The type of community journalism BikePortland has provided for nearly two decades is rare and valuable.

It’s easy to find headlines about the crisis in American media and its relation to our crisis in democracy. Read further and you’ll find two truths: 1) Small operations like BikePortland (with only one full-time employee) are extremely hard to make a living from, and 2) what BikePortland is doing is what many experts say is the key to saving both journalism and democracy.

BikePortland shares information that builds an educated, connected and engaged community — both online with our massive daily reach, and in real life with events like our weekly Bike Happy Hour. That community then brings even more people together, creating a virtuous cycle of empowerment that increases knowledge, connects people to each other, holds power to account, amplifies diverse perspectives, and so on.

Unfortunately, this work is very hard to monetize; especially because BikePortland has always focused on what’s vital, not what’s viral.

Advertisers are hard to find and the partnerships they require can sap energy and resources away from other work. $5 and $10 monthly subscriptions are wonderful, but it would take twice the number we have now to provide the revenue needed to sustain our business. (And yes, we could sell merchandise, but it’d be more of a branding move than a source of revenue.)

Here’s the bottom line:

We must establish a more robust and reliable monthly funding source in order to survive and continue to serve the community. That’s where BikePortland Society members come in. Please join today.