Dear Rewire Readers and Supporters,

I am writing to share some exciting news and to ask for your help.

As of January 1, 2012, Rewire will be a fully independent 501 c3 organization.  We are deeply grateful to the United Nations Foundation (UNF), under the umbrella of which Rewire was founded in 2006 and has since thrived.  Since that time, UNF has funded and supported Rewire in ways too many to count. Without UNF, there would be no Rewire today.

As we are nearing our own independence, we need to raise funds independently.  We intend to cover our core salary costs in 2012 from generous foundation grants, both grants we have already secured and those we are pursuing.  But now, for the first time, we are asking for your support in raising funds to help us expand our coverage of reproductive and sexual health and justice issues at the federal and state level in 2012.  Your money will go directly to pay writers and investigative reporters working on critical issues, especially during the 2012 election campaign.

No donation is too small (and certainly none too large!).

Can you help? We are seeking to raise at least $25,000 before Thanksgiving.  And whether you can give $25.00 dollars or $250.00 dollars or more, your support will be used expeditiously to keep you informed.  You can make your secure donation HERE.  Please also ask your friends, neighbors and colleagues to join you in supporting independent news, analysis and commentary and to sign up to recieve our daily news.

Why support Rewire?  We believe we are an important resource for fact-based news, reporting and analysis in a world filled with misinformation and persistent attacks on women’s health and rights here and abroad.  A reality check.  A sanity check.

Our work has helped increase attention to a wide range of sexual and reproductive justice issues, from so-called Personhood campaigns to shackling of pregnant women to the real implications of right-wing legislation on the health and rights of women and girls.  We’ve covered clinic violence, the growth of Crisis Pregnancy Centers, the effects of budget cuts on low-income women and communities of color, and the effects of the Global Gag Rule on women abroad.   We’ve reported on the positions of candidates, efforts to defund Planned Parenthood, and the implications of the global AIDS crisis.  And much more.

Even with a small budget, we are reaching an increasing number of people with fact-based news, analysis, and commentary, from 5,000 per month just four years ago to more than 250,000 today and still growing.  The number of Rewire’s Twitter followers increased from roughly 3,000 in March of this year to well over 8,000 today.  Our work has been used or cited by countless media and radio programs, including the Rachel Maddow Show, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Nation and many others.  

We are a low-cost, high impact investment and an increasingly influential voice in the media.  We do not have ads; we do not charge subscriber fees.  We want to keep it that way. But we need your help to do that.

If you are able and willing to help us expand our coverage of critical issues in 2012, a year that will inarguably be one of the most important ever for reproductive and sexual justice, we would be most grateful.

Again, whether it is small or large, please make a donation to support Rewire here today to support expanded reporting in 2012 and help us raise at least $25,000 before Thanksgiving by making your secure donation here.

Sincerely,

Jodi Jacobson,

Editor in Chief, Rewire