Talking Points:

We are celebrating Matter's 4th anniversary

• After 4 years, we are launching a fundraising campaign to support a new chapter for our non-profit independent news organization.

We are asking the Columbus community to invest $30,000 to expand our hardworking staff

• ...so that they can help us expand reporting and coverage for the overlooked issues and voices of our city.

Now through December, single donations will be matched x2 and monthly donations x12 (the whole year’s worth!) by NewsMatch.

• Donations will go directly to support Andy’s editor position, so he can keep writing and working with contributors to make the community-oriented news Matter is publishing throughout the campaign.

How our team is changing

• We have hired Andy Downing, an award-winning journalist and editor who has for years developed trust among key community stakeholders and sources, to take over our publication, Matter. Andy has been a journalist for 20 years and worked for Columbus Alive for nearly a decade.

• Cofounder Jaelynn Grisso is our outgoing editor, as she has moved away from Columbus.

• Cofounder Cassie Young is still serving as the director of our nonprofit, Grey Matter Media, but is moving from full- to part-time.

How our product is changing

• In the past, Matter News focused coverage exclusively on policing and development. These topics will still feature in our Community coverage, which will expand to explore a wider range of issues important to Columbus residents, and in particular those often left out of the conversation. In addition, Matter will introduce a new Culture section to highlight the artists, musicians and writers living and working in the city, and a Voices section featuring a rotating cast of columnists who will explore everything from the ongoing opioid epidemic to the LGBTQ experience in Columbus. We will move away from sporadic, multimedia coverage to publishing mostly written content on a more daily basis.

Ask local businesses, foundations, and large donors to provide a local match

i.e. a local business pledges $10,000 toward a triple match so that donors get their donations multiplied by 3 instead of 2 - or we can extend the match period.

We have a goal of raising $10,000 of the $30,000 goal from local matches.

Outreach template here.

Sponsor deck here.

You can now fundraise for Matter straight no your Facebook or Instagram account

On Facebook: draft a new post and under all the diff options there's "raise money" - search "Matter" and it should come up

On Instagram: draft a new story and add the "donation" sticker - search "Matter" and it should come up

If you don’t want to do a video, you could provide a quote (1-2 sentences) about your work with Matter/why you support Matter and we can turn it into a graphic.

Video testimonial guidance

• Samples

  • Contributor sample

  • Board/Volunteer sample

• Use your camera phone and decent lighting/quiet room

• Make it 60 seconds or less

• Upload it to this form

• Hit these points:

• • • My name is ____ and I am a (staff member/board member/volunteer/member/donor) of Matter News, a local nonprofit and independent news startup.

    • We/they have a big fundraiser going on that will help us dive deeper into important local issues like gentrification and policing.

    • I support Matter because ____.

    • When you donate November through December, your one-time donation is matched twice and if you become a member (aka monthly donor), your donation gets matched x12.

we are all set for this event

if you are interested in volunteering for the campaign or at one of our events, please fill out this form

We are pretty good for this campaign/event!

Outreach template here.

Local Brews With Local News

(register here - encouraged, but not required)

Monday, 11/8 5-9pm @ Seventh Son

• An event to kick off the campaign!

• Marketing materials coming very soon

• Social, in person

• Hopefully will be warm out for COVID concerns

• Because we brought some many people out last time, this time they’re opening upstairs and having a DJ for free

  • Sarah - DJ for heatwave, i think

• Phil has secured tons of raffle items already, so we are good for this event and prob can include some in event 2.

• Goal: $1,000 ($350 beer, $350 donations, $300 raffle)

KEEP IT SHORT, SWEET, + SUMMARIZE WHAT WE DO

Matter is a digital news source for all of us who receive too much information and not enough context. We investigate the most pressing issues in Columbus and share the stories we find in videos, articles, podcasts, games and more. We are also one of the only locally-owned, nonprofit, and independent news outlets in Columbus, and most importantly, our content is free and accessible.

C H E A T C O D E: Share our about video - it's a classic and it talks about the overarching parts of our model.

HIGHLIGHT OUR HIGH-IMPACT JOURNALISM

We have 2 open deep dive investigations and we release a magazine-like issue every other month with a bundle of stories from 1 of the 2:

• DevelopUS

  • Intersecting topics: economic development, housing, transportation, neighborhoods).

  • Noteworthy content:

    1. 1. Ride along: An in-depth look at code enforcement in Columbus (mini documentary)

       2. Property Tax Abatements: How Do They Work? (written explainer)

       3. Developers gave over $440K to city officials in 4 years (written with interactive data)

       4. How one neighborhood grappled with history and building the future (mini documentary)

       5. Revitalization or displacement: What is gentrification really? (written explainer)

       6. Economic Segregation Map (interactive data map)

• Crossing the Line

  • Intersecting topics: policing, racism, human rights abuses

  • Noteworthy content:

    1. 1. Here's what Columbus locals think about police reform (written/photo)

       2. Data: Policing remains Columbus' largest expense in 2021 budget (data + written)

       3. Protest Coverage (on Instagram, viewed nationwide)

       4. Before Columbus' mass Floyd protests, there was Christopher Radden (short video)

       5. Here's exactly what Columbus Police used to gas protesters (written)

       6. No, the Columbus civilian review board won’t review Goodson's case (written)

       7. Quinlan stalled police reforms he opposed, leaked document shows (written)

       8. Columbus police falsely reported progress on promised reforms (written)

       9. Who's Who in the Cases of Casey Goodson and Andre Hill (interactive)

See more here.

