CHS Pledge Drive

Here is the short story:

• CHS is growing and on a good path to surviving as a component of the Capitol Hill community and a business
• CHS is happy to announce that former Capitol Hill Times editor Doug Schwartz is joining the site later this month
• CHS is happy to announce that we now have Larissa the amazing intern plugging away to make the site awesome
• CHS has the opportunity to make people like Doug and Larissa an even bigger part of the site
• To do this CHS needs your help

The CHS Pledge Drive runs Tuesday 5/5 to Monday 5/11.

Please consider supporting CHS today

• $250 and above -- thank you gift: Assign a CHS story. We write about whatever topic you give us
• $100 and above -- thank you gift: First 10 givers get CHS gift pack
• $25 and above -- thank you gift: Choose a date for your 'sponsor of the day' message on CHS
• Any amount -- thank you gift: Invitation to CHS thank you wine party

Make sure to add your e-mail in the pledge wizard so we can contact you about your gift and details of your CHS story assignments

Here is the long story:

Why should you support a for-profit Web site run by an ex-Microsoft employee with a neighborhood blogging start-up who lives in one of the wealthier ZIP codes in Seattle? CHS is and always will be an advertising supported business. It is not a nonprofit or a public utility. The site is organized and managed to provide community news and information as a business. Some of the articles, pictures and information is provided by contributors for free. Any contributor that wants can become part of the revenue sharing program and be compensated as fairly as possible for their work. So, many of the articles, pictures and much of the information on this site has a cost. To keep the business running, we sell advertisements to local businesses that either want to support the site, want to have their messages presented to a very focused, very local audience, or both.

This is how CHS will continue to grow. Today, depending on which data source you look at, more than 15,000 different people a month visit the site -- somewhere north of 1,000 every day.

That is a large enough audience to build a business on and, I hope, a testament to the quality experience this site provides to the people who live on and care about Capitol Hill. CHS currently makes about $1,100 per month in ad revenue. About 60% of that goes to site contributors. It is a long road to success.

But sometimes, there is opportunity to zoom ahead. I am happy to announce that a familiar Capitol Hill face is joining the team this month. Former Capitol Hill Times editor Doug Schwartz will begin contributing to CHS in mid-May. I'm happy to have him particpating at any level but I want to jumpstart things and be able to pay Doug and creative people like him to play an even bigger role in the site. We also have brought on an intern because, 1) we can use the help and 2) we hope to pass along some of the knowlege and fun of running a neighborhood news and information site. Given these changes, it is time for yet another CHS experiment.

We will continue telling the stories of Capitol Hill no matter if you give or not. But the media landscape is shifting and CHS has an opportunity to leap forward today. With your help, we can make a jump and bridge the period of growth to the level at which CHS is a fully sustainable business that can afford to bring in great people like Doug and adequately compensate them without pledge drives. We don't plan to do this every year -- in fact, it's very likely we'll never ask for something like this again (learned to never say never, however -- once said we'd never, ever ask for money like this but now look at us!). If this kind of pledge drive is required again and again, there are better ways to structure what we're doing and CHS will change. But this drive can help make sure we never get there.

In return for your support of the site, there are some gifts available to help repay your pledge. You can review those at the top of the post. The $250+ level gives you the ability to play editor and assign CHS to write about any Capitol Hill topic you want. Our gift pack for the first 10 givers at $100+ is made up of a few nice thank yous from CHS sponsors including Tidbit Bistro and Northwest Film Forum. Anybody who gives $25 or more can designate a date to have their sponsor message shown on the site. Plus, all givers will be invited to a special thank you wine party at Vino Verite later this summer. Please provide your e-mail address in the pledge form when giving so we can contact you about your gift (and only! about your gift). But the bigger trade, of course, comes from the continued dedication for CHS to cover Capitol Hill and build a place for people to share the Hill's news, information and stories.

We hope you'll consider giving today.

CHS Pledge Drive -- Tuesday 5/5 to Monday 5/11

Oh, and if you'd rather support us the old fashioned way, buy an ad and share your message with THOUSANDS.

Thank you!