The Bucket List Community Cafe Difference

Bucket List Community Cafe is different from other local journalism. We don’t spend our time agonizing about the mess the news industry is in.

We are not sensational—if it bleeds, it doesn’t lead at Bucket List. We focus on our neighbors, solutions, community connection and how we can serve the Denver metro with trustworthy news. And we do it with aspiring journalists, just starting out, who want neighbors to be informed, inspired and feel seen and heard.       

Bucket List’s uniqueness is a blessing and a curse. A blessing because we are innovators. We’ve won awards for our reporting as well as local and national acclaim for our mentorship model and the way we challenge outdated ways of producing news. However, it’s also a curse because we don’t fit the mold that traditional journalism funders look for.

For Bucket List Community Cafe to continue, we need community support from our leaders, businesses, and especially you.  

From August 17 to August 31, we aim to raise over $5,000 to support the students and recent graduates from three universities who bring you the news every week online and on the radio on the first Thursday of each month on KGNU.

Our journalism is free and accessible to everyone without paywalls, paid memberships, paid subscriptions and ad clutter. But it’s expensive to produce so we’re having a back to school fundraiser. What makes Bucket List work is community support.  

Without your contributions, it is hard to see how we can continue doing this beyond the end of the year. 

We are following all leads to raise money. We’re applying for grants, working with community groups, reaching out to potential sponsors and community fundraising. In addition to journalism funding, we are pursuing workforce development and education funds and looking into collaborations with investors.

We’re doing everything we can, but we need your help too. If everyone who reads this contributed $20, we’d be off to a great start in our Back to School Campaign.  

It’s really up to you now to decide if you want Bucket List to continue.

• Do you want our new cohort of interns (there have been over 80 so far) from CU Boulder, MSU Denver and DU covering the stories of your neighborhoods?  
• Do you want our paid apprentice journalists digging into what matters to you, like transportation, community safety, arts and culture, gentrification, events and more?
• Do you want community journalists ensuring representation so that all of our neighbors feel heard and seen?

We absolutely cannot keep doing this without you.  If we don’t raise more money, we will be forced to pause at the end of the year. Can we count on you today? 

It’s up to all of us, Bucket Listers, to make sure you are served with high-quality community journalism. Our team of aspiring journalists and journalism entrepreneurs brings all the passion and drive to serve you with free hyperlocal neighborly news, but you need to let them know you value this.

Between August 17 and August 31, contribute to Bucket List. Support our students and support community journalism. We cannot keep going without you!