Dead Canaries Adopts ORC Project
Today we are excited to announce that The ORC Project is being brought under the umbrella of Dead Canaries. For more than a year, ORC has managed fundraising under what’s called a “comprehensive sponsorship” through Counterpoint Hackerspace — a local free space of which I am an organizing member and director. This type of sponsorship is designed to extend an organization’s 501(c)3 tax-exempt status to others, usually in exchange for a small percentage of funds raised.
This setup worked very well for both parties. Counterpoint received extra funds to keep the lights on and ORC was able to attract larger donations due its transitive non-profit status. So well, in fact, that the majority of our hackerspace’s income was from these donations. Because of this, it started to become clear that it was time for ORC to stand on its own.
We knew that we needed a new non-profit entity to house the project, but we felt that establishing an organization for the sole purpose of housing ORC was too limiting. Instead, we thought, why not establish an organization that is dedicated to fighting for the same causes for which the ORC project aims to fight. This would allow us to support other similar projects by providing resources, aid, and the same type of comprehensive sponsorships that Counterpoint had once provided for ORC.
And so, Dead Canaries was born.
For those unfamiliar with the reference, coal miners used to take canaries with them into the mines. These canaries protected the workers in the mines by (involuntarily) giving their lives. If dangerous gases like carbon monoxide or methane were present, the distress or death of the canaries would indicate these conditions to the miners. Thus, the dead canary is a symbol of a life lost in the pursuit of a warning of danger.
Every year dozens of journalists, activists, and political dissidents are killed in their pursuit of sharing the truth and exposing injustice. Dead Canaries is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to protecting human rights through technology, advocacy, and direct action. A perfect fit for a project seeking to protect some of our most vulnerable.
In addition to taking ORC under its wing, Dead Canaries also took some supporting projects that make ORC possible including Kadence, Diglet, Granax and HSv3. We hope that we can extend our roster to support other important projects in the future. Too often, these types of projects are expected to “sell out” to corporate sponsorships and undermine their values and purpose, else they face stagnation due to lack of time, funding, and the visibility they need to reach those who can benefit from their use.
One of our primary goals for the first chapter of Dead Canaries is to empower these projects to make an impact. We hope you’ll join us in that pursuit, because as a society, we cannot afford to lose any more of our canaries.
