Originally published on Global Voices

Image made by Eddie Avila for Global Voices on Canva Pro.

Global Voices would like to express our gratitude to everyone that donated so far to our ongoing online fundraising drive.

Starting on November 3, 2025, we’re excited to launch a new campaign called the Behind the Story Challenge. Thanks to recent anonymous gifts totaling USD 18,000, in addition to the 250 individual donations received so far, we have the opportunity to double these gifts to help support the Global Voices Newsroom through the rest of the year. While these donations are not contingent on matching funds, they can serve as a launching point to make these funds grow even further.

For more than 20 years, thousands of volunteer contributors have written stories on Global Voices about how their countries or issues they care about are represented in the mainstream media. By highlighting alternative narratives or amplifying narratives from underrepresented voices, these stories contribute to a greater understanding of different parts of the world.

This campaign will highlight perspectives from 30 Global Voices contributors, asking them to respond to this prompt:

What is a GV story that you are especially proud of writing, and why did working on that story matter to you?

Publishing their stories on a platform like Global Voices helps our contributors share their local knowledge about these narratives with a global audience. Under the guidance of regional editing teams that mentor and assist contributors in crafting their stories, this editorial support remains essential for this type of community-driven journalism.

The funds raised through this Challenge campaign will help us sustain the Newsroom’s support structure through the end of the year.

Look for these contributors’ perspectives on Global Voices’ social media accounts, including Instagram, Bluesky, Facebook, and LinkedIn, and help us share this campaign on your own social media accounts.

Please donate here:

Originally published on Global Voices

A photo from the 2024 Global Voices Summit in Kathmandu, Nepal. Photo used with permission.

For two decades, Global Voices has done something uncommon and vitally important: it’s amplified the voices of people from all around the world, making it possible to hear perspectives usually left out of the news. We’ve done this work for over twenty years, powered by volunteer writers and translators, with a small team of professional editors and coordinators. Due to cuts to international aid, we’re up against the wall financially — we need anyone who’s been helped by or inspired by Global Voices to lend a hand. Many more details below, but if you can, please chip in here.

In 2004, I was a fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, watching a new chapter in the history of media unfold. Thousands of people were starting to share their thinking and opinions online via weblogs, personal journals that mixed links to interesting sites discovered online, personal details, political opinions, and observations about the world. Facebook was in its infancy, in a dorm room across the Harvard campus, so blogs were the online space in which many people first experienced individuals sharing unfiltered opinions. At the time — before the rise of influencers monetizing their online presence or algorithms filtering our posts for maximum engagement — it was a space for excitement and hope.

For some, the hope was that writing online would loosen the grip of the mainstream media. Bloggers could write about what they chose, when they chose, and might be able to report news directly, as eyewitnesses. For others, the promise of blogging was that their individual voice could be heard — a group of liberal bloggers reveled in the idea that Vermont governor Howard Dean was listening to their blogged suggestions for his platform as a candidate for US President.

Rebecca MacKinnon and I were both interested in blogging for a different reason. We’d both found our way to Berkman after experiences in other parts of the world. Rebecca had been CNN’s Asia bureau chief, where her fluency in Chinese and deep experience in the region meant she saw stories invisible to most US reporters. I had just spent five years commuting between Western Massachusetts and West Africa, building a technology training nonprofit and learning that Africa, as covered in US news, bore almost no resemblance to the continent I was regularly visiting.

For both Rebecca and me, the exciting thing about the internet in 2004 was the possibility that we could hear from the entire world. That meant not just Dean supporters and American “future of news” types, but Pakistani poets, Ghanaian entrepreneurs, Egyptian hackers, and Bolivian linguists. We both began sharing links to blogs from a much broader world than was usually surfaced in US-centric tech spaces, and our growing list of international bloggers we admired turned into an invitation list for Bloggercon, a gathering of the digerati at Harvard that got significantly more global due to our intervention.

Global Voices was born out of that gathering, into a world that was largely optimistic and excited about the potential of the internet.

