I’m Miroslav Macala, The Intercept’s chief operating officer. I spend most of my time behind the scenes, managing our budget and operations — the unglamorous work of keeping a newsroom running.

I don’t usually write to readers. But today I felt compelled to step in.

Today is the last day of our spring fundraising drive. For the first time in The Intercept’s history, whether we survive depends entirely on readers like you.

Here’s the operational reality — and it is bleak.

This month we need 4,000 readers to chip in — even just $5 a month. As of this afternoon, we’re barely at 2,500. We need to almost double our results in just a few hours.

You’ve watched what’s happened to American journalism. Billionaires are buying up outlet after outlet. There are almost no independent newsrooms left, let alone those doing the fearless investigative reporting The Intercept is known for.

We need your help. Will you chip in $5 a month to help keep The Intercept alive?

I’ve been in nonprofit operations long enough to know what that kind of shortfall means. Reporters we can’t hire. Investigations we have to pass on. Sources in Gaza, in Iran, in detention facilities whose truths we won’t be able to tell.

We are one of the last independent newsrooms still willing to do the work that powerful people spend enormous resources trying to prevent. But I won’t pretend we’re invincible. That’s why I couldn’t sit on the sidelines today.

Whether independent journalism can actually be funded by readers — whether I’m right that it can work — we find out at midnight.

If we fall 1,500 donors short at the exact moment when the rest of the media is being absorbed into the same concentrated power we exist to hold accountable, that story tells itself. And it’s not a good one.

If you’ve ever believed in what we do, this is the moment we need you most. Will you chip in whatever you can — even $5 a month — to help keep The Intercept alive?

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Thank you for reading this far. And thank you in advance, whatever you decide.