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General Questions about the Seasonal Drive
How many members are donating monthly? How much do I have to donate?How do I get one of the member premiums? How do I donate/upgrade to monthly? Are there any large foundations that support TRNN?How can you call yourselves independent if you take money from foundations? How much does it cost to operate The Network from month to month? What are your specific goals this year? What happens if the network does not reach its targets? Is my contribution tax deductible?
General Questions about function of The Real News What is the deal with McClatchy? Why do you have donor promos at the start of every story?
Questions about “Five Friend” emails I feel asking my friends to donate is an imposition? How can I volunteer/intern at The Real News? General Question about the Real News Network What is the Real News Network? How is the Network funded?Why don’t you accept government or corporate monies? How is your site different from other news sites?How is The Real News Network accountable to the members? Do you have a board of directors?General Questions about the Seasonal Drive In the U.S., Independent World Television, Inc. is registered as a charity under federal charter 501(c)(3). In Canada, the Independent World Television Foundation is a registered charitable foundation. All donations in the US and Canada are tax deductible. One-time donors receive a tax receipt upon donation (attached to confirmation email) and monthly donors receive a donation at the beginning of the following year. We are viewer supported and do not accept advertising, government or corporate funding. Our goal is to reach millions of viewers around the world. We are the only news organization of this kind worldwide, producing totally independent daily video news and critical analysis. If 250,000 people contribute a membership of $10 a month we can meet our goals. How many members are donating monthly? In the last six months we have registered close to one thousand new donors contributing on a monthly basis; and close to one thousand donors have made a one time contribution. Since 2005, 3500 people have contributed at least one-time to the network’s development and 2000 people have become monthly subscribers. We accept and appreciate all donations. We recommend a monthly donation which can start at $10 per month. As our way of saying thank-you, we also send out member premiums for donations over $75 and also for monthly memberships. How do I get one of the member premiums? You can receive any one of our premium gifts if you make a one time donation of $75 or a monthly donation of $10. You can receive the t-shirt if you make a one time donation of $60 or a monthly donation of $5. How do I donate/upgrade to monthly? You can make a donation right now on our website and I can help you with this. If you would like to upgrade your donation, I can make those changes now too. If at any stage you would like to alter your donation, please contact us and we can make the appropriate changes. These changes are only possible with staff for security reasons. Donation funding is our major source of revenue. It has fuelled the establishment of a full-fledged studio and post-production facility in Toronto. It also finances the development of our daily video news stories, salaries for journalists, researchers, equipment and administration. 100% of your donation goes into our programming for The Real News and is tax-deductible. Donations moving forward will be directed to the full integration of production in Washington DC. Operating out of the McClatchy Newspaper office, guests from DC and visiting experts/analysts/journalists will be brought to McClatchy for interview. Donations will also be directed to new areas of funding that will see improvements in live web-casting, better broadband connection and such. We will also be upgrading our daily output to include video to TiVo, LinkTV, and FreeSpeech TV etc. Some of the increased donation funding will also be directed to greater marketing outreach. The further and deeper we can extend our brand, the better chance we have of creating a truly viewer-funded model that does not overburden current donors. Are there any large foundations that support TRNN? Yes, foundations and large dollar donors enabled us to develop our first Business Plan. The business plan has always stated that early in our development we would accept foundation and large donor funding until the sustaining donor base can sustain production and news development. We estimate that we can move to an entirely sustaining donor model combined with earned revenue from e-commerce initiatives, within 5 years. To date, TRNN has raised nearly $4.8 million in five-, six- and seven-figure gifts from foundations such as the Theanon Foundation, the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Phoebe Haas Trust, the Quixote Foundation, the CAW, Susan Adelman & Claudio Ilanos Foundation, Newman's Own Foundation, The Caplan-Groening Foundation, The Vltava Foundation; and major gifts from individuals such as Max Palevsky and Jodie Evans, Bronya and Andy Galef, Attias Family Foundation, and Richard Wolfe. How can you call yourselves independent if you take money from foundations? Our Business Plan has always included the need for foundation and large donor funding during the development phase of The Real News Network. Without this seed-funding we simply would not be able to reach the millions of people around the world. At no point has this compromised our editorial freedom. Funds are always given, “no strings attached.” However we do honor large donor requests such as dedication gifts. For e.g. If a large donor requests we only use their donation for development of “Environmental Stories” we will respect their wishes, as long as they are not trying to influence how such stories are covered. Over the next 4 years, we expect to be a fully sustainable viewer-funded model. Larger donors are our spring-board to reaching that goal. How much does it cost to operate The Network from month to month? Internet news media is a costly