. We are the only source that consistently covers our local government, including City Council and School Board, and the only source that works to provide consistently accurate, nonpartisan, time-sensitive news and big-picture information about this city.

There are two easy ways to help right now:

1. Send a check for the year total of the yearly pledge, payable to East Lansing Info, PO Box 115, East Lansing, MI 48823. If you’re going to do this, email Alice Dreger to let her know: publisher@eastlansinginfo.org. That way she can note it is coming in as ELi calculates whether we are reaching our January 31 sustainability goal.
2. Use a major credit card to make an automated monthly donation via PayPal: http://www.eastlansinginfo.org/content/become-monthly-financial-supporter-paypal

   
Donations to East Lansing Info are tax-deductible in the year in which they are made.

If you want to learn more about ELi's income and expenses, click here for our latest financial update.

Whant to know who supports us? Click here.