There are two days left in Lent ... and only two more days in which your donations will be worth DOUBLE in our matching grant campaign.

I just left a brainstorming meeting in order to post this for the lunch rush. We were trying to think of ways to make more money. Top 10 rejected suggestions:

10. Invest heavily in lottery tickets.

9. Theft or fraud.

8. Open a deli in the conference room.

7.  Open our chapel to public Masses; take up a collection.

6. Sell autographed photos of Tom McFeely.

5. Start an international Ponzi scheme.

4. Charge employees to work here instead of paying them.

3. Create a Sham-Wow style National Catholic Register commercial.

2. Actually sell Sham-Wows.

1. Lobby for a federal bailout of pro-life Catholic nonprofits, given their importance to the culture.

But we do need money, as I say here, in the strangely paranoid style of fund-raising copy.

The bad news: We are a nonprofit in 2009.
The good news: We are a nonprofit Catholic newspaper in 2009.

The bad news: Times are tough for nonprofits.
The good news: We have a mission that produces content online and in print that is badly needed precisely right now—and niche publications aren’t tanking like mainstream ones are. New ones are actually being launched.

So help, please, if you can. Lent is for almsgiving. And how often do you get to donate TWICE the alms you actually have to part with?

Thanks very much.