NewsMatch: Your donation means more now than ever

It’s NewsMatch time again…and Delaware Currents exists because of it!

NewsMatch, which works to strengthen the fundraising capabilities of nonprofit newsrooms and promote giving to journalism, will match any donation to Delaware Currents dollar for dollar up to $1,000 during November and December. 

Your contributions are meaningful any time of year but they take on an added importance this time of year. If you donate $25, it is doubled to $50, and if you donate $250, it is doubled to $500. 

NewsMatch is why Delaware Currents is still up and running.

Many people retire when they get to be my age, and more power to them!

But, as a journalist, seeing how thin so much news coverage has become at a local level — especially on the environment — I felt I couldn’t just walk away.

Of course, no one was going to pay me for the environmental coverage that I felt was desperately needed in our watershed. So I launched Delaware Currents without pay and dipped into my retirement funds to keep this nonprofit afloat.

And just when that was getting hard to sustain, I discovered NewsMatch.

Thanks to generous donors and NewsMatch, I’ve been able to make this a viable engine for news about the river and its watershed for more than six years!

Most important, you have helped me live up to the mission statement of Delaware Currents: We are better custodians of the river when we understand the river. All voices are welcome to this conversation.

For example, your contributions help me defray expenses for important watchdog reporting about the plan to export liquified natural gas from a port in Gibbstown, N.J., on the Delaware (see all the coverage here) or about the effort, thanks to my repeated prodding, to organize a bipartisan Delaware River Watershed Congressional Caucus

Delaware Currents has covered stories too about the end of the PennEast Pipeline project and criminal charges being filed against the corporation owners of the Mariner 2 East Pipeline. And I’ve also been exploring the ways the river’s quality and quantity will be affected by, among other things, climate change. 

You may know that the old business model of news is dying: Advertisers fled and many readers aren’t interested in paying for their news. The important thing about all of that is that there is LESS news — of the reliable, credible sort — just when we need it the most, especially in the environmental sector.

In some ways, this is still a hanging-on-by-my fingernails operation The most important resource I have is my commitment to the project. For that, I was named PennFuture’s 2021 Woman of Environmental Media, Marketing and Communications. (Thanks, PennFuture!)

Real news is inspired by passion, but it isn’t free.

I feel strongly that in these days when we’re starting to feel the effects of a warming climate, we need to be informed about “our” river, what its problems are and what the possible solutions might be. 

Knowledge is power. 

If you can donate, that would be great. You can give via Paypal, through this link or by sending a check to:

Delaware Currents

P.O.Box 306,

Port Jervis, N.Y. 12771

Another way to give is through monthly donations — $5 a month is $60 a year, for example — and NewMatch will match that contribution making your $60, $120, etc.

I also know that this year is different from past years because of Covid and changes in our work and family lives. That might mean that no donation is possible and that’s perfectly understandable. If you’d like to show other ways to support me, please consider signing up for my newsletter, sending a newsletter on to other fans of the river, telling your friends about my site or following Delaware Currents on Twitter or Facebook.