What is This & Who Are We? – tucson love letter

about us

Through the lens of journalism and a community-first approach, we’ll help you find your next favorite restaurant, an artist to support and something fun to do over the weekend. You’ll be inspired to explore the magic that is Tucson as we highlight our diverse community and all the things that make our saguaro-studded Old Pueblo special.

We want to make it as easy as possible to love Tucson — through free-to-read stories, an email newsletter and social media, but also through ways like a months-long calendar, printable mural maps, physical events to help you find your people, and an open inbox for your niche Tucson-related questions (seriously, email us or slide into our DMs!).

But we’re going one step further. Proceeds from advertising, donations and other revenue streams are used to help keep Tucson Love Letter sustainable, paying livable wages to our journalists. The remainder of our proceeds go right back to the community. Our money stays local.

With community at the heart of it all, we work with our neighbors by providing support to the people and places that make Tucson what it is. This will include low-cost vendor and admission fees for events, monetary donations to local organizations, facilitating creative collaborations with small businesses, and brainstorming affordable ways to bridge financial gaps among community members. We will disclose the contributions we make so you know where every dime of ours is going.

Ultimately, our goal is to help Tucson flourish — a Tucson where you’re never bored, a Tucson where you find community, a Tucson where local businesses are supported.

connect with us

Follow us on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook — We think our social media is pretty cool. Give us a follow! If you have a super niche Tucson question, our DMs are always open.
Sign up for our newsletter — Get a link to our event calendar, plus all of our stories and other community tidbits sent directly to your inbox once a week. It’s not spam, we swear!
Submit an event or story idea — Have a story tip or are you organizing a fun event happening next month? Know of a new restaurant or a mutual-aid group doing amazing things? Know of an artist who deserves a shoutout? We’re all ears.
Provide your feedback on all things Tucson — We have a community-first approach here, which means it’s important that community members be part of the conversation. Before we started Tucson Love Letter, we sought feedback from more than 80 Tucsonans about all the things they love and don’t love about Tucson. Tell us about the Tucson you see now and the Tucson you want to see in the future — your thoughts are helpful as Tucson Love Letter grows!
Make a financial contribution — We are not a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, but our proceeds after overhead costs are donated to community organizations and small businesses who help Tucson thrive. Your donations help Tucson Love Letter become sustainable, allowing us to continue this work. Your donations help us help Tucson!

When all else fails, send us an email at gloria@tucsonloveletter.com. We’d love to hear from you!

meet our founder

Gloria Knott is the founder of Tucson Love Letter. She was born and raised in Tucson — she tried her first flour tortilla at La Parrilla Suiza, went to Skate Country once a week every summer, fell in love at Scented Leaf and very fondly remembers her first trip to Pop Cycle with her middle school best friend (who is still her best friend today). Gloria graduated from the University of Arizona School of Journalism in 2018 and spent seven years at the Arizona Daily Star, including four years as the editor of the Star’s sister site, #ThisIsTucson.

Favorite part about Tucson: the community and cactus blooms

Favorite restaurants in Tucson: Baja Cafe, Tacos Apson, Lumbre Pizza, Jun Dynasty.

Favorite thing to do in Tucson: Tucson Meet Yourself, artisan markets and hiking to Sabino Dam after it rains.

Reach Gloria at gloria@tucsonloveletter.com

ethics policy

Tucson Love Letter aims to create a more-informed and more-engaged community, produced with journalistic standards.

We do not accept gifts, free items or donations in exchange for coverage. When covering a restaurant, we pay for all the food or drinks we consume. We only accept free admission to activities if we plan to work during the experience. Our coverage is not swayed by the offer of free items or gifts, and we only cover restaurants, events and activities when they align with our mission. On the occasions when we do accept free admission, we make that clear in the story or social media post. All of our ads and sponsored content are clearly marked as such.

On some occasions, organizations or businesses provide us with items that are not kept by our staff but instead given to readers. Our team can accept gifts or discounts that are available to the general public.

We do not pay for interviews. All of our coverage is selected and written by our team of journalists based on our mission. Donors do not have a say in our content. We follow the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics.

On Instagram, you might see that we use the “collaborator” tool, which means the accounts tagged will appear as co-authors on certain posts. We use this tool as a way to tag relevant accounts and share Tucson with a wider audience. Unless noted in the caption, the accounts tagged do not have a say in the content we create. The above ethics policy applies.

business model

Donations and advertisers help Tucson Love Letter become sustainable — but your support also helps others in our community. Money raised goes toward overhead costs such as publishing tools, event fees, a rainy day fund and salaries for our team. The remainder goes back to the community to support small businesses and local organizations.

Revenue streams:

Financial donations, sponsorships and grants from community members, businesses and organizations. Donors, large and small, have no say in the content we publish. In some cases, we accept in-kind donations. People and organizations who donate more than $2,500 in a fiscal year will be outlined below.
Advertising. We publish ads from organizations that most align with our mission. Ads are clearly marked as such. We do not accept ads for political campaigns. For sponsored stories and Instagram Reels, we do not create content about the sponsor, but for a potential audience the sponsor is interested in reaching. Again, we’ll always let you know when content is sponsored. To learn about advertising with us, find our media kit here.
Collaborations. Small-business owners are often stretched too thin and unable to implement the creative promotions of their dreams. We help small-businesses organize those projects, which are helpful for them but also fun for the community. We do not charge a set fee for this and instead facilitate collaborative projects on a donation-basis. Get in touch at gloria@tucsonloveletter.com.
Some of the events we host are free to attend and not profitable for us. Others charge an admission fee and help fund Tucson Love Letter. We also make money from merchandise we sell.

After our first fiscal year, we’ll link our financial report here so you’ll know where our money is going.

thank-yous

Thank you to the dozens of community members who took time out of their busy schedules to share their insights and feedback with me, allowing me to better understand the Tucson we love. Thank you to my wonderful mentors, friends, mom and partner who have helped me get to this point. Thank you to Christian Revel for this beautiful website that is everything I could have asked for and more. Thank you to Rachel Rausch of Juju & Moxie for creating a stunning logo and accompanying artwork that make me squeal every time I see them.

land acknowledgement

While Tucson Love Letter celebrates today’s Tucson, it’s important to remember that Tucson sits on stolen ancestral land and territories of Indigenous peoples — Tohono O’odham and Pascua Yaqui — who were removed violently and unjustly. Tucson has been home to Indigenous peoples long before 1775, which is what’s known today as Tucson’s modern founding. Tucson Love Letter’s coverage and mission aim to reflect and help our diverse community, including Indigenous artists, business owners and community members.

Close Menu

what the heck is tucson love letter?