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1P5: We Don’t Exist without You

Well, time sure is flying. It’s already the 24th of April, Lent is in the books, and Easter Sunday has come and gone. It’ll be Pentecost before we know it.

And the warm-up to the pan-Amazonian synod — the one expected to take clerical celibacy out at the knees — is starting in just over a month. The Vatican is already pushing messaging about that synod’s Instrumentum Laboris coming in June. It’s time to get ready for a whole new round of battle.

With just seven days left in April, counting today, it’s my duty to be a pest and reach out to our audience to ask for help with our monthly fundraiser. Like most folks, we operate on a month-to-month basis, and as the clock ticks down toward April 30th, we’re still $8,000 short. Unlike most folks, we can’t count on being paid for our work, because we give it away for free.

That’s why we need you. Without your help, we’re always just one bad month away from the big 404 page in the sky.

Interestingly, I just did an email interview for potential publication in some international Catholic media outlets. One of the questions I was asked was:

What is your business model? How you can support the website and those working in it on a daily basis?

It reminded me of how some people who don’t like us have been spreading rumors that we’re funded by a secret cabal or political PAC that wants us to soft-pedal our criticism of Pope Francis. (I’m laughing out loud just typing this.) My answer to the question was the truth:

Right now, we’re supported entirely by donations from our readers. We are a non-profit, so donations in support of our work, at least for our American readers, are tax-deductible. We don’t have any major organizations supporting us, no ongoing relationships with large-scale benefactors, and though that can make fundraising a challenge, it’s also good, in a way, because it keeps us accountable to the people who are reading us and expect us to focus on going after the truth instead of promoting some person or organization’s pet interests.

1P5 is very much a crowdsourced organization. We provide the content; you keep us funded so we can keep providing it.

It’s fascinating to see how far we’ve come. This year, we’ll celebrate five years online. It’s hard to believe that’s all it’s been. It feels like a million. We’ve covered a lot of ground since then, and whether folks love us or hate us, 1P5 has become a household name among anyone reading Catholic content online. Together, we’ve become a force to be reckoned with, and by God’s grace, we’ll keep using our superpowers for good.

Without you, there’s very little we can do.

Since I am not now, nor have I ever wanted to be, a fundraiser, I have a great little book about fundraising that I refer to sometimes when I’m trying to figure out what to say. According to that book, people respond better, psychologically, to long fundraising appeals.

Maybe the stats show that, but I have a hard time believing it.

So as I watch my word count creep towards a meager 500 in the word-count-measuring-thingy at the bottom of my screen, I’ll wrap things up with a quick and dirty pitch of five things we want you to know:

  1. We need your help meeting our monthly goal. We haven’t raised this goal in three years even though we’ve hired more people and are spending more for services. Please hit our donate link (you can do it right here) so we can hit our numbers and stop bugging you (until next month, anyway).
  2. If you prefer not to donate online, you can do so by mail. We hand-process all checks, so please allow a couple weeks of handling time if you go this route.
  3. If you can make your donation recurring, it helps us tremendously. We have a dashboard that tells us how much we can expect in recurring transactions, and this allows us to breathe at the beginning of each month without needing to use a paper bag. To make your donation repeat each month, just click the “create recurring transaction” button at checkout. You can see a video demonstrating that right here.
  4. No donation is too large, but no donation is too small. We’ve got hundreds of thousands of readers, so even a single dollar from a lot of people would go a very long way. If you’ve never flipped a coin into the jar, would you please consider doing so today?
  5. We are a U.S. tax-exempt organization, so for many of you, the donation you make today will be tax-deductible (as allowed by law). Support a good cause, and send less money to the IRS. That’s a win/win!


Thanks so much to all of you who have already given this month, and every month before — and those who will give today. You really do make this possible, and every one of you matters tremendously. Keep in mind, too, that we have Masses offered for our benefactors and their intentions each month.

For those of you who can’t give, please pray for our financial sufficiency and that we remain dedicated always to God’s will in the work we do here and never our own. Also, please pray for our staff and writers. One thing I’ve learned over the years of doing this kind of work is that it paints a target on your back, and we’re not in the ring with mere mortals, but principalities and powers. We absolutely need your spiritual support as well.

Thank you, and may God bless you abundantly!

In Christ,

Steve Skojec
Publisher & Executive Director
OnePeterFive.com

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