Our wonderful and growing community of BenitoLink supporters brought in $29,100 in our second annual Pledge of Champions! It was great to see more individuals and a growing number of local businesses make it all happen.
The $29,100 is just slightly below our ambitious goal of $30,000. In the end, we received 97 percent of what we aimed for. That’s an A+ to us. The $29,100 brought in will be matched by a Community Foundation for San Benito County grant of $15,000 and a generous $15,000 donation from the Randy and Rebecca Wolf Family Fund.
Here’s the math: $29,100 in reader donations + $30,000 in grants and matching donation = $59,100.
We thank those you who stepped up in support of BenitoLink during the drive. Your donation has made a MAJOR impact on the coming year for BenitoLink and definitely put a little skip in our stride.
The 2016 Pledge of Champions showed a 65 percent increase over our first effort at holding a community-based fundraiser.
We know and accept that it will take some time for citizens to really absorb the fact that BenitoLink is truly their own local, online news website.
We have also just successfully completed our first year as a nonprofit. As a brand new 501(c)(3), we co-hosted three, successful “Use Your Voice” election forums with the San Benito County Farm Bureau and CMAP-TV. Many thanks to both of them for their professional approach and true interest in serving San Benito County voters.
In 2016, BenitoLink gave three young reporters a place to hone their skills under the supervision of Adam Breen, the website’s content director.
From our Pledge of Champions in 2015 to Pledge 2016, our donor base climbed from around 45 donors up to 60, and many of them increased the amount of their gifts substantially, showing added commitment. Thank you! We will be proudly posting all donors right away and posting our newly designed permanent donor page on BenitoLink very soon.
BenitoLink is San Benito County’s homegrown website. You won’t get fake news and as a nonprofit, BenitoLink won’t be sold or move away.
It is a nonprofit that was created for the public good. It is yours, but it will need your continued support to thrive. This spring we will be developing our first campaign strategy for a different kind of support, a broad-based group of smaller donors — for the younger dancing set, or those who appreciate us, but just don’t have a lot to spare.
The $59,100 from the 2016 Pledge will be applied directly to BenitoLink’s 2017 operating budget. In the next few months, we will be creating graphics and writing a story explaining how and where the money will be put to use.
A sincere thank you to BenitoLink’s growing community of supporters!