An investigative journalist, an environmental and journalism school graduate, and a government innovator met in 2018 and began working to cofound Grey Matter Media. We launched our publication Matter in November of that year and we’ve been running toward startup success ever since.

Matter is one of the very few Columbus publications that is independent, locally-owned, or nonprofit and it is the only one founded by millennial women, 2 of whom identify as LGBTQ+. It is the only local publication that creates explanatory and investigative multimedia content that is community-informed. And we are the only local outlet to dive deep into the issues impacting the people here.

We designed an intentional model that takes what works in traditional journalism and combines it with carefully crafted changes to make our journalism more accessible and impactful.

Our leadership, reporters, and board are a diverse mix of people from various age groups, career, racial, gender, geographic (within central Ohio) and other backgrounds, resembling the larger Columbus community.

Rather than scratching the surface of a slew of topics, we dive deep into specific issues affecting people in central Ohio in order to provide better context to things that matter. We have shared 50 stories via articles, explainers, mini documentaries, and other mediums for immersive storytelling.

We aim to make the news as accessible as possible, providing it for free, and even posting our articles in their entirety on places like our Instagram. Our goal is to meet our readers where they’re at, and for the majority of our audience, that location is Instagram. We gained a whole new audience, including people nationally, from livestreaming protests to our Instagram as well.

Matter goes beyond traditional journalism in proactively engaging the community in our work. We engage with our audience on social media, send most pieces of our content to a targeted list of relevant stakeholders, have hosted 8 events (many being innovative and multimedia) and 11 livestreams, and built a portable audio/visual studio to further meet people where they are.

And we have worked to advance the larger conversation around the evolution of the news industry. We cultivate conversations about news industry issues and solutions via our Matter Monday livestreams, UnBreaking News blog, and we published a press freedom investigation in collaboration with Eye on Ohio and funding from the U.S. Press Freedom Accountability Project.

For the first year, our only “matter” was DevelopUS, an investigation that is still open today. DevelopUS explores city and economic development, as well as related issues like gentrification. We have published content ranging from a mini documentary about a hotly contested development project, to an explainer about historic districts, to an interactive map that allows residents to explore how economically segregated various neighborhoods in Columbus are.

The then-director of development for the City of Columbus thanked us for our explainer on area commissions, stating that “educating residents on issues this complex is one of our ongoing challenges”.

In June 2020, we opened our second investigation four years ahead of schedule. When protests erupted, the Matter cofounders were out in the streets live-streaming from personal accounts. That's when the posts and messages began to pour in: people were turning to Matter for reliable coverage. The problem? Matter wasn't covering policing nor protests. We had envisioned opening our next investigation with community input in the form of a city-wide poll and meetings with community leaders. But, we changed our vision to stick to our value of being community-informed and opened an investigation into local policing issues. We saw a spike in donations and our coverage of local policing has pushed the mainstream media to cover the issue in ways we have not historically seen.

The most telling feedback we've received in regards to the impact we've had is from a woman with PTSD who said our protest coverage made her feel safer: "I always know what’s going on and I know if something is going on, your team is there ... As a Black woman living here, it’s a really scary place to be sometimes so again, I just really value you and your team." She also became a monthly donor.

Since then, we’ve spurred real public accountability with our work. Editor-In-Chief Marisa Twigg was the only local media to report a late-night incident of police dragging and body slamming protestors in the street and a public records request revealed that coverage directly prompted an investigation into the officers’ misconduct. Reporter Edie Driskill wrote a two-part series that included information from documents leaked to us that proved the then-Columbus Chief of Police lied to the public about progress on promised reforms and even stalled reforms he personally disagreed with. The first piece that contained information about the leaked document was to be published on a Friday morning and the Chief of Police was demoted on that Thursday afternoon in a sudden press conference.

In our first year we: launched our publication and news site; developed branding and produced an about video; published 11 pieces of long form news content, a monthly newsletter, and social content; got started on 3 documentaries, a blog, and 2 podcasts; began to create social media-specific news content; built a portable studio and took it to community events; and put together a small board and bylaws.

In our second year we: published 14 pieces of long form multimedia content; livestreamed protests all summer; began paying contributors; hired our first employees; won our first national grant; raised $4,500 from small donors during our first NewsMatch fundraiser; and filled out our board.

In our third year we: published 24 pieces of multimedia long form content, including our first groundbreaking investigations and podcast series; evolved our publishing model to a bimonthly digital magazine; raised $15,300 from small donors at our second NewsMatch fundraiser; raised $6,000 during our first summer fundraiser including landing our first large donor; hosted 3 big events; hosted 11 livestreams; established 2 committees of our board; and were granted 501c3 nonprofit status.

November:

• Monthly goal:

  • Raise $20,000 from small and large sources

• What will you do:

  • Meet with large funders, business sponsors, and foundations

  • Strategic communications to our existing members/donors

  • Demonstrating our new product and unveiling new leadership

  • Marketing this new product and leadership to our audience/the public

  • Personal outreach to potential donors

• How will you measure progress:

  • Large funders are gaining interest/considering donating

  • Existing members and donors are informed and excited to support

  • Our new product is gaining attention for our fundraiser

  • People we are connecting with are supportive

• What wins do you expect:

  • Secured 100 new monthly members - $1,650 x 12 match

  • Secured $5,000 from ~3 business sponsors/large donors

  • Secured $13,000 in one-time donations

  • Get 5,000 visitors in November** pageviews

  • Add in email list / other platform goals?