Why I Give

This is a money appeal — a fundraising pitch — so I’ll keep it short and sweet. Or certainly short.

I don’t ask others to give to what I myself don’t give to. I give to National Review, though I’m an employee (a senior editor). I don’t give a lot, but a little — a respectable mite.

I give because I love reading National Review, and benefit from reading it. And because, without donations from readers, the magazine wouldn’t survive.

It was in college, I’m pretty sure, that I first saw National Review. I’ve been reading it ever since. Over the years, the magazine has taught me, amused me, thrilled me, provoked me, infuriated me, consoled me — etc. It has been an important thing in my life.

Ten, fifteen years ago, Rupert Murdoch said that we were living in a “golden age” of media. It’s so true — we are. Never have so many publications been available to so many.

Almost never do you have to pay to read something. It’s all at your fingertips. I pay for basically nothing on the Internet — no newspapers, no magazines.

I grin at something my colleague Kate O’Beirne once said. She said, “You won’t subscribe? I’ll go you one better: I won’t even register.” I won’t register either. If a website asks me to register, I just move on.

I guess you could go through life without ever having to buy a record, or whatever records are these days. Just about all the music under the sun is free on YouTube (and elsewhere, I suppose).

Yes, it’s a golden age of media — for the consumer. For the producer, it’s a very tough age. How do you bring in enough money to keep going? Advertising doesn’t cut it. Subscriptions don’t cut it. At least at NR.

I’m going to burble on about my love of this magazine. I often say, “It’s like they put it out just to please me.” NR offers many of my favorite writers, on the most important topics, and some interesting unimportant ones, too. Some of the writers are famous; some are not. I’m not going to start naming them, because I’ll leave some out.

Suffice it to say: National Review is like a present to me — biweekly in print, daily (hourly?) on the Web.

I not only get opinion, or commentary, from NR; I get news, too (which one shouldn’t expect from a journal of opinion, but which is a bonus).

Every year, I contribute to a set of organizations. That set includes another magazine: The New Criterion (for which I also work). I give to the Middle East Media Research Institute. And to some human-rights organizations. And to a couple of other outfits.

I don’t have to. You don’t have to. We have to pay our taxes. We have to put oil in our cars, and ice cream in our freezers. But no one makes us contribute to NR or the Humane Society. No one makes us contribute to church, temple, or mosque. We do it because we think we should. And because we value those institutions. And because we think, “If not me, who? Am I waiting for the Rockefellers and the Gateses to fork over?”

In the case of NR, we would wait for a long, long time.

Frankly, if you pay for something — or contribute to its survival — it probably means more to you. You feel invested, so to speak.

I should probably mention this, too: We at NR wouldn’t ask for money if we didn’t need it. We do, sorely. And we don’t go crazy with donors’ money either. NR is not a country club. There is no members’ grille. Many employees have taken pay cuts in these challenging times.

I’m not boo-hooing. NR is not the Bowery. I’m just saying that we are mindful of where the money comes from and that we’re not casual about it.

NR is a little platoon — Bill Buckley’s blue-bordered oasis, and slingshot. I’d like to see this thing keep going. I think it does some good in the world. I think the world would be a little poorer without it.

Which is why I give. Thanks for considering a contribution. I think you’ll regard it as worth it.

(The contribution link — by the way! — is here.)