We don’t live in that world anymore.

Blogging gave way to social media, becoming vastly more inclusive, but rewarding image, video, frequency, and emotion more than the long-form personal writing that characterized the “golden age” of blogs. Some bloggers became journalists or op-ed writers, while others went quiet. Social media spawned a new economy of influencers, generated a wave of panic about mis/disinformation (some legitimate, some overblown), and another about child safety online. Now, social media is feeding AI systems, which anticipate a future in which individual voices are subsumed into a generic voice of authority that knows everything, but fails to credit any of the individuals who’ve actually done the knowing.

Global Voices summit, Nairobi, Kenya, 2012. Used with permission.

Throughout it all, Global Voices has been here, presenting a wider world for anyone who’s wanted to learn about it. There have been moments — the Arab Spring, for instance — where American and European audiences have leaned on our work to understand a transformative historical moment. (This 2011 piece in the New York Times by Jennifer Preston, about our work in the Middle East led by regional editor Amira al-Hussaini, was one of those moments where broad audiences got a sense of what we were doing.)

But even when the stories we covered haven’t garnered much international attention, we’ve served audiences that few others reach. A grassroots translation project — Lingua — blossomed into a massively multilingual community in which stories originate in dozens of languages and are translated into dozens of others. In some of the languages we cover, like Malagasy, our site is one of the few resources for international news in a local language. Eddie Avila, now our co-managing director, has led the Rising Voices program, which has helped build local language preservation communities in Mexico, Colombia, and Guatemala.

The stories we cover are ones you often won’t see, unless you’re reading extremely widely. Our China team is helping explain “Sister Hong,” a scandal involving sex work, clandestine video recording, LGBTQ+ issues, and China’s particular brand of sexual repression and male loneliness. There’s an amazing series of reflections from Ukrainians fleeing war and bringing home with them, through piles of books and new Ukrainian libraries in cities like Innsbruck, Austria. Meanwhile, as Russia cracks down on “extremist activity,” searching the internet has become a dangerous activity.

Reading Global Voices is a reminder of how big and complex the world really is. Visiting a gathering of Global Voices authors and translators is a reminder of how small and connected we all are. I made it to our 20th anniversary summit in Kathmandu, Nepal, this past December, almost a week after the gathering had begun — I had to fit my trip between my final two classes of the semester. By the time I had arrived, the hundred or so participants from six continents had built lasting bonds, and it felt a little like joining a high school halfway through the year… until I took a brief pause to decide where to sit for lunch and got lovingly dragged to a table full of writers I’d never met, none of whom knew who I was. Through two decades of working really hard to listen and learn from one another, we’ve created a culture that’s remarkably welcoming, both to a jet-lagged co-founder, to our new executive director, Malka Older, and to the many Nepali authors, journalists, and students who joined us.

This work has never been easy to do. Global Voices is only possible because the vast majority of the work is done by volunteers. A small staff is supported by donations, but mostly from grant funding. Ivan Sigal and Georgia Popplewell, who took the reins from Rebecca and me and ably marshaled the organization for fifteen years, were very good at helping foundations like MacArthur, Open Society Foundation, Omidyar, Ford, Knight, Kellogg, and others understand the importance of our work, directly and indirectly. Those funders value the stories and podcasts we produce, but they also saw a literal generation of writers, translators, and editors trained within our community. (Many have gone on to be leading journalists in their home countries, or for international news organizations.)

At the 2024 Global Voices Summit in Kathmandu, Nepal. Used with permission.

We’ve faced financial hard times before, but we’ve never seen anything like the environment we’re in now. The Trump administration’s cuts to international aid have hit us both directly and indirectly. Directly, some of the organizations we work with, like the Open Technology Fund, have seen their funding held up by the White House, and have had to go to court to continue operating. When they don’t get funded, neither do we. But the secondary effects have been profound as well. Cuts to international aid, public broadcasting, and public health have left thousands of worthy organizations seeking the support of a small number of foundations, who now see massively increased demand for their limited funds.

