T-Squared: Our 2011 Fundraising

Earlier this year I posted our truly terrific site traffic stats for 2011, documenting our rapid growth over 2010. But in terms of how we measure our success, that's only one piece of the puzzle. Another piece, as important if not more so, is our fundraising. As a 501(c)(3) organization, we rely overwhelmingly on generous tax-deductible contributions from individuals, foundations and corporations to pay the freight. I'm happy to report extremely good news on that front as well.

Last year, the Trib collected $3.71 million in revenue — a 99 percent increase over 2010. That number breaks down as follows: about $1.17 million in major gifts, just under $400,000 in membership, a bit more than $591,000 in restricted foundation grants, nearly $638,000 in corporate sponsorship and support, nearly $634,000 in events sponsorships and ticket sales, and just over $271,000 in premium content and other earned income. All in all, a nice haul that pays for great journalism, databases of public information, illuminating events and all the other things we do on a day-to-day and week-to-week basis. We are, as ever, grateful as can be.

Our expenses for 2011 were $4.01 million, meaning we were about $300,000 to the bad, as they say, at year's end — or about $200,000 ahead of our plan. Back when we launched the Tribune, we projected we'd lose $1 million in 2010, our first full year, and $500,000 in 2011. We were right on about the former. It's nice to be wrong — in the right direction— about the latter.

We also projected back then that we'd break even at the end of 2012. Well, we're expecting to be about $170,000 to the good: revenues of $4.5 million and expenses of about $4.33 million. Fingers crossed — but so far, so good, as we've already booked more than $1.23 million in revenue for 2012, or 27 percent of our budget, just 18 days into the new year, taking our total pledged to date to more than $11.4 million.

Last thing: You may be wondering why I'm sharing this you. It's because we believe in transparency — we demand it of elected officials and others in the news, and therefore you should expect it from us. You can find the Form 990 we've filed each year with the IRS here, along with our audited financials. You can find our complete list of individual, foundation and corporate donors here and here.