There’s a certain frisson as well as tension to this time of the year (June). It’s the time when those of us lucky enough (with enough) to have to make tax decisions can choose where to make a tax-deductible contribution that will, indeed et voila, lessen our tax bill while (possibly) benefitting a good cause.

It is obvious that in a sane global society, where economic justice was genuinely understood and practised, making such choices would be necessary far less often.

In such a world, our funds should not be needed for fellow citizens in our own nation living in unforgivable poverty. Nor for refugees seeking a trace of security. Nor for our Pacific neighbours suffering the grievous effects of global warming. Not needed either for Palestinian families and orphans hanging on through the hideousness of genocide. Or for those in Ukraine, Myanmar, Sudan, suffering the unrelenting cruelty of war.

We have not yet achieved that world, however. And meanwhile perhaps your email “in box” is as full as mine with heart-tugging requests that cannot be refused?

So why am I adding another plea? Which I am indeed doing, when I ask you to notice John Menadue’s request to notice that for this month only, your contribution to Pearls is entirely tax deductible. The P&I goal is modest. To date as I write this, it’s only one-third of the way there.

What John doesn’t say as frankly — but I will — is that your contributions are more essential than ever.

As P&I moves further from the John and Susie Menadue kitchen, dining room, front and back porches (I’m assuming), with a team of unflagging donated Menadue family labour, morphing into the astonishingly effective online journal it has become, it offers at minimum 40 articles per week worth reading, thinking about, and sharing. (None of that easily achieved, even with our sparklingly skillful newish editor Catriona Jackson helming, plus a technical team that makes it seem easy when it is not.)

Funds are needed. Not for survival only, but for expansion to more readers who seek something more credible and sustaining than our mainstream media currently offer.

My request comes from a lifetime spent in the worlds of publishing, writing (of many kinds) – and first-hand knowledge of the power that words have. Propaganda must be countered – with intelligence, skill, and great care for the well-being of all.

Please, take nothing away from the causes closest to your heart, while also doing the sensible checks to ensure that most of what you contribute goes to the cause itself, and not to the admin around it.

I am aware that at least 1400 children have been waiting for more than a year for an Australian World Vision sponsor. More than a year. My personal local favourites are the International Women’s Development Agency (in Melbourne, serving women and children across our Pacific region) and the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, also based in Melbourne.

Your causes matter. What also matters is remaining fully informed about the world we live in: where hope lies, where and how hope is lost. And must be regained.

Those of us who read Pearls, or also write for it, will undoubtedly recognise that “our” daily online journal offers a level of courage not matched elsewhere.

Courage, though, is not enough. There must also be clarity, consistency, trust between those who publish the journal and those who read it. And those who do publish it — John, Catriona, and their small dedicated technical team — must also be able to trust that readers care enough to “invest” in P&I continuing.

Whatever you can give as a one-off, please do that. Your tax deduction (until 30 June) is assured through the Australian Cultural Fund.

After that date, please consider the equivalent of a paid subscription so that month by month it’s clearer to John and the team what’s possible. And what is not. (Some of you can also claim for subscriptions.) “Investing” is about more than money. It’s about taking some degree of ownership, responsibility, commitment to what P&I is doing that other journals are not. You may also want to participate in other ways. Forwarding articles to friends via email; using social media to converse with other readers; writing to the editor where something moves or particularly well informs you.

The writers donate their time, their social justice passion. But without the active engagement of readers, and the existence of P&I offering a rare welcome for this depth of writing, both time and passion would be wasted. We are in this project together.

The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations. 

In June, support Pearls and Irritations with a one-off tax-deductible donation

For the month of June Pearls and Irritations is running a fundraising campaign through the Australian Cultural Fund. Your donation will support the development of content for topics of particular of interest to Australia - Palestine, China, Climate Change and Immigration Policy and the development of a Young Writer’s Handbook to encourage new young writers.

Please make your one-off tax deductible donation here.