We have the blessing of being a genuinely international organization — we were founded by US citizens as a Netherlands nonprofit, and our board represents Egypt, Nigeria, the UK, Indonesia, India, Peru, the Netherlands and Hong Kong. Like a lot of international organizations, we’re turning to European funders… but we’re hearing from our European members that nationalism is making work like ours harder in their countries as well.

It’s a dark and difficult time in the world right now. The work we’ve done at Global Voices has long represented a vision of how the world could be different. We could listen carefully to one another, to understand our world from multiple points of view. We could work together on projects too big for one person — or one group of people from the same nation — to take on. We can fight for an internet that connects us and builds understanding, rather than separating us into easily marketed consumer categories.

We’re in real trouble here, and we could use your help. If you’re in a position to make a gift to Global Voices, it really would make a difference right now. I have enormous confidence in Malka Older, Eddie Avila, and Krittika Vishwanath, our directors, who have taken the wheel of our ship in the stormiest seas I’ve ever seen. We need help getting through the next few months so we can figure out who’s able to support the hard work of international connection at a moment where the world is in danger of getting more fragmented and isolated.

If Global Voices is or has ever been an inspiration, please help us out. And be sure to check out the Everest Roam Nate Matias (a dear friend and US Global Voices board member) completed — a bike ride that includes a vertical climb the height of Everest, raising money for GV.

Originally published on Global Voices

Photo of Global Voices members and local people in Jordan, 2023, after a Global Voices conference. Photo from the author, used with permission.

The double hit of governments cutting funding for non-profits, alongside AI summaries on Google search, is putting human-led media at risk, with all that entails. More garbage (“AI slop”) online and more peddling dehumanizing politics, thanks to loads of money put into those narratives, and fewer human and humane voices. Our public discourse spaces deserve better.

Global Voices and its small staff (that includes me) need resources to continue what we do: seek, write, edit, and publish human stories for humane people like those I know on this platform.

Please consider getting to know us and donating so we can keep uplifting humanity's stories.

Support Global Voices as we publish more articles like this one

Learn more about our donation campaign.

Take it from me: I know the people who write the stories on Global Voices. I edit their work. It’s all real stuff. No ads. No selling your data. No strings attached to political criteria. It’s all pretty straightforward and honest work.

Below, I’ll be sharing some of my favorite GV stories that we've published recently from the Latin American and Spanish corner, so you get to know us better.

Neighbors come together to defend urban trees in Caracas, Venezuela

A Global Voices story makes you realize, or rather remember, that people on the other corner of the planet also cry for their urban trees that are felled without reason. We are in this together. I love this story by Estefania Salazar, from Caracas, Venezuela.

Anibal Isturdes, poet and environmentalist, Venezuela, said:

Even from the knife of ecocide, the resilient joy of hope arises.

Spanish artists reimagine Picasso's Guernica against the genocide in Gaza

Canva adaptation of Moreno Mural's artwork (@morenomural) by Global Voices. Art used with permission.

A story I reported on for Global Voices, but for which I have no words.

More than 80 years after the bombardment of Guernica in Spain, Palestine is experiencing widespread massacres at the hands of the Israeli authorities, exacerbated by the inaction of foreign powers, and children have not been spared. They, too, are victims of bombing, violence, and famine. According to the United Nations, since the start of Israel's war on Gaza in 2023, more than 50,000 Palestinian children have been killed or injured. Many have died in their mothers’ arms.

Thanks to the translators who have published this story in Spanish, Arabic, Serbian, Greek, and Italian. Pain knows no borders and no languages. Thanks to the artists and PararLaGuerra.

A runner’s highs and lows in escaping Cuba

Photo of the author‘s running shoes, used with permission.

When I was a high school student, my dream was to work for Courrier International, a French media that translates stories from around the world into French, allowing us to see a glimpse of how other people, in their language, understand life and politics. I'm realizing that by working for Global Voices, that dream came true.

