Join the ELi Bucket Brigade!

East Lansing Info – East Lansing’s only dedicated nonprofit news service – is in the midst of our Sustainability Campaign for 2021! We have until midnight on Dec. 31, 2020, to raise $200,000 to ensure that ELi can be here reporting steadily for our community throughout next year, and thanks to NewsMatch and local core donors, we have matching funds if you donate now!

Why are we using buckets and a water tower to raise money?

ELi functions as a 501(c)3 nonprofit news brigade, like an old-fashioned bucket brigade of the kind communities used to deploy to suppress fires. Local people here go out, watch for “fires,” alert the community, and bring people together to try to solve problems.

Currently about 90% of dollars donated to ELi goes to pay local people to work consistently as your news brigade. The rest goes to things like postage, accounting services, and server space.

So now we’re handing virtual buckets around our community asking folks to pitch in to the buckets so we can fill up ELi’s virtual water tower for 2021! We’re doing this to make this community news crowdsourcing fun!

Here’s how you can help:

  • Pitch in a tax-deductible donation to a bucket! Just click here, and tell us which bucket(s) you want your money to go into! If you give $150, say, and want it to go to 3 different buckets, just tell us how to divide your donations in the box that pops up when you make your donation.
  • Have you already given to our Sustainability Campaign and want to designate your prior donation for one or more buckets? Fun! Email us and tell us which!
  • If you give or have given $150 or more, you can start a bucket! Write to us, and tell us what you’d like us to create bucket-wise!
  • Would you like to be a “bucket captain” – someone who “carries” around a virtual bucket and fundraises? Maybe you’d like to offer a match for anyone who gives to your bucket? Again, just be in touch and we’ll help make it happen!

Check out the buckets we have set up as our starter set. We have buckets to support reporting on the East Lansing Public Library, Parks & Rec, Arts & Cultures, and (by request of our Board Treasurer Ray Valsin) “Up With Neighborhoods!”

Some of the buckets we have created are bigger than others because we think they will draw relatively more, including Trojan Pride (reporting on East Lansing Public Schools) and investigative news for East Lansing:

One set represents a competition among our Publisher, Managing Editor, and City Desk Editor, as mentioned on Episode 6 of our East Lansing Insider podcast! We’ll see who raises the most as a friendly game.

Our General Manager Jodi Spicer has captained a bucket and offered to match donations to her bucket!

You can do the same – captain a bucket and/or offer a bucket match. A bucket can be created with your name, your neighborhood name, your favorite ELi reporter or reporting series, whatever you like! Just let us know!

In fact, we’ve already created buckets that donors have told us they’d love to see created:

Help us fill the ELi water tower today! Again, here’s how you can help!

Thank you for helping us ensure we can continue to bring meaningful, factual news to our community in 2021! Donate now to one or more buckets!