We’d love to take a moment to introduce ourselves.

We’re not like most other media companies in one really important way: We’re a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit, 100% financially reliant on community support. What does that mean?

• We don’t put our news behind a paywall. How can we create community if we exclude people?
• We’ll never sell to an out-of-state hedge fund that prioritizes profit.
• We don’t use “clickbait” tactics to boost our numbers. We judge ourselves on impact. About that…

Richmond’s annual budget is 605 pages long. Who has time to read all that? We do! It’s our job. And this year, we noticed the city snuck in some things that they probably would have preferred you not notice. So we called them out on it. They apologized and changed it.

Richmond budget proposal makes several quiet changes to high-profile policies

Avula sent the City Council an apology on behalf of his administration, saying he too had just learned about the changes.

The RichmonderGraham Moomaw

We also know that good things happen in our community every day, so we spotlight those people too. We found a Richmond school that was having success teaching disadvantaged students how to read. So we spent time in the classroom and shared their blueprint.

‘Brilliant at the basics’: How one elementary school is beating the trends and boosting literacy rates

“One of the best things about teaching first grade is that you get to see their world just open up.”

The RichmonderVictoria A. Ifatusin

There are plenty more examples:

• When Richmond opened its new amphitheater, the city rented out the Belle Isle parking lot on show days. We wrote about it; they stopped renewing the lease.
• When the water went out in Richmond, our readers found out before the city communicated it.
• Are you up to speed on the changes coming to the zoning code? Our readers are.

That’s us, celebrating our first birthday. It’s not hard to find us - we all live here, so we’re not removed from the issues we write about.

You can find us at one of our speaker series events, where we bring people together to create community and have productive conversations - like the time we took our readers to an island in the middle of the river.

So how does this work? We send three emails a week, with all the local news you need. If you want national news, well, we can’t help you with that. This is about Richmond.

If you love us (and you will), we’d ask that you join the 1,200+ donors who make this possible. We are exclusively funded by community support, and your tax-deductible gift goes straight to providing the local news we so desperately need right now.

We’ve got membership plans that start at $9.99 a month, and we take care of our supporters with cool events, giveaways and other exclusives.

"I became a member because, now more than ever, it's vitally important to keep our community informed and engaged, and our local officials accountable and transparent." — Erin, Museum District

Thanks for dropping by. Local news is crucially important to the health of a community, and we’re working to bring it back. Join us!