Eleven years ago we started this outlet to speak truth to power, and serve the public interest. Since then we’ve won almost every major journalism award in Canada, and our reporting has moved policy and helped shape laws at every level of government.
As one of Ricochet’s founders, I wanted to write to you today to share some truly outstanding news — and to ask for your help. If you’ve ever treasured a word we’ve written I have a favour to ask, would you read to the end? If you do, there’s a surprise in it for you.
First, the news: Ricochet has been granted Registered Journalism Organization status by the Canada Revenue Agency, making us only the fourth English language media outlet in Canada to earn this designation. This is, without exaggeration, a game-changer for us.
If you’ve never heard of RJO status, you aren’t alone. This para-charitable status was created by the federal government roughly five years ago, and allows non-profit media organizations to access all the benefits of charitable status.
What does this mean for you? We can now issue tax receipts like any charity, and your donations are now fully tax deductible.
That means you can double your current donation, at no cost to you.
As a qualified donee, we can also accept donations from other charities, and bequeathments. So if you work for a charity looking to help shore up the future of journalism, or if you’re working on your will, spare a thought for us.
This incredible achievement also comes with an important string attached: As an RJO, no more than 20 per cent of our funding can come from a single donor. Given how small we are, many of the grants we’ve received from charitable foundations in the past would put us over that limit.
From the very beginning, when we crowdfunded over $80,000 in a month to launch this outlet, we’ve been driven by the support of small donors like you. That’s what guarantees our independence, and ensures that unlike many outlets these days, we work for you — not a hedge fund.
Now, in order to take the next step in our evolution, we need your support more than ever. We need an army of small donors to support our award-winning public interest journalism.
If you’re already a donor, please consider doubling your donation today. All donations made before December 31, 2025 will be deductible on this year’s taxes. So you can double your impact, and benefit from the tax advantages that come with charitable giving. It’s a win-win.
And if you’re not yet a donor, now is the perfect time to give. We’re hoping to recruit 100 new monthly donors between now and the new year. Will you be one of them?
Even if you can’t afford to give, sharing this appeal can make a world of difference. You are our ambassadors out in the world, and we need you to spread the good news.
Finally, I want to take a moment to pull back the curtain. Many people think we’re a huge operation — after all, we regularly win big, national awards and fellowships with names like Hillman and Michener. We must be a big team, right?
The truth is that Ricochet has just two full-time permanent employees — our indefatiguable managing editor Andrea Houston, whose otherworldly dedication is responsible for so many of our successes, and me. That’s it.
We have other employees on contracts, like our Local Journalism Initiative reporter Jon Thompson, or Indigenous journalist Brandi Morin, whose funding from the McConnell Foundation has not been renewed for 2026. We spend half our lives fighting for the funding to pay them, and their roles are always tenuous and uncertain.
We also have a handful of part-time employees, like our wonderful webmaster James Edgar, and our incredible engagement editor Sophia de Guzman Rivadeiro, who assembles the newsletter subscribers get every week, among many other tasks. Skilled audio producer David Sarrazin is paid a small stipend to produce Adrian Harewood’s podcast, and the list goes on.
And sometimes we get funding for fellowships, where we hire early-career talented young journalists like Zahra Khozema to work with us on a limited term. We’ve helped train at least a half dozen journalists who have gone on to important roles in major national news organizations. Something that makes us very proud.
We also benefit from the hard-work of volunteer board members like Ricochet co-founder Derrick O’Keefe, and broadcaster Anne Lagacé Dowson.
It is often said that we punch way above our weight. But doing so is tiring, and we need to expand if we’re to continue on. We’ve proven everything there is to prove about the quality of our work, and if we were in any other industry our successes would have been richly rewarded.
But that isn’t how journalism works in 2025.
Grants, when they come, are so often for projects, not our core operations. The only way we can fund our existence, the only way we stay alive to execute those award-winning projects, is thanks to the support of donors like you.
This is how the sausage gets made. YOU are how the sausage gets made. And we are forever grateful.
Now, I promised a surprise, right? Here it is. Want to talk about journalism in Canada? The state of press freedom? Want to ask questions about Ricochet? Want to talk hockey and tell me my beloved Habs suck?
Journalism is fundamental to democracy, and we’re losing it. Let’s talk about why it matters, and what it’ll take to save it.
Hit me up anytime. ethan@ricochet.media