Fundraising: Solution to Current Economic Climate

All of us got our start in professional journalism at the Daily Cal.

Some of us, by God, have even managed to hang on to newspaper careers through the current massive unpleasantness. After 21 years at the same rag, though the economic climate has been bad since my first day in the door, I still count the blessings of having an endlessly interesting job every time I begin to consider doing something else. (Not that I don't several times a year try on that consideration for size.)

When we do move on to that something else, all of us know that our minds and our lives have been well-served by our initial Daily Cal training, whether that was writing, or editing, or shooting or selling. Tales abound of those, from Ernest Hemingway to Al Gore, who spent their youth in the business of telling important, true, everyday stories and who changed the world because of what they learned.

Over the years I've been privileged to come back to the Berkeley campus as a board member of the Daily Californian Education Foundation, and sit down every few months with the students who run today's Daily Cal, I never fail to be amazed.

Not just at how much more practical, and often worldly – and, yes, smarter – they are than we were, though there is that. But in a generation that relies less on newspapers for information than any in modern times, they are entirely as dedicated as we were to the by now grand old institution that is the Daily Californian. Perhaps they are more dedicated than we were – they're working during a time when newspapers that aren't thriving go under.

The good news is that the superb journalists and managers of today's Daily Cal will never let it get left behind. They know it's too important both as campus watchdog and chronicler of the Berkeley and university culture – and too important to their own lives as well.

Helping them as they stay the course is where we come in. As you know from reading elsewhere in this newsletter, the Daily Cal, as an independent newspaper company, faces precisely the same challenges as every other paper in the country. Today's economy and the competition from other information sources makes it tough to sell ads and to stay in the black. But the editors and General Manager Diane Rames have already adjusted expenses in the short term to keep the operational bottom line healthy.

Our charge as proud alums is to mount a campaign that will forever change the way we have been supporting our student newspaper for almost two decades now. We need to not just raise funds through short-term campaigns to purchase essentials like cameras and computers for the Daily Cal staff. We need to create an endowment that, once formed, will do nothing less than fully ensure a healthy newspaper on the UC Berkeley campus into the future.

Get involved – or get more involved – in our cause and you'll never regret it.

What to do? Easiest and quickest: Write a check, in any amount, made out to The Daily Californian Education Foundation, with Endowment Fund marked in the memo field, and mail it to P.O. Box 1949, Berkeley CA 94701- 0949. We're a 501c(3) charitable organization, and all donations are tax-deductible.

For the long run, to help the Daily Cal thrive into the future, I would ask alums who have been blessed with success in their post-Berkeley careers to seriously consider remembering the new endowment of the Daily Californian Education Foundation in your estate planning.

If you haven't been back to campus for awhile, we're planning a great excuse to do so at Homecoming this fall. Saturday, Oct. 4, 2008, the Daily Cal will hold an open house in its Eshelman Hall offices, followed by the football game against Arizona State, followed by our annual alumni awards reception on campus. I would look forward to meeting you there.