Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries.
At a time when traditional news outlets are shedding reporters and chasing clicks, Mongabay is bucking the trend: it’s growing.
One key, says David Martin, our director of philanthropy, is that Mongabay isn’t selling ads or stoking outrage — it’s cultivating trust.
“Our currency,” he told Mike DiGirolamo in a recent conversation, “is really impact.”
Martin, who joined Mongabay in 2015 after a stint hawking rainforest tea, describes himself as a “Mongabay fanboy” who once asked to serve guayusa at a gala just to stay close to the mission. These days, he’s helping raise money for independent environmental journalism — a task he approaches less like a salesman and more like a matchmaker between serious funders and serious storytelling.
Nonprofit journalism, Martin argues, is uniquely positioned to cover stories that wouldn’t survive in the metrics-obsessed world of commercial news. A deep investigation might only be read by a few hundred people. But if one of them is a policymaker, conservationist or donor, the result can ripple far beyond the page.
“We’re looking at more of a qualitative audience than a quantitative one,” Martin says.
The key, he emphasizes, is maintaining a firm editorial firewall. Mongabay, not its funders, identifies the underreported issues it wants to cover and then seeks philanthropic support to make that reporting possible. Through its special reporting projects, donors can choose to support a theme, such as illegal wildlife trade or deforestation in a specific region, but they do so without dictating the narrative or stories.
We pitch the topic, Martin explains. Once the money is allocated, the editorial team doesn’t know who it came from. They just know they have a budget for a beat.
Martin is no stranger to both sides of the philanthropic equation. As a funder through his family foundation, he advocates what he calls “give money and get out of the way.” That trust-based model, he believes, enables real progress, and aligns neatly with Mongabay’s ethos.
He’s also noticed a shift in momentum in recent months. “People are reaching out to me saying, ‘I love Mongabay. I want to support it.’ That never used to happen.”
Mongabay’s rising credibility has been especially evident among conservation practitioners, who increasingly see it as indispensable.
“When I say I work at Mongabay, people’s eyes light up,” he says.
Still, Martin is grounded by recent events. A lifelong SoCal resident, he’s watched with sorrow as wildfires have scorched communities and reshaped landscapes. The fires have forced him to reimagine what safety even means, and reminded him why Mongabay’s work, linking local crises to global patterns, matters so deeply.
He closed the conversation with an impassioned plea — not for donations, but for dialogue.
“I don’t want to come off as a used car salesperson, I just want to talk to people who care.”
Banner image: Rhett Butler/Mongabay.
This story first appeared on Mongabay
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