I am writing to you just hours after The Latino Newsletter received a letter from the Internal Revenue Service.

Ironically, it was the best letter I’ve received in a while, like a college acceptance letter. You could only imagine how I felt.

The letter made it official: The Latino Newsletter is now a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, retroactive to when we registered our nonprofit in Massachusetts last June. After applying to the IRS back in July, it was a long wait. Like most journalists who live by deadlines, patience is not one of my strong characteristics.

So the letter was a good letter.

It felt like something clicked into place. Not a finish line, but a real marker of how far we’ve come and how serious this has become. What started as an idea is now a nonprofit organization that is committed to uplifting the voices of our community through local, multimedia journalism.

It’s taken a lot to get here. From the first 121 subscribers who signed up last May, weeks before the first edition even went out, to our earliest donors, to the contributors and subscribers who believed in what this could be. Every step has come from people saying yes.

Just some examples of those steps:

• We secured our first funder, the Latino Community Foundation, last July, and a fiscal sponsor in August, Tiny News Collective, to help us operate while our nonprofit application was under IRS review.

• By September, we had a public media partner in New England and finished the year strong.

• Recently, we expanded coverage in Boston, opened a bureau in San Juan, and became a part of the groundbreaking Latino Content Hub.

Every one of those moves helped make this moment possible.

We’ve still got a lot of work ahead, and there will come a time when I will no longer be part of our day-to-day operations. But we’re still taking a moment to recognize how far we’ve come and to thank you for helping us get here.

This nonprofit status isn’t just a milestone.

It’s a commitment to keep showing up for our community.

Seguimos.

Julio

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The Latino Content Hub

Click on the image below or here for the latest from the Latino Content Hub.

What We’re Watching

Truth Across Borders: El Tiempo Latino recently brought together Marty Baron and Jorge Ramos for a conversation on how to defend truth and shape the future of journalism.

About the Author

Julio Ricardo Varela is the founder of The Latino Newsletter. He is also its current part-time publisher and executive director. Email: [email protected]

Do you believe in creating new journalism lanes for Latinos and Latinas? Do you believe that U.S. mainstream outlets will never understand our community? Consider donating to The Latino Newsletter. Any little bit helps to keep this newsletter free and accessible to all. ¡Gracias mil!