Dear readers,
Ten days in to our fundraising campaign and we are right on target — if we can keep up the momentum we will raise $175,000 by December 15 and be able to relaunch the site in the new year. Woohoo!
However, that means hitting 50K by Monday. Can we do it? If you are planning to support us but haven’t got around to it, now would be a great time. If you have already pledged, we thank you, and ask that you spread the word among your friends and family.
If we do reach our target you will be part of the NM success story: crowdfunding is a relatively new concept in Australia and this is the first time an online Australian media outlet has set out to raise this amount of cash in this way.
The biggest and most successful crowdfunded project to date was Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. We’re not aiming to make that kind of money — and right now, the man who just smilingly conceded that his party had been given a "shellacking" in the midterm elections might not be the best person to try to emulate. The point is, crowdfunding can work to mobilise communities of interest to fund big and small ventures through online payments. It’s the model which boosted the fortunes and coffers of MoveOn.org in the US and of GetUp! in Australia.
As Sarah Kershaw wrote in the New York Times in 2008, “This financing model takes its name from crowdsourcing, a method for using the public, typically via the Internet, to supply what employees and experts once did: information, research and development, T-shirt designs, stock photos, advertising spots. In crowdsourcing, the people supply the content; in crowdfunding, they supply the cash.”
In our view, crowdfunding is not a particularly beautiful term. It’s a typical online buzzword and it smacks of a marketing brainstorming session. Who is this crowd anyway? Well, it’s you guys — and we certainly don’t think of you as a faceless sea of bodies. Still, crowdfunding is the only term we’ve got and it’s been great watching the New Matilda crowd grow and staying in touch via the website. Just as our partners FundBreak are providing the technology for us to connect directly with our audience, there are many other organisations internationally which are helping worthwhile projects flourish through crowdfunding.
We’ve still got just a few tickets left to Fair Game so send us an email at enquiries AT newmatilda.com with Fair Game in the subject line if you’d like to attend a NM screening. Thanks for your ongoing support and keep your eyes on the website for some exciting new stories next week.
Can we raise 50K by Monday? Yes we can!
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