Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Pre-financing of journalism & media projects

A new project, BeaconReader.com, hopes to fund freelance writers and indy media by seeking donations from the public for specific articles or topics. Here is NY Times write-up from 2014, when it launched.


Kickstarter.com is "a funding platform for artists, designers, filmmakers, musicians, journalists, inventors, explorers..." A key aspect of Kickstarter and some other funding platforms is "All or Nothing funding."
On Kickstarter, a project must reach its funding goal before time runs out or no money changes hands. Why? It protects everyone involved. Creators aren’t expected to develop their project without necessary funds, and it allows anyone to test concepts without risk.
Here was a successful Kickstarter fundraising drive in 2013 that saved a local movie theater. Here's a documentary movie project that I'm a tiny part of, which has used Kickstarter successfully.

Before Kickstarter was launched, the Robert Greenwald documentary on war-profiteering (Iraq for Sale) was PRE-funded mostly by small donors -- an example of grassroots financing of a work that had real impact.

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