I absolutely adored reading, and then carefully translating, this story of a Cuban filmmaker who escaped Cuba and goes for a jog (in Barcelona) to process it all. You can be in his head. Open your mind and support us. Thanks to Periodismo de Barrio and the author for this beautiful article.

Originally published on Global Voices

Image made with CanvaPro.

In July 2025, Global Voices launched our donation campaign with the ambitious goal of raising USD 250,000 to support our newsroom and translation services.

As a thank you for supporting Global Voices, we're sending out exclusive gifts to those who hit certain donation milestones! If you'd like to order some of the new gifts, we're happy to discount the amount of your earlier donation from a merch order. Just let us know in the comments on the donation form.

Of course, if you'd like to give an entirely new donation, that would be great. We need, and appreciate, every dollar!

Those who donate a total of USD 75 or more can choose a GV mug, USD 100 or more, a GV tote bag, USD 150 or more a beanie or hat, and USD 200 and up will get a metal GV water bottle. Thank you so much for your consideration and support during this challenging time — newsrooms like ours can't run without the generous support of readers like you.

If you'd like to donate or increase your donation to reach the above milestones, find the donation form here:

Originally published on Global Voices

The author during a panel about blogging at the Global Voices Summit 2024 in Kathmandu, Nepal. Photo by Pei-Chi Chang. Used with permission.

This edited piece was first published on the author's blog.

I joined Global Voices in July 2006. After almost two decades, I am still part of the GV newsroom as an author and editor for Southeast Asia. I was having a video call with my daughter in December 2024 during the GV summit in Kathmandu when I realized she was only a year old when I attended my first GV summit in 2006 in Delhi. That’s how long I’ve been with GV which meant I celebrated important life moments while being part of the GV community.

GV was more than just a platform for bloggers when it was founded in 2004. I have always believed that it represents what is good about the internet. My belief in GV’s legacy was reaffirmed during the Kathmandu summit which inspired us to reflect about the power of community and collaboration.

Looking back, it’s amazing how GV pushed forward the idea that those who write or blog about their lives and their communities should be given a bigger platform where they can share and discuss their ideas. Instead of being distracted by the debate over whether bloggers should be recognized as journalists, GV produced stories based on what is being shared by ordinary internet users. GV was bold enough to amplify the views of social media users before it became the norm for the mainstream press to check what’s trending online.

GV led numerous initiatives that sought to address the problems we encounter online which led to projects such as Lingua, Rising Voices, Advox, Newsframes, and Civic Media Observatory. We do not merely verify reports since our contributors and media partners are mostly on the ground reporting from the frontlines and providing coverage to people’s concerns that are often underreported. We highlight local perspectives, we provide context to viral narratives, and our stories are not intended to chase clout or profit but to empower our communities. GV continues to fulfill this mission despite its meagre resources.

Global Voices group photo during its Colombo summit in 2017. Photo by Raphael Tsavkko Garcia. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

I will not get tired of telling my friends and people I meet at various events that if they are looking for an online resource to understand what’s happening in the world, GV can serve as their guide. I make this recommendation not just because I am part of the GV community but also because the work of GV speaks for itself. I start my day with coffee and a GV story, and I guarantee that this life hack will also immensely add value to your online experience. Our homepage provides global news curated by our network of volunteers, contributors, and media partners. A deep dive into our website reveals an archive of stories brimming with authenticity.

A decade ago, I wrote about the impact of GV on my life and how it offered an alternative to an online world undermined by disinformation, state-backed cybercrimes, and big tech’s evil schemes. GV survived and remained true to its vision despite these challenges and the rapidly deteriorating media environment.

Unfortunately, the changing media landscape could further restrict the space that would allow independent and citizen media-driven outlets like GV to thrive and continue their work more effectively. This is quite troubling because we need more platforms like GV that can narrate and break down the consequences of reduced diverse media voices in our respective countries.

