Where Does ELi Stand in Its 2022 Sustainability Campaign?

East Lansing Info is having its most successful fundraising campaign to date! But we still have plenty of funds to raise to be fully sustainable in 2022.

Here is some great news: We met our mini-goal of raising $10,000 as part of our Giving Tuesday push!

We announced our Giving Tuesday campaign on Tuesday, Nov. 23, and by the end of Giving Tuesday, Nov. 30, we had raised just about $11,000 in the mini-campaign. We then matched those funds, bringing our total for Giving Tuesday to about $22,000!

It was a moving experience to oversee this fundraising effort. With each update about how close we were getting to reaching our goal, a new batch of donors answered the call to help us meet our goal, with ELi now having 72 new donors since Nov. 1.

I also appreciated the notes that some donors sent along with their donations.

“You set a great example for what hyper local news can be,” wrote one donor.      

“I appreciate what you do – no one else is doing this locally. You do a great job,” said another.

We have a real shot at hitting our $200,000 campaign goal by Dec. 31 thanks to having $31,000 remaining in local match funds plus another $3,000 in matching funds just made available to ELi through NewsMatch!

Whatever you give right now will be DOUBLED thanks to these matching funds. Make a lump sum contribution right now, and we can DOUBLE every dollar of that.

If you can commit to a monthly automatic donation by credit card, we can multiply that by 24 times to count it towards our goal! So, $5/month from you becomes a $60/year commitment for you, and we can match that $60 with matching funds!

ELi has now raised almost $106,700 in donations and annual commitments since we kicked off our Sustainability Campaign, and we’ve got that $11,000 in match funds remaining to magnify every donation and commitment you make!

To help us reach our goal of $200,000, we are holding a spelling bee and auction on Dec. 9!  

Join us on the second floor of the FieldHouse, located at 213 Ann St., starting at 7 p.m. Tickets are available now. We recommend a donation of $15 per person for a ticket, but will accept any donation.

You can pay here by filling out the form and specifying how many tickets you would like. A member of the ELi team will be in touch after that. Tickets will also be available at the door via donation.

The event will kick off with a silent auction of items donated by businesses in our area. The list of what we know will be available is included below. A few items may be sold as part of a live auction.

After the silent auction comes to a close, we will move on to the spelling bee, where members of the ELi team will compete. Do you have a word or three that you think will stump our contestants? You can sponsor a word by submitting it here – one word for $10 or three words for $25.

Please contact us if you have any questions about the event and how it will function.

We know that some members of the community may be hesitant to attend due to Covid-19, and we understand that. We also ask that you please do not come if you are unwell, if you feel uncomfortable around people who may be drinking and eating unmasked, and/or if you are exhibiting symptoms of Covid-19.

List of items for auction

  • Panera gift card
  • Graduate Hotel gift card
  • The People’s Kitchen gift card
  • Jolly Pumpkin gift card
  • Handmade porcelain snowflake ornament from Sunset Clay Studios
  • Peanut Barrel gift card
  • Poke Fresh gift card
  • Solar lantern from Quark!
  • Foods for Living gift card
  • Saper Galleries gift card
  • Massage Wellness gift card
  • Basket of goodies from Crunchy’s
  • Class pass for five classes at Yoga State
  • Book and art supply grab bag from the Michigan State University Broad Art Museum
  • Two limited edition sweatshirts from Pinball Pete’s
  • Several autographed books, including from NPR’s Peter Sagal, the Washington Post’s Margaret Sullivan, and our own Publisher Alice Dreger

Support ELi today!