Crowdfunding Project in Brazil Seeks to Finance Independent Reporters  · Global Voices
Paula Góes

[All links lead to Portuguese-language pages unless otherwise noted.]
Publica, a non-profit investigative reporting and journalism agency in Brazil, has launched its first crowdfunding project. Publica will distribute ten grants of 6 thousand reais (2,500 US dollars) for investigative projects chosen by the public.
The competition's purpose is to expand the grants given to independent reporters and at the same time increase participation of the public, which will participate as an editorial board formed by those who contribute with crowdfunding. According to Natalia Viana, director of Publica, it is a journalist's dream:
O trabalho vai no sentido inverso dos portais de notícia convencionais: eles negam a informação para o público liberando-a apenas para quem pagar por ela; nós pedimos dinheiro a algumas pessoas para espalhar a informação independente para todas as outras.
The work will go in the opposite direction from conventional news sources: they deny information to the public, making it available only to those who pay for it; we ask for money from some people in order to provide independent information for everyone else.
The reports will be published on Publica's website with a Creative Commons license and will be offered to a network of re-publishers, of which Global Voices is a part. In addition, the publication of an e-book is expected, offered as one of the compensations for donations.
Interested reporters should fill out this form. Contributions, which can vary from 20 reais (8,5 US dollars) to 2,000 reais (850 US dollars), can be made until September 20, 2013, on the Publica Report page on the Catarse crowdfunding platform.