Amid the crisis we face today, our collective solidarity is what truly matters. Our hope lies in our community and our global audience, which appreciates the role of GV and independent media in upholding people’s right to credible information. Help us promote the work of GV. Write for GV. Be part of the community. Spread the word about GV and how donating to this community is a generous act that would enable it to lead more innovations and interventions in shaping the future of the internet.

#KeepGVStrong: Here’s how you can send a donation gift to GV.

Originally published on Global Voices

A screenshot from Resham रेशम – Prakash Dutraj, one of the songs in the GV Nepali playlist. Screenshot via YouTube. Fair use.

Global Voices has a special relationship with Nepalese culture. Many of our longtime contributors are from Nepal, allowing us to cover Nepali languages, art, literature, history, politics, and news. One of our closest media partners is The Nepali Times, and Kathmandu was even the site of our 2024 summit, where we met for two days of connection, collaboration, and conversation with journalists, activists, technologists, and others from around the world.

This is one of the reasons that long-time Global Voices supporter Nathan Matias (Nate) decided to embark on an Everest Roam cycling challenge, where riders climb more than 10,000 meters in elevation (32,809 feet) in less than 36 hours, riding a minimum distance of 400 kilometers (248 miles). He made this journey to help Global Voices meet our goal of raising USD 250,000 to continue our crucial work of cross-border reporting, translation, and supporting underrepresented communities, as we've been doing for the past 20 years.

To help Nate along his journey, members of Global Voices’ Nepalese community made a Nepali-language playlist for him to listen to during the ride. Enjoy the full playlist here:

In addition to a Nepali-language playlist, the community also put together a general playlist, which can be found here.

Originally published on Global Voices

Over the course of three days, GVer Nate Matias cycled the equivalent of 10,000 meters in elevation to help raise money for Global Voices. That's a lot of miles, and, to help him along his journey, Global Voices community members made a playlist for him to listen to during the ride.

Here is the full community-sourced playlist made for his journey!

We asked some community members to give context for their song choices. Here are their stories.

“Jerusalem” by Fairouz and Ziad Rahbani

Elisa Marvena recommended the song “Jerusalem,” which has many versions, but she recommends the one by the iconic Lebanese artist Fairouz. She explains what the song means to her here:

“It's difficult to overstate the impact of Fairouz‘s legacy on [Southwest Asia and North Africa] SWANA's music and culture. Although she is a Lebanese Christian born in the ’30s, her music and persona surpass geographic, national, generational, class, ethnic, and religious identities.

With the contribution of different composers and producers, and most notably her son Ziad Rahbani [a Lebanese producer, composer, pianist, playwright, and political commentator], who passed away last month, she also touched several music styles. But this song in particular is an anthem — a love song to Al Quds, the city of Jerusalem.

Through its poetic lines and metaphors, it speaks about grief, destitution, resistance, and liberation. And you don't even need to understand the language to grasp the depth of its sentiment, or to weep while listening to it. I always get goosebumps. However, what I shared [for the playlist] were two versions of it, neither of which is by Fairouz herself, but I feel both do it justice.”

“Zamilou” by Bu Kolthoum  | بو كلثوم – زمّلوا

Lara AlMalakeh shared this 2018 song by Bu Kolthoum, a Syrian rapper who is steadily gaining a following in the Netherlands. Lara shares what her work means for women:

“So the song is by a Syrian rapper who came to the Netherlands as a refugee, and took the stage name Bou Kulthoum (which is derived from the Arab culture). This song is empowering to women, talking about the strength and the impact they have, which is often disregarded in Arab societies.

That's why I love this song and also always support Bou Kulthoum, who's struggling to be recognized by the industry.”

The album “Ibérica y Latina” by Gaélica

Estefanía Salazar shared a fabulous album that's as diverse as the GV community!

“Ibérica y Latina” (2005) is a joyful instrumental tune by the Venezuelan world music band Gaélica, that brings together sounds from Madeira Island (Portugal), the Galicia province (Spain), and the Americas, all present in Venezuela's cultural makeup. Really, it conveys a ‘rise and shine’ feeling. Don't miss 3:10 onwards.

