Alley Ally

January 2012

Dear Friend of the Alley:

The Alley Newspaper is the free community newspaper of the Phillips neighborhood in Minneapolis, serving over 20,000 residents, businesses, and visitors. Published on a shoe string budget and largely volunteer run, the Alley informs, engages, facilitates communication, and promotes the exchange of information, opinion, culture and creativity among Phillips residents.

We are writing today to launch a new initiative – an Alley Ally campaign. We ask you to consider becoming an Alley Ally to sustain our ability to continue to publish our monthly print newspaper. Your tax deductible donation of $100 or whatever you can give will keep our print edition alive.

The Alley is the only paper to concentrate exclusively on the Phillips Community. This allows us to cover in-depth the issues and stories that matter to the people who live here as written by people who live, work, or attend school  here. It ensures that our stories are told from our perspective as we experience them and provides a historical documentation of our neighborhood history. We encourage community involvement in all aspects of creating the paper because we want the voices of Phillips to be heard.

As many newspapers have moved to online publishing to reduce printing and distribution costs, the Alley remains committed to maintaining our original free print format because we know many of our readers do not have the same level of access to computers or the Internet as readers in other communities. We have The Alley available online now, too, which costs us money.  However, it is more expensive to print and distribute than it is to only publish an online paper.  Nearly all of our monthly expenses are for layout, printing, and delivering the print edition.

Besides our advertising revenue and our membership with Community Shares Minnesota, a workplace charitable giving organization, the Alley needs the financial support of our readers and everyone who values a vibrant, accountable, representative community media source. Beginning our 37th year of publication, we are still a forum for ideas, information, and announcements that are important to the rich diversity of individuals and groups who make up our neighborhood.

Please consider becoming an Alley Ally and making a tax deductible donation to the Alley. Become an “Alley Cat” with a donation of $100, a “Calico Cat” with a $50 donation, or a “Tabby” with a $25 donation! Give what you can; we appreciate your gift and support at any level.

Please fill it out the adjacent form and return it with your tax-deductible contribution.  If you wish, we will add you to our list of published allies each month for the next year. Simply check the box on the form giving us your permission.

We hope you will become an Alley Ally today!  We look forward to hearing from you.  If you have any questions about this exciting new initiative or if you would like to become an Alley Ally but need a different payment plan, please call 612-990-4022 or email editor@alleynews.org, or write Alley Communications P.O. Box 7006, Mpls., MN 55407

Cathy Strobel, President
Board of Directors
Alley Communications