Breckenridge Texan

The Breckenridge Texan launched our annual fundraising campaign Thursday morning at the Chamber of Commerce’s Coffee and Connections monthly business networking event.

Our fundraising goal between now and Dec. 31, 2024, is $4,000. If we can raise that much money through donations to the Breckenridge Texan, the NewsMatch program and other funders will turn that into $12,000. That will go a long way in helping us continue our coverage of Breckenridge and Stephens County.

This is the Breckenridge Texan’s seventh year to take part in the NewsMatch project, which supports non-profit newsrooms around the country like the Breckenridge Texan by matching donations we receive in November and December. All donations — and the matching funds — will go to the Breckenridge Texan and help support our work here to provide quality news to the local community.

As a non-profit news site, the Breckenridge Texan depends on donations, in addition to ad sales, to fund our daily operations. We use the donations and income from ad sales to pay for daily operating expenses, such as website hosting, email service, internet connection, office supplies, freelance writers and photographers, etc.

Every day that we are in the community covering events and activities, we are striving to meet our mission of providing accurate, high-quality, current, local journalism to the residents of Breckenridge, Texas, and the surrounding area, as well as to those who are interested in the region. Our goal is to make a difference in the lives of people living here by informing and educating through a sustainable source for news, entertainment and sports coverage.

And, over the past seven years, we’ve discovered that another role the Breckenridge Texan plays is to inform people outside our community about what’s going on here. They visit the Breckenridge Texan, seeking information about Breckenridge and Stephens County for a variety of reason, including because they are planning to move here or to invest in the community by bringing or opening a business here.

When we — the husband and wife journalism team of Tony Pilkington and Carla McKeown — founded the Breckenridge Texan in 2017, we set it up as a non-profit, so that it wouldn’t be a big  financial burden on the community and to make sure control of our local news coverage stays just that..local. That’s why we seek out additional help, like the NewsMatch program and grants we’ve applied for, to make every local donation go even further.

“Regardless of how much assistance we receive from external sources like NewsMatch, we know that the Breckenridge Texan wouldn’t be possible without the support of our readers,” Pilkington said. “We want everyone to know how much we appreciate the opportunity to document the history of Breckenridge and Stephens County as it happens, from the Buckaroo football games to concerts at the National Theatre, from local government meetings to community events, like Frontier Days. We enjoy it all.”

In addition to regular news coverage, the Breckenridge Texan also offers:

• A weekly newsletter that delivers a roundup of recent stories via email every Monday
• Photo galleries from local events
• A Calendar of Events, which lists upcoming community activities
• Local obituaries
• And more

If you’ve already donated during this campaign, thank you! If you haven’t donated yet, we know you understand the importance of this work, and if you can help, that would be wonderful. Any amount will help us get closer to our goal. Just choose one of the options listed below to make a donation.

As mentioned above, our fundraising goal this year $4,000. That money will be matched by the NewsMatch program, doubling the community’s donations. Plus, this year, the Breckenridge Texan qualifies for the Rural Partner Fund, which will add another “match” to the first $3,000 we raise. The Rural Partner Fund is awarded to newsrooms serving rural audiences and covering rural issues and is supported by a coalition of funders including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and Walton Family Foundation.

Additionally, if we receive donations from at least 50 new donors during the NewsMatch fundraising campaign, we qualify for an added $1,000. So, if you’ve ever thought about donating to the Breckenridge Texan but have never gotten around to it, this is the year to do it.

All of that would effectively triple the $4,000 goal we’ve set, bringing our total to $12,000.

There are several ways to make a donation:

• Go directly to the Breckenridge Texan’s donation site
• Go the Breckenridge Texan’s page on the NewsMatch site and click on the “Donate” button there
• Mail a check to P.O. Box 1228, Breckenridge, Texas 76424. Please make the check out to the Institute for Nonprofit News, the Breckenridge Texan’s 501(c)(3) fiscal sponsor.

Please note that when you make a donation online, your donation will show up on your bill under the name of our fiscal sponsor, INN (Institute for Non Profit News or their former name, Investigative News Network).

To read more about the Breckenridge Texan, click here for the About Us section. To read the Breckenridge Texan’s Donor Transparency policy, click here.

Cutline, top photo: The Breckenridge Texan hosted the Chamber of Commerce’s Coffee and Connections monthly business networking event on Thursday, Nov. 7, at the local TSTC campus. Publisher/Photographer Tony Pilkington and Editor/Writer Carla McKeown talked to the Chamber members at the event about the Breckenridge Texan and its current fundraising campaign. (Photo courtesy of Maylun VanWinkle/Breckenridge Chamber of Commerce)