endeavor. Our operating costs are in excess of $200,000 per month. We have always maintained The Real News should be fully accessible to everyone on the internet. What are your specific goals this year? Our member donation target for 2008 was $500,000. These donations have helped us establish an office in Washington DC. Full post-production capabilities are not quite reached, but within the next month, all assets should be in place at McClatchy Newspaper’s DC bureau. It has enabled the hiring of additional reporting, marketing and administrative staff. It also helped fund our team’s attendance at the DNC and RNC, plus live coverage from Denver, St Paul and DC on election night. What happens if the network does not reach its targets? We are hopeful we will come close to our year-end targets – we are almost there! This is a great testimony to our vision, as it is difficult times for all. We have not been able to expand staffing in the newsroom, which of course, limits how much coverage we can put out. We may also need to further reduce staffing levels in the short term in order to remain viable. While we have a plan to start a debate show, resources are limited at this time. We would also like to expand our coverage to more parts of the world. The next six months will be crucial and we simply need more donor support. In addition, your donation encourages larger foundations to invest in our vision. Your donation proves to them a viewer-funded model works. So it’s vital to get our monthly donor base up if we are to continue. This is part of the reason we are reaching out to existing donors today: We know you share in our vision. We’re hoping you can help us build momentum in a variety of small but frequent actions (YouTube hits, discussion boards, social media, spread the word). Without continuing viewer support we simply cannot cover all the issues we feel are critical to viewers. How can you ask people to donate with the current state of economic uncertainty? We believe The Real News Network is an historic bridge that will arm citizens around the world with the knowledge they need to tackle the most pressing problems of our time, including the economy. By providing free internet broadcasts on timely issues, we hope to empower and inspire people to seize opportunities that will mobilize change within their own communities. We know that the economic crisis is hitting people hard. It’s hitting us hard too. People write to us often suspending their accounts due to lack of funds. We know it’s a challenge; however the type of information we’re providing in our news broadcasts is critical too. A news outlet has to be courageous enough to provide “real news” to its viewers. The Real News is critical –as critical to understanding the economy as it is to understanding foreign policy and world events. Without Real News, people do not have the tools – the information – to make sense of their world and make decisions in their own interests. We need a news outlet that can push forward to cover issues we face today with uncompromising courage and integrity. The Real News is a crucial tool for finding real solutions. Yes of course, you can donate any time from our website Is my contribution tax deductible? Yes U.S. donors will receive a tax receipt. Canadian donors will receive a tax receipt. In other countries, The Real News is not yet able to issue tax receipts. Yes! In Canada make cheques payable to: Independent World Television Foundation P.O. Box 68512 360A Bloor Street West Toronto, Ontario M5S 3C9 In the U.S.A make cheques payable to: Independent World Televsion Inc. P.O. Box 230069 Astonia Station New York, N.Y. 10023
General Questions about function of The Real News What is the deal with McClatchy? McClatchy Newspapers is the second largest newspaper chain in the United States. Their Washington DC office is located downtown and they have journalists posted all over the world. McClatchy’s DC office wanted to extend their video section on their website. Since the November 4 election we have begun posting some news stories there – this has become almost daily. McClatchy DC’s website does 4 times the traffic of The Real News, so this alliance is great for broadening our reach. McClatchy also agreed to share some office space so that we could set up a shooting area. It was from here that we broadcast live November 4. They also allow us access to their journalists, when a story we are working on crosses with where one of their journalists is based. There are no financial ties with McClatchy. This “in-kind” partnership agreement shares content in exchange for office space. They have no editorial control over the production of our news. Why do you have donor promos at the start of every story? We are at a critical point in our short broadcast history. We need donor support to continue delivering the type of critical journalism our viewers have come to recognize. If we reach our goals we can reduce the frequency of donor promos. Many viewers see our videos on other sites – such as You Tube, and do not understand we are viewer supported. We would like to be able to configure the video player so that the website can recognize who is watching i.e.: members, and switch off the testimonials as a result. This is technically challenging and requires programming support. Every day we have to prioritize things for financial reasons. We have seen a marked increase in our donation levels since the introduction of these video promotions – so the priority is to run them. We apologize for the interruption, but we must build our membership in order to sustain our Network. Why don’t you cover 9/11 stories? The Real News is committed to the delivery of daily news and analysis. The level of investigation needed to do a 911 story justice is out of our financial range. We make decisions every day about what stories need to be told – what the priorities should be. We have had to limit our output to the stories we do well. We have to mark a signature in the news landscape before expanding everywhere. Do you accept freelance stories/documentaries and/or can you cover (topic)? Yes we are happy to