Can You Fill These Buckets for ELi?
ELi is your local 501(c)3 nonprofit “news brigade,” like an old-fashioned bucket brigade of the type American villages had before they had modern fire departments. People used to come together to protect themselves and their towns from fire, and now we come together through ELi to make sure our town remains informed and connected, despite the national crisis in local news.
At ELi, local people here stay on guard, watch for informational “fires,” alert the community, and bring people together to try to keep everyone informed. That’s why we use a water tower to represent our progress in fundraising.
We started our 2022 Sustainability Campaign on Nov. 1, and are making good progress filling our water tower! We have just about $23,300 in the water tower, and we still have about $44,000 available in our matching funds “tanker truck” to double every new gift as it goes into the water tower!
But we need your help TODAY!
Currently, members of the ELi staff are sponsoring buckets for causes near and dear to their hearts.
Right now, Publisher Alice Dreger is captaining “Alice’s Oakwood Bucket,” and our newest reporter, Al Hargrave, is sponsoring “Al’s Chesterfield Hills Bucket.” Both would like to gather $1,000 in community support from those neighborhoods, turning that into $2,000 with our matching funds.
If you live in or love Oakwood or Chesterfield Hills, you can donate today to these buckets by clicking this link and noting the bucket of your choice!
We also have a reporting bucket that we are already 60% of the way toward filling: Ask ELi to Investigate. As Managing Editor, I oversee our Ask ELi to Investigate column, and now I am sponsoring this bucket because Ask ELi has become a reporting beat near and dear to my heart. We’ve addressed nearly 200 reader questions just in 2021.
If you love Ask ELi as much as I do, you can donate today to this bucket by clicking this link and noting that we should put your donation in this bucket!
What does Ask ELi cover? In the last month alone, Andrew Graham has produced two important stories thanks to reader submissions – a look at the abusive language and punches thrown at East Lansing High School players while playing in South Lyon and an overview of the Montgomery Drain Project.
Sometimes I get to seek answers to our readers’ questions, and so I’ve gotten to report on everything from dog attacks to F-18 fighter jets to cell phone towers to Mickey Mouse Hill. Also, who can forget that in-depth look at the Quality Dairy French Onion Dip after a reader asked us to solve a mystery plaguing foodies in our area?
Keep this valuable community service running in 2022!
Last but not least, we have a series of buckets to stroke egos and support burgeoning cults of personalities. Just kidding on the cult of personality part — in reality, these members of the ELi team believe passionately in ELi’s mission and hope their family, friends, and fans will support ELi, too.
Our General Manager Jodi Spicer, Reporter Chris Wardell, Alice, and myself are all personally sponsoring buckets. Can you help fill one or more of us fill to the top?
We would love to see all the fan club buckets filled to show the ELi team some love and appreciation!
How can you help us right now?
- Pitch in a tax-deductible donation to any bucket! Just click here, and tell us which bucket(s) you want your money to go into!
- Write to us here if you would like to sponsor a bucket. We can get you set up with a bucket and helpful information about ELi. You can check out ideas from last year’s bucket brigade for inspiration!