Change is good. Inevitable, usually necessary, often messy, but good. Especially when you can be its master, and not its victim.
Crosscut is a catalyst for change – and we want your help.
Our members are our fuel. Right now, you contribute 20 percent of Crosscut's annual operating budget.
Our goal during this three-week-long spring campaign is to raise $35,000 and add 200 new members. We’d love to boost the membership share of our budget from 20 to 25 percent. So grab that Visa (or Master Card or Discover) and click here. You can also email us (membership@crosscut.com) or go all analog and call (206.382.6137).
Your dollars bring you in-depth coverage of Olympia and Seattle City Hall and Bertha, our dozing giant of a tunnel machine. They support Benjamin Anderstone’s original analysis of King County voting trends and campaign strategies; Knute Berger’s Mossback musings on Seattle’s past, present and future; Floyd McKay’s coal ports epic; and Drew Atkins’ dispatches from the tech world. There’s just no two ways about it: Change can’t happen without you.
You don’t have to look very far to see that a lot of things need changing around here. Our public school system, for one. Our crumbling roads and bridges. The persistent standoff in Olympia. The Seattle Police Department. Our state’s tax system. (Most regressive ever. Just saying.)
Crosscut is committed to spotlighting the people, policies, initiatives and ideas that, in tackling these and other issues, are moving us towards a more sane and sustainable Northwest. That would be a region where affluent kids attend public schools because they’re so darn good. (The schools, that is.) Where political leaders actually collaborate for the common good. Where the technical marvels that are being developed all around Puget Sound actually enrich and enliven our civic life.
We know about change here at Crosscut. We just hired a new Development Director (our first ever) and a new Contributing Arts editor; we’re redesigning our web site; expanding our at-risk youth series; launching The Civic Artist, where we invite local artists to imagine creative solutions to vexing civic problems; and diving headlong into Geeklandia with a new emphasis on technology coverage.
Most important of all, we are practicing a new brand of journalism that moves beyond information and conversation to action.
We hereby declare war on civic apathy.
We’ll fire our first salvo this spring with the Community Idea Lab, a trailblazing approach to news that dissects an issue (like, say, how King County can encourage tech companies and their employees to engage more deeply with the community so we don't become San Francisco), crowd sources potential solutions and shares the very best of them with the region’s leaders.
We aren’t partisan or patient in our quest for change. We don’t care where the transformative ideas come from; we just want to put the very best ones in play.
And to do that we really need your help. Please click or call (206.382.6137) or email (membership@crosscut.com). Swag and swell prizes await.
Thank you all in advance for your loyalty, your feedback — and for all your generous and essential support. Keep on giving.
Happy Saint Patrick's Day!
