10 (more?) years of Tone Madison

Our crucial year-end fundraising campaign begins.

Tone Madison is firing up its year-end fundraising campaign again. It’s our biggest one yet—we have the opportunity to unlock up to $36,000 in matching funds. That’s no small amount, especially for a scrappy newsroom like ours that stretches every dollar we have.

The catch? We only maximize those matching funds if you, our readers, chip in to donate a total of $15,000. If you make a new monthly donation between now and Dec. 31, it gets matched 24x—twice its full annual amount. This is made possible not just by the nationwide NewsMatch program, but also a group of stand-up supporters right here in Madison. So rest assured that your fellow Tone Madison readers already have skin in the game—but we need your help to make it go as far as it can.

Your donation today helps keep Tone Madison in your hearts, minds, and inboxes. If you like our unique perspectives and contributions to the Madison news landscape, please pitch in today.

A few weeks ago, Tone Madison turned 10. (You can celebrate with us at Gamma Ray Bar on December 6!) A small, local publication surviving for over a decade amongst strong competition? This is huge. It means that for 10 years straight, you’ve read our arts, culture, and politics coverage and went: “yeah, I want more Tone in my life.” Thank you.

A side effect of being in the game for this long is seeing the same headlines crop up every few years. As transient as our city can be, there’s a lot that stays the same: our independent arts venues offer vital yet fragile respites for so many people, soulless corporations will keep squeezing Madison harder to maximize profits, and there’s always plenty of ugly bullshit going on under Madison’s progressive surface.

It’d be easy to live through this and come out feeling jaded. To say: “there are so many other outlets doing this. Why don’t we just stop?” But over the years, you’ve told us that Tone Madison is different because we publish perspectives you can’t find anywhere else—especially those that challenge power.

Madison is not a news desert. You have options. But we at Tone Madison have found our little niche in a sea of bland, and you’re telling us that you value what we do.

So, we persist. We continue to call out shifty political moves at the state and local level, to highlight the impact of big policy decisions on real Madisonians, and to show that not everyone agrees with the voices that have dominated local discourse for too long.

We do this not because we think one (or multiple) articles will move the needle—but to inform and inspire all of you to make a fuss and maybe throw a brick with us, too.

So here’s the ask: help us keep Tone Madison sustainable. If you are already a donor, thank you—we simply wouldn’t be here without your help over the years, and anything additional you’re able to donate during this campaign will be matched too! If you’ve been on the fence, now is the time—NewsMatch and our generous local match backers will make your donation go even further:

• Make a new monthly donation, and Tone Madison gets twice its full annual amount. (e.g. You give $10/month, we get $240.)
• Make a one-time donation, and Tone gets it tripled. (e.g. You give $100, we get $300.)
• If 50 of you donate for the first time, Tone gets an extra $1,000 on top of all the matching funds.

Thank you for your time and your support!

—Scott, Christina, Grant, and Steven

A retrospective

Here are the articles we mentioned above: