The first part of this month’s column is directed to our generous readers who sent us a payment to help out with our “Nourish Your Neighborhood Newspaper” (N3) campaign.

I want you to know how inspiring it is to know you have our back and that you support our labor of love. Your generosity and community spirit is sincerely appreciated.

Your donation went to good use. Instead of cutting back to 12-page papers, your donation let us produce 16-page issues with a lot of great content, even though the ad volume went down.

Now that we have initiated our Patreon campaign (more on that in the second half of this column), we are producing some branded items for our new patrons.

I would like to share these products with those who donated to us during the N3 campaign. Please send me an email at Editor@RichmondSunsetNews.com with a delivery address and I’ll make sure you get the one-of-a kind merchandise that we’ll be sharing with our new patrons. You can also call me at 415-706-6428.

The second part of my message was already published in the April issue, but I am repeating it here because we deliver the Richmond Review to about half of the district one month, the other half the next month.

But first, we have a list on our website of libraries, businesses and more where we leave stacks of our paper each month. If you don’t get a copy one month, go to RichmondSunsetNews.com and click the link at the top that says “Richmond Review Locations” to see where you can pick one up.

Now to the repeated part of my column for those readers who might have missed last month’s issue.

I am very excited to introduce our new Patreon account.

Patreon is like GoFundMe, but instead of donating one lump sum, patrons contribute a small amount every month to a creative cause.

Patreon is used by artists, photographers, musicians, writers and all types of creators to raise funds to keep the creativity flowing. An artist with generous patrons can work on their craft and fill the world with beauty, instead of working at a less-creative endeavor to help make ends meet.

When we put the word out last year that the ad-only model for local newspapers was barely working to pay the bills, we received many generous supporters who donated to our “Nourish Your Neighborhood Newspaper” campaign. Thank you all! We will be forever grateful for the outpouring of support.

We were especially touched by the notes we received telling us how much our newspaper is loved. So many readers said they look forward to getting the paper each month.

“I read every word of every issue, and have for many years,” was just one of many heartfelt notes we received. Support like that truly keeps us going.

There are a lot of stories to tell, and a lot of good writers, photographers and editors who work together to let our readers know about our great neighborhood.

We hope you will consider signing up on our Patreon account to donate $5, $10 or more a month to help us continue this important work.

We thank you most sincerely. You really do inspire the work we do.

Your donation also helps us keep our advertising rates low. It is a struggle for owners to keep their small businesses afloat, and your donation will help us keep our rates reasonable for small businesses and organizations that need to spread the word about their services available to our community.

To find a link to our Patreon account, go to the home page at RichmondSunsetNews.com and click the first link, “Become a Patron to Support Your Neighborhood Newspaper.”

I can’t thank our supporters enough. We sincerely appreciate you.

Michael Durand is the editor and publisher of the Richmond Review and Sunset Beacon newspapers and the RichmondSunsetNews.com website.