The New CMD: From Grim News to Great News

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The economic recession has been brutal to our Center for Media and Democracy, bringing a drop in individual and foundation funding that forced us to reduce our staff and cut our budget. Despite the stress and turmoil we stayed the course in conducting a national search for my replacement, our next executive director. We simultaneously appealed to past supporters for financial help, and we developed new programs with new supporters. I hoped that by this summer we'd be able to both announce a new executive leader and the turn-around of our economic crisis.

After months of difficulty and with hard work by our board and sacrifice by our staff, I'm elated to report that we have succeeded. An extensive search led by our consultant Susan Egmont has brought us a dynamic new executive director who despite her youth has years of national leadership in both government service and with prominent public interest and civil liberties groups in Washington, DC. We'll introduce her to you soon in early July. At the same time, we've obtained new financial support to launch a major program focused on analyzing the massive new government spending on corporate bailouts, economic stimulus and health care reform.

The health care component will be led in part by Wendell Potter, a former industry insider who is working with us to examine the role of the powerful insurance industry in undermining, manipulating and thwarting reform. In July we'll have additional news regarding our new project watchdogging the trillions of dollars in bailout, stimulus and reform legislation. We will then introduce to you our third new CMD staffer who has for a decade been in the forefront of organizing around international economic, environmental and labor issues for the public interest community. In short, CMD has gone from grim news to great news.

Yes, we are still operating under an austere budget that has cut back our staffing and seen the departure of two key colleagues. But we are about to bounce back and a new CMD is emerging with new programs and experienced senior leadership. Sacrifice from our staff, good decision-making by our board, and timely donations from our dedicated donors has enabled this turn around, and you will see the results unfold in the days and weeks ahead. Stay tuned for announcements on our website.

Let me emphasize that CMD needs your financial support, more than ever. Our spending has been cut to the bone, but we still need to raise an additional $100,000 in general operating support to meet our austere 2009 budget. Most of our current staff is working half time, and we need to increase our revenue to bring everyone back up to full time to provide the expanded investigations and reporting you expect from us. Cutting hours has cost us the services of our former associate director Judith Siers-Poisson who has gone on to other work, but luckily for CMD is available on a consulting basis. Blake Hall, a key half of our IT team, has also found work with another organization and we miss his expertise.

Still, know that the tide has turned here at CMD. Cutbacks have allowed us to survive, and new leadership and program staff are coming on. I am currently serving part-time to manage the organization through these changes, and will be available to the organization as needed after our new executive director firmly takes the reigns in August.

Months ago I pledged that CMD would not be one of the 100,000 US non-profits that might go belly-up during this recession, and that's clearly the case. The grow-back of CMD will take more months of careful management, but the current staff, the new leadership coming on, and our board of directors are all committed to see that CMD thrives and reaches new heights and impact in the months ahead.

Please help financially. CMD maintains its independence by not accepting government, corporate or labor union grants. We rely on individual contributions and support from non-profit foundations. These will continue to be difficult economic times and we need your help. Please donate now online.

Thanks much for your continued support of our important mission. You will see it paying dividends in the days and weeks ahead as the new CMD emerges from tough times and takes flight.