If the Cloudcroft Reader Matters to You, Then Please Read This Letter
Support the Cloudcroft Reader in December and double your contribution with a matching grant. By being an Underwriter, you ensure the accountability reporting we do continues at a high-level
Dear Cloudcroft Readers,
We’re your neighbors — your eyes and ears at village meetings, town halls, and community events. We ask questions; you get answers.
If you find the Cloudcroft Reader and its firsthand reporting valuable to your quality of life and the community, we need you now.
This is it. The moment we find out what support we have in the community from readers such as you.
Every December, the New Mexico Local News Fund matches individual contributions to the Cloudcroft Reader.
So, your $15 monthly pledge to the Cloudcroft Reader becomes $30. Whatever you contribute, NMLNF adds $1 for every $1 you give—doubling your impact.
This matching program is the financial backbone of our 2026 budget. It’s how we pay our contributors. It’s how we keep showing up to every council meeting, hosting forums, and expanding our coverage.
By becoming a donor, you become our partner in providing fair, accurate coverage of the issues and people that make a difference in the health and vitality of our community.
If you want to be a part of our project, now is the moment to contribute. Get more bang for your buck.
Here’s what we did in 2024 and 2025:
We covered the choppy tenure of the last three mayors — and the race to elect a new one. We sat through budget meetings that revealed the village couldn’t generate an accurate balance sheet. We sifted through budgets and audit reports.
We documented water crises that forced emergency trucking of water, and explored the challenges of fixing or replacing an aging water system. We chronicled the disturbingly high turnover rate in the village’s administrative staff and police force.
In village meetings where livestreams are inconsistent and minutes aren’t posted, we’ve been there. Forcing tough questions, recording videos and audio so readers could see and hear for themselves.
We hosted candidate forums at the Lodge Pavilion and produced videos so every voter could watch mayoral and trustee hopefuls debate the issues. We investigated how the village manages its $200,000 tourism budget, exposing blurred roles and a process that had operated without legally required oversight for years.
We profiled the ice rink’s transition to year-round operations under new ownership—telling both the accountability stories and the community stories that shape Cloudcroft’s future.
We launched Leadership Cloudcroft to prepare our volunteer leaders for their duties after witnessing unprepared leaders and weak knowledge-sharing in village government. In year one, we graduated a dozen members, including newly elected Trustee Keith Hamilton.
When Public Works Supervisor J.J. Carrizal spoke up at a council meeting and asked the council, “Fight for us; be fair,” we captured it. When the Old Apple Barn sale went sideways, we reported on it based on court documents. When Cloudcroft Schools became a statewide model for phone-free classrooms—math proficiency jumped 18 percentage points—we shared that story.
Here’s the truth: Our small and independent team survives on your support, and every dollar enables our essential work of questioning, investigating, and reporting for you.
85% of every dollar goes to our team — writers, photographers, and artists right here in the village — for their creative work. Work that serves the best interests of the community.
Your pledge lets us continue this work, answering only to you—our individual supporters.
Why this December drive matters: every $1 you contribute gets matched.
A successful December fund drive means we can keep doing—and expanding—the accountability journalism that’s made a difference in Cloudcroft.
A new mayor and council take office on January 1st. The budget problems won’t fix themselves. Someone needs to keep showing up, asking questions, and reporting what they find.
This matching program ends on December 31st.
After that, the match is gone.
Our small village faces significant challenges and has a knack for spawning big stories. With your support, we’ll keep the spotlight shining on the issues that matter most to Cloudcroft — fairly, accurately.
Cloudcroft’s story matters. Help us report it.
Thank you,
Chris Hearne, Hannah Dean
The Cloudcroft Reader
P.S. This only happens in December. Don’t leave that money on the table. Pledge now: https://sacramento-mountain-news-llc.fundjournalism.org/donate/