Canadian University Press is the only organization in Canada with a mission to unite, strengthen and support student press.

Our members play a critical watchdog role on the state of Canadian post-secondary and CUP enables them to better fulfill their mandates through professional development, content-sharing agreements and facilitating a national community based on support and innovation.

At 76 years, CUP is the oldest student news service in the world and North America’s oldest student press cooperative.

To reach our 77th year however, we need your help.

Due to a financial crisis, we’ve had to lay off all part-time staff, cut full-time staff salaries and benefits and our overhead dramatically. If we meet our fundraising goal, we’ll be able to meaningfully rebuild and fortify our capacity to offer valuable opportunities and resources to student journalists.

A donation to CUP is an investment in the training of youth who will shape the future of the nation; there’s no greater return.

What We Need

With a projected deficit for this fiscal year, many of the events and initiatives that CUP typically undertakes will not be possible. We need $50,000 to be able to return to and stabilize our basic operations, which in turn allows us to provide services to our members and Canadian communities at large. Here are some of the services CUP currently offers:

Moving forward — particularly if we’re unable to meet our fundraising goal — we will have to pick and choose which services we continue to offer based on the priorities identified by our members, and the feasibility based on the funds we have to work with.

The Impact

At 76, CUP is older than most of the hallmarks that most Canadians identify with — Tim Hortons, Hockey Night in Canada or Margaret Atwood.

But unlike those hallmarks — as far as we know, CUP was a drunken mistake that has stood the test of time. CUP was conceived drunkenly at a hotel in Winnipeg. In fact, CUP is the result of need that was voiced, hungover, on New Years Day in 1938.

Student journalists wanted an organization through which they could foster a communication network to exchange stories and ideas, so they created CUP.

Since then, CUP has morphed into the shape its members of day wanted it to take. Every year at CUP’s annual members meeting, the cooperative changes as members see fit. Some may call it flawed — we call it democracy in action. Our alumni are in major newsrooms all over the world; they’re politicians, athletes and community leaders. 

If we don’t meet our fundraising target, CUP will not have an option of transforming according to priorities of its members — it will be stripped down to bare bones and, in the process, lose its strength and ability to act.

CUP is the organization to call when you’re in trouble, in crisis or in need of resources. It’s the organization with a national network that can be activated in a matter of hours. Students from coast-to-coast will lose that link if CUP is unable to stabilize.

Other Ways You Can Help

If you’re not able to make monetary donation, here are other ways you can contribute to our campaign:

1. Take part in our parallel photo campaign! The goal of our photo campaign is to put a face to all the CUPpies out there who are supporting us and to show the variety of different ways CUP impacts people. It’s an easy process: Print out (or make) the template “I support CUP because _____.” Fill in the blank about why you support CUP. Then snap the pic and send it to info@cup.ca. Done! (Feel free to post the photo on your own social accounts and to encourage friends or colleagues to take part! And, if you’re an alum, snap your pic in your workplace so we can see where you’ve ended up!)  
2. Share our campaign with as many people as you can and explain why you feel CUP is an important organization. Please download our donor letter and email to send to your contacts and explain to them why you personally want to see CUP obtain the funding it needs. A personal endorsement means a lot and can help people who aren’t familiar with CUP connect with our cause and support us. 
3. If you are a student journalist, advocate within your campus newspaper for CUP membership. If your paper joins CUP, you strengthen the network in a variety of ways, including financially. Find out more by talking to Erin Hudson at president@cup.ca.

A heartfelt thank you

Without Tanner Zurkoski and Kelly Paoli of Apple Box Productions, this campaign would not have been possible. Thank you so much for your hard work, professionalism and eye for bringing the world of CUP and student journalists to life. We’re eternally grateful. If you’re ever looking to do a video project, check out Apple Box Productions. 

To the CUPpies who made time to be in our video: Matt Frehner, Jason Chiu, Julia Wolfe, Chris Wilson-Smith, Adrian Ma and Sarah Foster née Millar; thank you so much. You’re living proof that once a CUPpie, always a CUPpie.

We’d also like to thank The Eyeopener for allowing us to film during your production night and Rod Nystrom for assisting with the shoot.  

Photo credits in order of appearance: Reyhana Heatherington, Juil Yoon and Sam Brooks.

#keepCUPstrong ... and dancing.