Thank you to all the amazing supporters who generously contributed to the 2015 Real Change Holiday Fund Drive. With all the year-end gifts in and counted, 774 of you supported our work with a total of $203,062 donated in the last seven weeks of 2015.
While we fell about $29,000 short of our $232,000 goal, successes with GiveBig, the Spring Fund Drive and our annual breakfast brought our donor support for the year to almost $660,000!
That is, in a word, fantastic. Nearly 1,800 people stepped up this year to increase our grassroots support by more than 10 percent.
Engaged Real Change readers and donors are the backbone of our success.
Over and over again, you affirm our vendors with your words of encouragement and purchases of the paper. Every year, our readers put more than a million dollars directly into the pockets of our hard-working vendors
Those of you who take that extra step of financially supporting the organization provided more than 60 percent of our 2015 budget. You make Real Change possible.
With your support, our newspaper won 16 first place awards in 2015 for quality community journalism on the issues you care about.
We added a Multimedia Reporter to the news team and upgraded our website and our social media presence.
Our vendors have made Seattle a more compassionate city. Many have grown as leaders and activists and have made their voices heard in the halls of power. That, too, could not have happened without your support.
You helped us move unsheltered homelessness to the top of the city of Seattle’s agenda and to keep the pressure on as we work with our allies to hold lawmakers accountable.
Your support moves us toward our vision of “a just, caring and inclusive community, where people are no longer marginalized by racism and classism and have the means to live with dignity.”
With your help, Real Change will continue to grow our work in 2016.
We’ll sign up at least 1,000 new activists to take action on issues of economic, social and racial justice.
We’ll help vendors succeed with new strategies to increase paper sales and community support.
We’ll build a stronger voice for homeless and low-income people by helping vendors get more involved as leaders, entrepreneurs and activists.
And we’ll reach across boundaries of race and class to build a more powerful and informed movement for change.
Real Change works because every week, thousands of readers stop what they’re doing to help someone who needs a friend.
It’s a small thing, but when it happens week after week, a few dollars and a few moments at a time, that support has a powerful impact.
We tell our vendors that consistency matters. When they put in regular hours at the same spot, their success grows. They start seeing the same people every week, and that regular support creates consistency and stability.
We’d like to see that same buy-in and consistency in our grassroots support. Your generous donations are the foundation of Real Change’s long-term success.
Just as you make the Real Change community possible with your regular support of our vendors, we’d like you to consider a small monthly gift to support our mission: providing opportunity and a voice for homeless and low-income people while taking action for economic, social and racial justice.
Our website makes it easy to pledge your monthly support at whatever amount works for you. Whether that’s $5, $10, $20 a month or more, your regular support of our work is the solid foundation that means more vendor success, bottom-up activism and journalism that matters.
Please visit bit.ly/rcdonatenow today to become a monthly supporter at whatever level makes sense for you. And thank you again, for making the amazing community that is Real Change possible.