Milestone update: we just hit 10,000 supporters!
We mentioned in our first update that we were well on the way to our first 10k, but we’re surprised and delighted to announce we got there even sooner than we thought.
Our 10,000th supporter was Fabrice— our huge, heartfelt thanks to them and to the 9,999 other people who believe in our mission enough to help make it happen.
We’re now more than halfway to our fundraising target, and we really appreciate the amazing work you’ve been doing to spread the word. Please keep going — every penny counts.
Who are the 10,000?
As you might expect considering our mission, we’re pretty big fans of data. So we’ve been digging into the analytics to find out who’s joining us in the fight against fake news. Here are some of the nuggets of interesting info we’ve found out so far.
Where they live
Here’s where some of the people who donated to us in the first 72 hours are based:
It’s not 100% accurate because we only get location data from Stripe, not PayPal. Nonetheless, it’s a good indication of the areas where we’ve made the biggest impact so far. It also tells us we need to increase our reach: we want to make WikiTribune a truly global publication.
How they support us
As we mentioned in our last post, contributions so far are split between one-off gifts and ongoing subscriptions. The percentage of subscriptions far exceeds our target, and that’s amazing. A monthly subscription will allow us to rely on a constant income and plan for the future.
On that post, we had a comment asking how much came via Bitcoin. And true to our community-driven ethos, we’re happy to oblige.
So far, we’ve received 127 donations via Bitcoin, totalling 1.41408903 BTC. That’s around $2,500 USD. Jimmy has promised the Bitcoin community he’ll spend 100% of the funding raised via Bitcoin on blockchain journalism, so if you’d like to see more of that, please spread the word.
You can see our Bitcoin transactions for yourself here.
Why they support us
We asked our Twitter followers why they’ve chosen to become part of WikiTribune. The answers are varied, inspiring, and more than a little humbling.
Well said.
Is it all about funding?
There’s a lot more to being a WikiTributor than subscribing. While, realistically, we need to be funded to exist, we’re keen to make sure there are lots of other ways to get involved. In fact, it’s essential to our success.
We’ll be needing a strong community to help us shape the site, what we cover and how we cover it. And unlike any other news platform, contributors will be able to write side-by-side, as equals, with the staff journalists.
For now, we hugely appreciate your support in whatever form you can provide it: signing up for the newsletter, telling someone about us, or just keeping an eye on the project. The future of news is a topic that affects us all, and every contribution counts.
While we’re on the topic of funding…
If you’ve had any problems with payment for your subscription, or you’d like to change the amount, please send us an email. We had some teething problems with the payment system, but it’s all sorted now. Thanks for bearing with us.
Here’s to the next 10,000!
