Reason‘s motto is “free minds and free markets.” But we also believe in free content. You read our website for free. You listen to our podcasts for free. You watch our videos for free. You get our newsletters for free.
We believe it’s so important to get the word out about ways that individual liberty makes the world a better place that we do labor- and resource-intensive journalism every single day, and then we toss it into the ether for you to enjoy while you’re goofing off at work or driving to soccer practice or sitting on the toilet.
We bring you stories about how to take shrooms, supply-chain policy shenanigans, the fate of barely legal strippers in Texas, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s litany of failures, and the miscarriages of criminal justice every single day. Because when you love something, you give it away for free. (Even the stuff in the print magazine eventually goes online for free, though you should still subscribe to get the full dead-tree experience.)
All that great stuff costs money to make. And that’s where you come in.
Between now and December 7, we’re going to be asking you to donate to Reason to support the creation of the content you enjoy. We’ll be reminding you about why it’s important to donate with some posts like this one, and we’ll be hitting you with some pop-up ads. (What’s that? You hate pop-up ads? You can make them go away by—you guessed it—donating!) There will be a special video episode of The Reason Roundtable podcast where you can ask Nick Gillespie, Matt Welch, Peter Suderman, and me anything you want. (Submit your questions before 5:00 today to [email protected].) There will be swag!
To give you an idea of what your donation buys, I’ve helpfully matched the giving levels with the kind of vital work, gear, and services your money would help pay for:
If you hit us with $50, you’ll get a temporary Reason tattoo. You’ll also buy coffee for the D.C. office for a week. This is important. There’s nothing worse than Christian Britschgi in caffeine withdrawal; he just starts stabbing people with plastic straws like he’s a vampire and we’re a bunch of human Capri Suns.
Donate $100 and we’ll add a Reason magazine digital subscription (which includes access to archives of more than 50 years of Reason magazine). That donation pays for a robot to transcribe the many, many interviews we conduct, not just for our podcasts and videos, but also for the reporting that goes into short web stories and involved print features alike. This used to be a task for interns, but at Reason we are always looking for ways to do our jobs cheaper and faster, so as soon as the robots got smart enough we were delighted to hand over the job.
Upgrade to $250 and we’ll toss a Reason 2022 calendar on the pile, letting you spend a little extra time with us every day. That’s enough to buy a plane ticket go to a conference or a hearing or a prison or a party. We haven’t been able to get on as many planes as we would have liked for the last year and a half, but we’re back on the road and looking for stories.
Throw down $500 and you’re getting all of the above, plus a signed copy of Tech Panic by Senior Editor Robby Soave. With your cash, we can buy books for our authors to do research, keep an eye on the competition, and expand their minds so they can help expand yours.
Your gift of $1,000 gets you a private lunch in Washington, D.C., with a Reason editor (pick me, I love food! Or pick Suderman, he loves drinks!) and an invitation to Reason Weekend 2022. That kind of money buys a computer for our next cub reporter when he shows up on his first day clutching a duct-taped Chromebook.
At $5,000, you’re picking up all of the above, plus a ticket to Reason Weekend for first-time givers. That kind of money helps pay for the frankly alarming amount of gear that the Reason video team needs to do their job, but especially for the enormous number of absurd costumes that it takes to keep Remy happy enough to dance in front of a green screen for the Bragg Brothers.
And at $10,000, you pull everything you see here plus two tickets to Reason Weekend for first-timers. Confession time: This giving level is our real weekly coffee budget. Thank you and we’re sorry we’re like this.
I hope you’ll consider donating to Reason in whatever form you prefer. (If you’re in a shopping mood, why not use Reason as your entry point to Amazon? We’ll get a tiny kickback every time you buy something.) Nick Gillespie will be here tomorrow to explain a fun new way to donate that we’re trying this year. But in the meantime, we hope you’ll hit us with crypto, cash, or credit to support the work that we do all year and then give away for free.
The post Donate to Reason If You Love Free Minds, Free Markets, and Free Content appeared first on Reason.com.
Founded in 1968, Reason is the magazine of free minds and free markets. We produce hard-hitting independent journalism on civil liberties, politics, technology, culture, policy, and commerce. Reason exists outside of the left/right echo chamber. Our goal is to deliver fresh, unbiased information and insights to our readers, viewers, and listeners every day. Visit https://reason.com