Every summer, the newsroom at the Rio Grande SUN embarks on a cleansing of the high school sports palate. We go out into the readership area and find stories about people, places or outdoors events.
We’re going to try something different this summer and showcase local non-profits. Each week on page B1 we’ll write a story about a local 501c3 (non-profit). We’ll tell readers what the non-profit does, how they get their funding, who they help and what they need from the community to make them more successful.
We assume all non-profits will want their story told and there are a lot of them throughout the Valley and Rio Arriba County. We’re limiting ourselves to 12 weeks, or 12 stories that will be published between high school sports ending in May and restarting in late August.
To keep it as fair as possible, we ask that if you want your non-profit profiled, please submit the following:
• Most recent IRS form 990 (preferably 2010)
• Proof of 501c3 status
• Basic financial statements (balance sheet, profit/loss
• Bylaws
• A brief summary of the group’s mission, goals, possible specific programs. Who do you serve and how do you go about doing that?
We know the fear lurks out there that we’re going to do an investigative scrubbing of your organization. First, if you fear that, maybe you should take a look at why you feel that way. Second, that’s not what this is about. This is not deep investigative “gotcha” journalism of which we’re routinely accused and award-winningly proud.
These will be simple, straightforward stories about how your group gets money and spends it. Between the cash coming in and the money being spent are the stories of the many people who provide the services of your group, who receives them and how they’re affected. We also want to tell readers what you need, other than money. Some non-profits are scrambling for functional office furniture or computers or a fax machine. So give us your wish list.
The list of requests above is to ensure we are writing about bona fide 501c3s and that they provide a service. That’s all.
We ask everyone interested to give us that information by May 6. Once we have a list, if it’s more than 12, we’ll pick a random customer coming in the front door to draw names from a hat. If we don’t reach our 12, we’ll ask some of the more familiar, oft-used non-profits in our readership area to participate.
With a little luck, some hard work from the news room and a willing community we’ll publish the first story May 26.
If readers have a favorite non-profit they use or that supports them, please tell your group to send us the above information and we’ll get them on our list. Time is tight. Please gather your information and either drop it at the office at 123 Railroad, mail it to P.O. Box 790, Espanola, NM 87532 or e-mail as PDFs to mnged@riograndesun.com
If you have questions call Lou Mattei or Braiden Trapp at 753-2126.