This is Annie Chabel, CEO of The Intercept.

I’m writing to you today because we just launched our annual spring fundraising campaign, and I want to take a moment to explain why this drive is so important.

The Intercept was founded with major investment from a visionary philanthropist who saw a glaring need for more of the hard-hitting reporting too often missing from mainstream outlets.

With this support, The Intercept quickly built a premier investigative newsroom that immediately began beating corporate media outlets to major scoops on U.S. foreign policy, government surveillance, Wall Street corruption, and other issues the mainstream news wouldn’t touch.

However, this year, for the first time in our history, we are operating without support from our founding donor. We are now totally reliant on readers to fund everything we do.

Now I want to be clear: This was always the plan. The bet we made was that by jumpstarting a powerhouse newsroom, we could build the reputation and readership necessary to operate as an entirely people-powered nonprofit.

But this is where the rubber hits the road. If readers don’t step up, we will not survive. And it’s happening at the most precarious moment for the free press and democracy that we’ve ever faced together.

Here’s the bottom line: To put The Intercept on sound financial footing as we enter this new era, we need to add at least 4,000 monthly donors by March 31.

Will you chip in $5 a month to help support the groundbreaking investigative journalism of The Intercept?