As newsroom budgets are increasingly stretched, crowdfunding can be one way for journalists to raise money to finance larger-scale reporting projects.
Some notable international crowdfunding successes such as El Espanol or De Correspondent may paint this method of fundraising as a guarantee, but a crowdfunding campaign is a tough project to take on, and the possibility of failure is never too far away.
Poynter recently ran its first crowdfunding campaign, 40 Better Hours - it reached its goal, raising over $10,000, and the team wrote down their takeaways from the project in a piece on the website.
The lessons learned in the process include the importance of getting honest feedback from third parties early on, making the benefits and the goals of the project clear, and using your network. "Of our 166 total backers, 104 were personal friends or family," wrote producer Ren LaForme.
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