Christmas is just around the corner, and for many people, the excitement is starting to set in! I know here at LifeSite, our staff is very much looking forward to celebrating the birth of Christ with their families and having a few days off!
But, we are all very concerned as we enter the last 3 days of our Christmas Campaign.
I know I speak for the entire staff when I say that one of the greatest Christmas gifts we could receive would be knowing that LifeSiteNews is in a financial position to continue to provide the same level of reporting about the life issues, marriage, faith, and freedom to tens of millions of people in 2016!
As it is right now, with $140,000 still to raise in our Christmas campaign, I am deeply concerned we will have to make substantial cutbacks if we don't reach this minimum amount.
At this late hour I must challenge EVERYONE who has not yet donated to give as generously as they can – even if it’s only $5 or $10!
Can you Donate just $5 or $10?
You can donate online by clicking here. You can also donate by phone or mail.
Whether you are able to donate or not, we also appeal to you to pray for the success of this campaign. I am convinced that the prayers of readers like you are a crucial factor in LifeSite's success. We have always relied heavily on prayer for the miracle of the continued existence of LifeSiteNews.
As the editor-in-chief of LifeSite, I feel an added responsibility to make this campaign a success, not just for our mission of reporting the truth, but also for the sake of our remarkable 25+ staff – many of whom have left higher paying jobs to devote themselves to the pro-life and pro-family movement.
I received an email from one of our readers a few days ago, asking why we could possibly need to reach a goal of $250,000.
I want to take this opportunity, in the final stretch of our campaign, to remind all of our readers of a few things that perhaps you have missed in our previous emails, or for all of you who are new to the mission of LifeSiteNews.
We are an international investigative news agency, not a blog. LifeSite employs 25+ journalists, editors, and staff in order to bring you investigative and researched news reports on issues pertaining to life and family. All of these are skilled staff, many with growing families to support, and so must be paid a reasonable living wage. And yet, even this number of staff is not sufficient to handle all of the news stories and tips that come across our desks each day. We wish we could hire more because our task is so enormous at this time.
We serve 30+ million people/year around the world. As you can imagine, there are significant costs associated with serving tens of millions of people around the world. We have had to upgrade the size of our servers multiple times in previous years to accommodate our growing audience of readers. And we have a team of professional 3rd party website developers, constantly updating our website for the same reason. These technological costs alone are upwards of $100,000 each year!
Social media is making it difficult to spread our reports. It used to be the case that we could simply post our news reports on social media, and our followers would see the information. To ensure our reports are read by as many people as possible throughout the world, we have had to significantly increase the amount of time and resources we spend on social media and e-mail marketing. Thanks to these efforts, LifeSite is the #1 most-read pro-life and pro-family website on the Internet!
But, our staff is what makes LifeSiteNews what it is: the only international news agency with a team of full-time reporters dedicated 100% to digging deep and uncovering and reporting the truth about the most important and often controversial issues of our time.
Most news services won’t even tackle the issues that we do, or they distort them or avoid truthful reporting about them. They are not money-attracting issues and do not endear those who accurately report on them to the establishments and most influential persons in the world.
Simply put: without the support of readers like you, building this news agency, and bringing this team together, would never have been possible!
I know there are many who are tempted to think that sending $5, $10, or even $20 will not make a difference.
Let me tell you – with millions reading us every month, that is truly all we need! Many hands make light work, as the saying goes. If everybody who read this donated just $5 or $10, we would blow our goal out of the water!
I just cannot overemphasize enough the fact that the very existence of LifeSite’s news reporting depends upon the success of these campaigns – especially this Christmas one!
And, of course, I would like to appeal to all those who are blessed to be able to give substantially more at this time to please consider sending LifeSite a gift. Perhaps you are one of the mere 40-50 people it would take to bring us to our goal with a donation of $1,000, $2,500, or even $5,000 or more?
This is a time of year we especially depend on such donations, to continue providing you this crucial news service.
(U.S. readers, please keep in mind we are a 501(c)(3) organization, which means your gift is tax deductible!)
As you are making your final decisions on which organizations to donate to at year-end, remember that LifeSite is the only professional, international news agency that employs a team of skilled journalists, editors, and technical staff in multiple countries dedicated solely to bringing about cultural change through journalism dedicated to life, family and related cultural issues!
We firmly believe these are the most important issues facing the world today, as we were so firmly encouraged to believe many times in the past by Pope John Paul II and other great leaders.
These leaders have warned us repeatedly about a very real, ominous and growing Culture of Death that could only be defeated by recognizing this danger and fighting it with a Culture Life. We see that as the overwhelming purpose of LifeSite.
Whatever your means, please donate today and support our Christmas fundraiser! And please pray for LifeSite and our staff that others will be generous in responding to this appeal.