Did we make a difference to you?

The end of the year is typically a time to look back and reflect, and then to use what you experienced as you move forward.

We’re doing the same thing at The Daily Herald. And you can help.

We’re collecting stories about how local journalism makes a difference in our community and we’d like to know …

■ Did you do something differently because of what you learned in one of the local news stories in The Herald?

■ Did our journalism encourage you, your community or an organization you know to step up and take action, or did it lead to a change in local policy?

■ What ongoing coverage did you always look forward to reading?

■ Did a community story make you laugh or cry?

Tell us how The Daily Herald impacted you in 2022 by sending your story to: SupportLocalJournalism@heraldnet.com. Our goal is to learn from what you say and to compile some of the most poignant stories for our next community impact report.

Here are a few impact stories we’ve received so far this year.

After The Daily Herald covered the nightmarish conditions of the Grand Apartments in Everett and followed the situation through a series of stories, including how the owner was fined and must get the building up to code, a former resident who led the call for code enforcement wrote the Herald saying, “Thank you for the stories dedicated to revealing the situation at the Grand Avenue Apartments. It brought a real sense of justice to our lives.”

When reporter Andrea Brown told the story of Joel Christensen, who is just one of the guys in an orange hardhat at the dump, a reader left her a voice message saying, “This really, really touched my heart. The guy is a superstar. And you are too. You made my day.”

Just this past week, a reader wrote saying, “I love the Herald, it’s a great paper. The stories are perfect and have really helped me feel like a member of the community.… Anyway, you’re a great team and I’m so grateful for the work you do.”

We’re grateful to you too — our readers. After all, you’re the reason we do what we do.

From all of us at the Herald, thank you!

Support journalism in Snohomish County

Did you know you can support local journalism with an end-of-year donation?

Like many newsrooms across the county, The Daily Herald has established several community-supported journalism funds in partnership with nonprofit fiscal sponsors. These funds enable us to expand our reporting to meet our community’s need for more investigative journalism, as well as more reporting on K-12 education and the local impacts of climate change.

The end of the year is the ideal time to give. Many donors are making gifts this month to our journalism funds — and they are the same donors who gave in December 2020 when our journalism funds were first established and then again in December 2021.

If you would like to join in supporting local journalism, learn how you can donate online or by check at heraldnet.com/local-news-impact.

The Environmental and Climate Change Reporting Fund and Investigative Journalism Fund are a partnership between The Daily Herald and Journalism Funding Partners, a 501(C)(3) nonprofit organization, tax ID #84-2968843. The Education Project is made possible with support from Report for America, an initiative of The Ground Truth Project, a registered 501c3, tax ID #46-0908502. The Daily Herald maintains editorial control over content produced with fund resources.

Brenda Mann Harrison is the journalism development director for The Daily Herald.

To learn more about the impact of local news and how you can join others in supporting community journalism, go to heraldnet.com/local-news-impact, send an email to brenda.harrison@heraldnet.com or call 425-339-3452. The Daily Herald maintains editorial control over content produced through community-funded initiatives.