The inside story is this: Those sounds come from the fusion of the Madeiran and Galician communities that migrated to Venezuela after the Second World War and local sounds. It reflects the mix that can happen anywhere — culturally or musically. In the piece, you can hear pipes, and yes, they use pipes in Galicia (which comes from an even older Celtic influence).

I heard it first as a wake-up call — one of the most joyful I have heard in the early morning!”

A selection of Caribbean-inspired hits

Candice Stewart, a regular contributor for the GV Caribbean team, put together a list of songs to help energize Nate throughout his journey.

“Call me a ‘selecta’ or a DJ. LOL. My selections for Nate’s playlist draw inspiration from the heart of the Caribbean, especially my homeland, Jamaica, and my other love, Trinidad and Tobago, with a few gems from artists across the region. The mix was curated to send Nate on a journey: songs to offer blessings, guidance, and protection as he begins his Everest push; songs that teach patience, grit, and verve; and songs that manifest victory and a winner’s mindset.

From the spiritual grounding of ‘23rd Psalm’ by Buju Banton ft. Morgan Heritage and ‘Lord Watch Over Our Shoulders’ by Garnett Silk to the motivational fire of ‘Far From Finished,’ by Voice and ‘Winning Right Now’ by Agent Sasco, each track carries intention. Then there are the feel-good, hype-man anthems, tunes like ‘Shake The Place’ by Machel Montano and Destra Garcia, ‘Cocoa Tea’ by Kes, ‘What Am I Gonna Do’ by Buju Banton ft. Nadine Sutherland, and ‘Come Home’ by Nailah Blackman and Skinny Fabulous, that should spark Nate’s inner dance party and keep his spirit lifted.”

“Active” by Asake and Travis Scott

Finally, GV contributor Pamela Ephraim choose a sporty, energizing song with a mix of Yoruba and Pidgin expressions to push Nate to the finish line.

“I chose this high‑energy Afrobeats track because it’s all about being fully engaged, confident, and thriving.

Asake repeatedly sings ‘Oh man, I’m active.’ It’s a clear affirmation of being on top of his game. The lyrics emphasize strength, hustle, and presence, using Yoruba and Pidgin expressions like kampe (meaning “strong/cemented”) to reinforce his resilience.”

In addition to a general playlist, to honor the Nepalese roots of the cycling challenge, GV community members in Nepal put together a playlist highlighting Nepali language songs.

Originally published on Global Voices

In a world of conflict and competition, cultivating understanding across human differences is difficult, necessary, and so beautiful. This summer, I'm riding my bicycle up the equivalent of Mount Everest on a journey of connection and understanding. As I do so, I invite you to follow along and donate to help Global Voices meet their goal of raising $250,000 to continue the crucial cross-border reporting, translation and support of underrepresented communities they’ve been doing for the past 20 years. 

The sport of endurance cycling loves a challenge, and one of its biggest challenges is Everest Roam, where riders climb more than 10,000 meters in elevation (32,809 feet) in less than 36 hours, riding a minimum distance of 400km (248 miles). In my wildest dreams, I would love to collect a dollar for every meter in this 10,000 meter ascent.

Note: If you will be donating through the widget below, please mention in the comment section provided that it's for the Everest campaign!

Nepal and the Kathmandu Valley first came into focus in my life through a group of Nepalese friends from college. Having moved to the US during the Nepalese Civil War, they described the challenge of living peaceful, safe lives in a time of conflict and upheaval. My friends introduced me to Momos, Kheer, and other Nepalese food. I also learned to play Bagh-Chal, an ancient Nepalese game of tigers and goats that teaches players to think about asymmetric power, force, and non-violence. I am so grateful for the generosity of those friends. They showed me how to be a guest, a host, and a friend in a society whose primary scripts direct us to turn the camera on ourselves instead.

