Crosscut is in the midst of its annual membership campaign, and we need your help. We are a nonprofit, so your membership donation is tax-exempt; and by practicing journalism in the public interest, we must have your help to steer free of commercial interests. Memberships start at only $35 a year, and joining (or renewing) is easy as clicking here.
Here are some extra reasons for joining today. Those who join, or renew, today (September 29) will be eligible for a drawing for two free tickets to a performance by the Kavafian-Schub-Shifrin trio on October 20 at Meany Hall. This excellent group is led by clarinetist David Shifrin, who also is artistic director of Portland's Chamber Music Northwest. It is part of Meany's acclaimed World Series of cultural programming on the University of Washington campus.
Those who join this week, or renew at current or higher levels, will be eligible for the weekly drawing of one free Kindle. And of course you'll be helping Crosscut as well as that little company called Amazon — a double stimulus for the local economy!
Congratulations, by the way, to recent winners in these drawings. The first two Kindles have gone to Stephen Ponder and John Reiher. Yesterday's winner of tickets to SAM's Picasso show was Beth Clark; Gordon Bowker won the Monday tickets to Book-It's "Cider House Rules." More complete list of prizes is on the Donor's Page.
A third reason (more to come later in the week) is that you will help Crosscut with its need to match a generous grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which spreads over these two years, so long as we do our part in the match of $200,000. We are well on the path to meeting this goal, but we count on the help of our hundreds of annual members to show the support of our readership and our brand of "journalism for the public good."
Reason number 4: We have one of our frequent members-free events coming up, a night with political pundits discussing the current election, on October 13 in our new home in Pioneer Square. As a member, you'll have numerous chances to meet other members, Crosscut writers, and newsmakers. It's a good way to become a full contributor, helping us with advice on how to make a better site, and to find stories we'd otherwise miss. See the Donor Page for more details on this event.
Thanks for listening. And thanks for helping the cause. We can't do it without you.
