Crowdsourcing platforms
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For a searchable list of current funding opportunities see the GFMD website.
All description and entries are taken from the sites of the featured agencies or organisations. We endeavour to update the profiles every 6 months. For the most up-to-date information please visit the website of the relevant organisation.
Crowdfunder provides a platform for individuals and organizations to raise funds for various projects, having facilitated over £60 million in funding for start-ups and initiatives.
Journalism initiative PressPad utilized Crowdfunder to successfully fund its #DiversifyTheMedia project.
While Crowdfunder charges a three per cent fee on donations, along with processing fees and VAT, it offers additional funding of up to £20,000 for community-based projects through partner collaborations. Although there isn't a specific category for journalism projects, the platform includes a publishing category to support related endeavours.
Since 2015, Facebook has offered the ability to donate to charities and non-profit organisations, with more than $2 billion raised.
Setting up a fundraiser on the social media platform is easy to do, with options to raise money for an organisation or for yourself. Facebook does not charge fees for donations to charitable organisations but a charge of between one and three per cent is taken on donations to ‘personal’ fundraisers.
However, this route may not be suitable for every journalism organisation, as Facebook’s fundraising tools are only available to non-profit or charitable organisations in certain countries.
(Source: journalism.co.uk)
Kickstarter, headquartered in Brooklyn, New York, is a globally recognized public benefit corporation that operates a crowdfunding platform dedicated to fostering creativity.
Since its inception in 2009, Kickstarter has garnered support from over 17 million individuals who have backed nearly half a million projects.
The platform includes a dedicated journalism category, hosting over 5,600 projects, notably in the realm of podcasts.
It's important to highlight that funding for projects on Kickstarter follows an all-or-nothing model, with only a 23 percent success rate, and the platform applies a five percent fee to the funds collected by successful projects.
In recent years, the journalism industry has seen a few examples of successful crowdfunding on Kickstarter, including slow journalism startup Tortoise in 2018 - and some unsuccessful campaigns too by investigative journalism startup Point.
(Source: journalism.co.uk)
Similar to Patreon, Ko-fi provides a platform for creators and organisations to fundraise for projects, by encouraging people to donate a small one-off amount equal to the price of a coffee (hence the name).
The platform does not take a cut from donations received, but offers a ‘Gold’ membership for fundraisers with added features, including analytics and the ability to offer monthly subscriptions to contributors and set the price of donations. Upgrading to ‘Gold’ costs $9 (roughly £7.00) a month.
(Source: journalism.co.uk)
Patreon is a monetization platform that provides business tools for content creators to run a subscription service and sell digital products. It helps creators and artists earn a recurring income by providing rewards and perks to its subscribers.
It is popular amongst YouTube creators, podcasters and writers, allowing journalists to fund their projects through a subscription-based service, as opposed to one-time donations. Users can choose from different ‘membership levels’ with creators providing a range of different benefits depending on the amount each subscriber pays. The platform has specific categories for podcasters, as well as writers and journalists. If starting out on Patreon, bear in mind that the platform receives a percentage of the income you make through membership - this can range from five to 12 per cent.
Press Start is the first global crowdfunding platform for reporters in countries where the press cannot report freely. The crowdfunding platform is aimed at helping reporters and editors in emerging democracies and the developing world to produce stories largely intended for a local audience – journalists who might not have the experience, foreign-language (that is, English) skills, or audience to crowdfund on their own.
Only 9 percent of humankind lives in a country where, according to Reporters Without Borders, the level of press freedom is either good or satisfactory. And 75 percent live in countries where, on the contrary, the situation is categorized as difficult or very serious, and the freedom to inform is heavily suppressed.
That means that the vast majority of people – more than six billion – live in countries where journalists risk their careers, and sometimes lives, to report on governments, businesses, and other powers, exercising what is a democratic right in other nations.
For a searchable list of current funding opportunities see the GFMD website.
If an organisation or an opportunity is missing, get in touch!
