Dear Worldmeets.US Reader,  

People not acquainted with the process of creating a non-profit, of which until not long ago I was one, might be surprised at what it entails to assemble a team of volunteers from scratch, undertake a mission that requires tremendous professional skill and create an organization that works in the public interest. This is not to complain about hardship, for we pursue our mission out of love of our countries and our world. This is to recruit you to help us with the task at hand.

We are a group comprised of people around the globe dedicated to gathering and translating the world's news and views about the United States for the benefit of the American people and the English-speaking world. We are a public agency not beholden to private interests.

My plea today is for you to help enable us to continue to provide and expand a historic and ambitious service that until we began five years ago, was never before available. Worldmeets.US is a nonprofit journalism project with the purpose of connecting Americans with the rest of the world, inform them of global perceptions of their nation, and creating an online community that nurtures lasting relationships between Americans and people of other nations.

Since January 2005, we have translated thousands of articles from the most prominent names in modern journalism never before available in English - from Le Figaro of Paris to Kitabat in Baghdad, from El Universal in Caracas to the People's Youth Daily of Beijing.

Given the level of cooperation that the next few decades appear likely to require, direct contact and relationship-building between Americans and people around the world is essential. That is our overiding mission and goal.

How will your tax deductible donation be spent?

Your donation to Worldmeets.US will help us pay our hosting expenses, update our Web site with a more user-friendly design, and make possible a new content management system that will make the work of our volunteers easier, so that we can provide you with even more content from other languages. Educational non-profits like ours have to pay insurance costs, fees to ratings agencies that monitor non-profits, attend networking events, and explain our mission to people online, offline and in person - in and out of the United States. Your donation will also help begin building an online community that tears down the language barrier and leads to new ways for Americans and people in other nations to get to know one another (read our mission).

Your donation, no matter how small, is important in another way: It will show foundations that there is public support for our work. The number of people who donate is as important as the amount we raise.