T-Squared: Gun the Engine

Today is the last day of our spring membership drive. It's been a great week full of hope and optimism for the future of accountability journalism in Texas. So many new and renewing members, and beyond that, an inspirational, aspirational conversation about the coverage we deserve and the priorities of this state we love.

The Tribune's exceedingly worthy mission — to raise the level of civic engagement, and to civilize the public discourse — has been on display every step of the way. We really are building a community of everyday insiders. We really are disseminating news you can trust. We really are allowing you to unlock the power of public information. We really are giving you the means to claim a seat at the table. We've been doing all that and more through our robust reporting, our data visualizations and our in-person events for four-and-a-half years now. And we'll keep doing it for four-and-a-half more and beyond.

But as a nonprofit, we need your help to ensure that we have the resources to execute upon our ambitious plans. We've enjoyed great success to date — our greatest-ever success last year, in fact, by every measure. For a lot of people or organizations, that would be the perfect time to let up on the gas, to coast. At the Trib, we only know how to press down harder on the pedal, to gun the engine. On this last day of our drive, give us what we need for maximum speed heading into the 2014 general election and the 2015 legislative session.

As if you need an incentive to sign up and throw in a few bucks, we'll sweeten the pot: Anyone who donates today, May 9, will be entered into a drawing to tape an introduction to an upcoming edition of the Texas Tribune TribCast, joining the ranks of Rick Perry, Wendy Davis, Maria Shriver, Ted Cruz and countless leading lights from our little news and politics universe. We might even persuade Reeve Hamilton to come to your house, office or undisclosed location and record it himself. (You can pay extra to not interact with Reeve.)

Please contribute generously. Thanks so much!