Dear Buffalo’s Fire Readers:

I’m going to get straight to the point: Thanks to all of you, we exceeded fundraising goals set over the last 30 days. We received $8,770 in credit card contributions from 71 people on Indiegogo.com. We also had several checks sent directly to White Swan Media, the parent company of Buffalo’s Fire. In addition, we had two entities purchase advertisements in direct support of our fundraising campaign. Thank you to Nueta Nation Enterprises — their banner ad is already up and running on the website — and to the Fort Berthold Community College.

Here’s the background on our fundraising campaign:

This is who we are
I created Buffalo’s Fire in 2009 as a news blog designed to inform Native and non-Native readers about American Indian issues. After nearly 15 reporting for mainstream newspapers, I am bringing those skills to an independent, minority, veteran, woman-owned media company. I am pleased to a part of the national media shift from corporate dominated news to reporting for a specific digital media niche, in this case American Indians. I am the founder of White Swan Media and we encourage our readers to consider advertising your business on Buffalo’s Fire.

The Buffalo’s Fire team is already busy designing a new platform to transform the Buffalo’s fire blog into a comprehensive news website covering politics, language revitalization, environment, science, education, indigenous knowledge, land issures and other news.
Moreover, our redesign includes plans to make a home on Buffalo’s Fire for opinion and analysis. The team at Buffalo’s Fire will be scouting and recruiting topic experts in Indian Country to inform readers on current events. We aim to have the new website up and running by Dec. 31, 2011.

This is what we’re doing
Buffalo’s Fire will help fill a long existing news void on American Indian issues in the United States. It will also serve as an entrepreneur model for a media business. I will edit the site and will bring my award-winning reporting skills to the table. As the first and -only American Indian woman to be awarded a Nieman journalism fellowship at Harvard University, I will help Buffalo’s Fire chart a new course in Native news. Someone might ask: What if your media plan doesn’t happen? Buffalo’s Fire answer: Our media plan is happening. We’ve already installed a trial run of daily news story links coupled with posting more original content. It’s proven to be a popular new addition with readers. Our revamped web design and news content will be more sophisticated, including news from the radio, video and print sectors. That’s the bigger plan. For now, it’s one step at a time.

This is what’s next
The Buffalo’s Fire Campaign exceeded its $10,737 fundraising goal. We raised $8,770 in direct campaign contributions on Indiegogo.com. I love that site! More people should use it. Thankfully, I had already hired the programmers to start redesigning the site, so the changeover from the old Buffalo’s Fire to the new shojld happen before Dec. 31, 2011.
Our next step is to set up a trade booth at 2012 Reservation Economic Summit and American Indian Business Trade Fair Feb. 28-29 at the Mandalay Bay. I have a team prepared to travel with me to market and answer questions about our website.
The trade fair will help get the word out to more than 3,000 people who are expected to attend the annual business expo. The conference will allow the BF team to also recruit writers for opinion and analysis pieces regarding hot news topics. The business summit will also allow BF to reach out to advertisers.

I have used my personal resources to operate the BF site since 2009. I humbly thank all readers and contributors who are helping take BF to the next level. Keep reading as I will provide more updates. Thank you.

 Jodi Rave

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