Friends:

First off, thank you for being a Daily Poster paying subscriber. Your support has allowed us to flourish and grow while holding the powerful accountable — and our blockbuster investigation into UnitedHealthcare is a good example of that.

Many of you have asked if there is anything else you can do to support our work, and a pressing need has arisen: We have to increase our open records request fund to report out more stories like the UnitedHealthcare investigation.

Your subscription already helps us pay for open records requests, which we truly appreciate. But if you are able to pitch in anything more, please use our tip jar right now:

All tips received over the next 24 hours will go directly to funding open records requests. Please help us reach our goal of raising $1,000.

Why do we need money for records requests? Because while public agencies are required by law to respond to open records requests, they can also demand large payments to fulfill the requests — and many agencies use exorbitant fees to discourage scrutiny of their actions.

Over the past month alone, three different state agencies sent us bills for $235, $236, and $273, and a fourth department just demanded $1,000 in response to one of our requests.

We don’t have enough money to cover these bills, which means leaving important stories on the table. So if you are able to do so, please contribute to our open records request fund by contributing to our tip jar right now:

Such funds do not go to waste. Nearly every week, we break scoops based on records requests we send out. Here are a few examples:

Record requests are the lifeblood of The Daily Poster’s investigative reporting efforts, and those requests are becoming increasingly expensive. All of you are already giving so much to support us, and for that, we thank you. But if you have the desire and ability to donate a few more dollars, there has never been a more important time to do so.

If you can, please use our tip jar right now to increase our records request fund:

All tips received in the next 24 hours will go directly to the fund. With your help, I know we can reach $1,000 in that time. With that sort of support, we will be able to pay for many more records requests — and the rich and powerful won’t know what hit them.

Rock the boat,

Sirota