Sharing solutions and hope with Project Optimist

Hello! Thank you, thank you, thank you, dear friend, for taking the time to click to this page. It means a lot. 

Whew, lots going on these days. Many, many worthy organizations are getting creative finding ways to keep the lights on as well as continuing to deliver the services so many rely on and look toward for guidance. 

It is an honor to be serving on the Board of Project Optimist. But it's not just because I'm on the Board that I'm putting together fundraising pages and making my first posts on social media in months. For my generation, months between posts is practically off the grid. 

When I first learned of Project Optimist it felt like someone had started the organization that regional media was missing: Local stories that inspire hope, restore faith and bring peace. It's an organization that promotes honest conversation, isn't afraid of exploring the nuances that often seem to fall through the cracks of mass media, and is dedicated to celebrating the good that regular people, like me and like you, do in their Minnesota communities. 

Looking for an example? One of my favorite stories Project Optimist covered was about recycling. Yes, recycling has been around for a while, but the panel discussion and the following summary story was very demystifying for me. Check it out here: https://www.projectoptimist.us/3-takeaways-from-project-optimists-recycling-panel/

Being a virtual audience member for that recycling panel? Free. Getting the weekly email with fact-checked good news in your inbox? Free. The always adorable and brain-fog-clearing Source of Delight section? Free. Incredible work from experienced, passionate journalists at your fingertips for free. In order to keep up the good work, Nora, the team, the Board and I are asking for your support. It would mean the world. 

Oh, and in November, your donation will be quadrupled (seriously). Project Optimist is a member of INN, the Institute for Nonprofit News, which has raised matching funds for our end-of-year fundraiser. 

Your gifts will be matched three times thanks to support from the McKnight Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, and the NewsMatch national fund.  We also get a $1,000 bonus if we reach 50 new donors. Every size gift can help us reach this goal.

$30 trains a volunteer to moderate a community dialogue.

$50 pays for an original photograph to illuminate a story.

$200 covers fact-checking on an original story.

I'm grateful for Project Optimist, grateful for the opportunity to help them continue to do and share incredible work in our wonderful state of Minnesota. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for, well, first for reading this far, and second for your support. 

Have a safe, warm and happy Winter season! Love, 

Anna