Local Nonprofit News Platform Moves Forward with Two-Month Fundraising Challenge
Posted November 9, 2020 at 5:41 am by Tim Dustrude
Mike Sato and Amy Nelson of Salish Current – Contributed photo
(Bellingham WA) Salish Current (salish-current.org), a local nonprofit, independent news platform dedicated to reporting news for the civic good in Whatcom, San Juan and Skagit counties, today announced its participation in the national NewsMatch giving campaign.
“Donations made to Salish Current in November and December will be doubled by NewsMatch and applied directly to paying freelancers writing news,” said volunteer publisher Amy Nelson. “We’ve received wonderful support since our launch from the Whatcom Community Foundation and generous local donors, and this is an excellent opportunity to widen community support for journalism in our region.”
The young startup publication which launched in February 2020 has published over three dozen original news stories reported by professional news freelancers, emailed weekly newsletters (https://salish-current.org/newsletters/) of curated local news items to subscribers, and hosted community members to share their thoughts in essays, opinion pieces and analyses.
“Our goal is to report local news in a way that provides nonpartisan, factual information our communities can use to discuss issues,” Nelson said. “Controversies abound, but Salish Current hopes to add to the light, not the heat, of discussion and decisions.”
Salish Current is a member of the Institute for Nonprofit News (https://inn.org/) and is among hundreds of local nonprofit news services that have risen up nationally after many legacy newspapers shrank or disappeared from local communities.
“We’re not here to compete with but to complement existing news, event and entertainment publications in the region,” Nelson said. “Our focus is news – government, health, education, business, environment—the kind of news that is vital to the well-being of a healthy community.”
Donations to Salish Current via the NewsMatch campaign can be made online here. (https://salish-current.org/donate/) Donations are eligible for tax deduction.
For more information about Salish Current’s goals, principles, board of directors, advisors, donors and freelancers, go to About Salish Current. (https://salish-current.org/about/)
Salish Current: Independent, fact-based news for Whatcom, San Juan and Skagit counties
Editor’s note: Mike Sato, a part-time resident of Lopez Island, was the editor of the Island Record, published in the San Juan Islands in the 1970s and ‘80s. Journalist Amy Nelson is his wife and publisher of the Salish Current. They live in Bellingham.
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