It’s hard to ask for money at the holidays. There are so many worthwhile organizations working to meet the needs of those struggling in our community — children, the elderly, animals. Agencies involved in these heart-wrenching efforts need your financial support. Please consider these groups as you plan your year-end giving.
Please also consider financially supporting your free, local newspaper. We realize a newspaper may not appear at first blush to be a critical need. We understand. We are, after all, a for-profit business with support of local, sustaining business partners.
These advertisers are the backbone supporting our ability to enlighten, educate and entertain our unique community — and have been for more than 14 years. We have no plans to change this business model; but with your (tax-deductible) donation, there’s a whole lot more we could provide.
Investigative reporting: Filing public record requests, compiling and analyzing data, tracking government spending, mapping cross-jurisdictional areas of concern. These efforts all take time and resources beyond the limited number of stories we can currently provide each year.
Legal fees: Investigative reporting requires paying legal fees — both for pre-publication review and for the inevitable lawsuits that ensue (often frivolous) in hopes of making the newspaper back down on our reporting. Without a cushion for legal fees, simple intimidation on the part of deep-pocketed individuals and organizations can force us to back away from reporting on topics that might prove crushingly expensive.
Community forums: We’ve often felt the need to pull our coastal communities together (government, business and individuals) to host a broad range of discussions on topics of concern to our readers. It’s a role the newspaper is well-positioned to serve — when the resources are available.
Advanced digital delivery: Since our conception, we’ve been a “print first” publication. More and more our readers are seeking out our digital delivery. We’d love to ramp up these efforts for both residents and advertisers. It’s critical we move forward on this front; but again, our resources are limited.
Improved/targeted delivery: We do a good job delivering news, information and advertising to homes, businesses and condos in our market. With more resources, we could do this better.
We promise not to solicit your contribution via email or social media on Small Business Saturday or Giving Tuesday. Instead, we’re making this plea on Page 2 of our print publication in the hope you’ll help us shine a brighter light on our community with your year-end contribution.
• Donate at https://fpf.column.us/the-coastal-star. Online donations made to the Florida Press Foundation benefit The Coastal Star Community News Fund, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit fund. These donations are tax-deductible to the full extent allowed by law and are subject to a 5.5% administration and processing fee.
• Mail your contribution directly to: The Coastal Star, 5114 N. Ocean Blvd., Ocean Ridge, FL 33435.
Contributions made directly to The Coastal Star are not tax-deductible, but have no processing fee.
Thank you.
Happy holidays!
— Mary Kate Leming, Editor
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