Despite a lifelong curiosity about Nepalese culture, I don't know if I'll ever get to visit Nepal. My respiratory disability makes the air pollution in Kathmandu, the capital city, a guaranteed visit to the hospital (the AQI reached 333 this April). As I attempt the Everest Roam Challenge, however, the Global Voices community is generously creating a 30-hour playlist of music, history, culture, and analysis about the country that will help me connect more deeply as I ride with the communities they call home.

Global Voices is an international, multilingual community of writers, translators, and human rights activists that leverages the power of the internet to tell stories that build understanding across borders. Over fifteen years ago, the Global Voices community inspired me with ways to combine my passion for technology and human understanding. Through the GV community, I found my PhD advisor, opportunities for my early research, and a network of principled people who have encouraged me, challenged me, and helped me see the world in greater color. I now serve on the board of the US-based Friends of Global Voices. GV has a strong South Asian community, and I'm excited to share their playlist!

Facilitating a collaborative global community working in dozens of languages is not an easy job—it takes a great deal of management, editorial work and coordination, and technology. The funds we raise for Global Voices through the Everest Roam Challenge will help them keep connecting people across borders for the common good.

So if you care about our collective capacity to understand our fellow humans and rise to the global challenges of our times, I invite you to follow along my ride and donate to Global Voices.

Ride details:

• Ride time: August 1-3
  • Backup dates in case of weather: August 10-12
• Route plan (current draft): FLX Everest Roam (on Komoot). Guiding goals:
  • Climb many of the most beautiful and iconic road and gravel hills in the area between Ithaca and Watkins Glen NY
  • Minimize climb repeats
• Distance: 400km, 300 miles 
• Maximum gradient: 20%
• Time limit: 36 hours

How to follow the ride:

Since I'm going to be busy riding my bike, the team at Global Voices will check in, post updates, and share media from my journey. You can follow them here:

Originally published on Global Voices

Members of the Global Voices community at the GV summit in Kathmandu, Nepal, in December 2024. Photo by Jer Clarke. Used with permission.

Today, Global Voices is launching a donation campaign to raise USD 250,000 to keep our news and translation sites running. 

Historically, Global Voices has been primarily supported by foundations and other grant-makers, and we’re grateful for the funding we receive that way. But sharp cuts to foreign aid by a number of governments are shrinking the available funds for nonprofits, with digital rights organizations like ours taking a particular hit.

And it’s a hard time for news and translation organizations right now, with new technologies being used to cut staff and mass-produced disinformation crowding out quality news. Even in this challenging time, Global Voices’ production and readership have been going up, but since we are committed to never paywalling and not showing ads, that doesn’t translate into covering our running costs unless readers donate.

Global Voices is a relatively low-cost organization to run: we have no office, no rent, and few physical supplies. We pay for the servers that host our site and a few other administrative costs, but by far the majority of our expenses are for paying our staff. Many grants don’t want to fund more than a small percentage of personnel costs, because they want to pay directly for activities, but personnel costs are the basis of all our activities. Our staff and our volunteers research stories, write and edit, translate and advocate — and sometimes they also do graphic design or photo choice, social media promotion, and more. That is who we’re trying to support with the funds from this campaign — our community, the people who make the articles and essays, translations, research reports, and podcasts that you find on our site.

If we had a dollar for every page view of the site, we wouldn't need to do a campaign! And if each of those dollars were a monthly commitment, we’d be able to plan ahead for longer-term activities and be generally less stressed. But we know that not everyone can contribute for lots of different reasons, so instead we can think about it as five dollars from one-fifth of the monthly site visits, or ten dollars from one-tenth, and maybe someone who hasn't read anything this month but believes in what we do kicks in twenty-five bucks, and someone else who loves translations sends another fifteen and… you get the idea.

We hope that you can be one of those contributors, and if you can’t right now, we hope you still come and spend time on our site, and then tell other people about it. Even more than a news site, Global Voices is a community, and we’d like you to be a part of it. We’ll be sharing about the campaign and about Global Voices on social media, so please repost so more people learn about us and how they can get involved. Thank you for your support!

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