receive story ideas; we cannot act on all of them for the reasons stated above. We need to decide what the priorities are and what resources we can devote. We acknowledge that there are many important issues and events worth covering around the world. With additional viewer support we can expand our resources to adequately cover these issues. We do have a facility for people to upload their stories to us for consideration on a Best of the Web section. If you record a citizen journalism piece, upload it to YouTube and follow the links on our website to upload your piece. It will be reviewed by our editorial team and published if approved. We regret we cannot pay for submissions of this kind. At present, we do not accept documentaries. We want to establish the news department and output before expanding into other areas of programming. We have spoken to documentary film-makers when they have made a documentary that speaks well on an issue we’re covering too. I’m having problems with username/password? If you have forgotten your username, try the first section of your email address before contacting The Real News, e.g.: "contact" would be the username for
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. If you still experience trouble, enter your full email address and ask for a password reminder or contact us at
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to ask for help. I’m having trouble viewing your site? Web browsers like Firefox or Safari cache passwords, urls and other web information regularly. If a new version of a browser comes out, often it will remember old information and show problems on your site. The best thing to do is regularly clear your cache. I want to change my payment methods, how can I do that? Please email your request to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it with the subject line: Change my donation please! What can I do to spread the word? There are a variety of ways to expand our membership. Email friends, add comments to the site, engage in on-line discussion boards, and distribute our flyer. You can print our flyer from our website and distribute to places you believe will help spread the word. Host a house party; hold a screening of one of our premiums. We are currently developing a new “members only” site we hope to launch very shortly. This site will have a variety of toolkits and resources to “Make Real News” a truly interactive experience. Questions about “Five Friend” emails I feel asking my friends to donate is an imposition? We understand with the current economic climate, asking for money is a challenge. While we’re not asking you to badger your friends, we hope the email you send will encourage others to check out our site and expand our viewer support. What if my friends don’t respond? Although your friends may not respond initially, we hope in time they will check out the site and see its value. Right now we appreciate you taking the time to spread the word. What if my friends do respond, then what? Once we send you the “5 friends” introductory email, if they respond positively, your friends will be directed to the donation page on our website. Once they complete their donation, they will be asked who referred them to the site. At that time they are prompted to fill in your name, if all 5 friends donate, we’ll send you a complimentary t-shirts. Its our small way of saying: ”thanks”. We are continually looking for ways to improve our donor recognition. If you have time, please participate in our membership survey! Am I only limited to 5 friends? Absolutely not! Feel free to email as many people as you’d like! How can I volunteer/intern at The Real News? Volunteers are very vital to the organization. If you could forward your resume and type of volunteer commitment you can make to us please email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . We can add you to our volunteer email list, which keeps our volunteers informed of Real News events and initiatives.
General Question about the Real News Network What is the Real News Network? The Real News Network is a web-based news and documentary network focused on providing independent and uncompromising journalism. Our staff, in collaboration with courageous journalists around the globe, will investigate report and debate stories on the critical issues of our times. We are viewer supported and do not accept advertising, government or corporate funding. Our goal is to reach thousands of viewers like you around the world Why don’t you accept government or corporate monies? We won't blindly follow wire services or official press releases that attempt to set the news agenda. We also will not accept monies from organizations or government structures that try to control the way information is disseminated. How is your site different from other news sites? We believe real news should give voice to important stories that address the rights of working people, women, children, immigrants and indigenous peoples. The health of our planet is also a major concern for citizens. We plan to cover these issues in deep meaningful ways. The Real News will give important stories the attention and sense of urgency they deserve How is The Real News Network accountable to the members? The answer is transparency. The Real News is creating forums for questioning, debating and criticizing our work. The Real News relies on verifiable journalism, seeking truth without bowing to external pressures and fearlessly following the evidence wherever it leads. We also have consultants who are experienced media and public relations specialists. Paul Jay is our Founder and C.E.O. Paul along with an executive team and staff; oversee the operations of The Real News Network. We also have a volunteer team to help us with other day to day needs. Do you have a board of directors? We have a board of directors based in Canada, India, Bangladesh and the United States. You can access our board from The Real News Website. Click on “about us” at the bottom of the main page. What are your privacy policies? The Real News recognizes the privacy of your personal information is important. |
