Q+A: Funding Journalism with Kickstarter’s Oriana Leckert

Can Kickstarter fund your next project? The crowdfunding platform's journalism lead shares tips.

Interview by Study Hall staff writer Allegra Hobbs.

In a world where the usual funding models for journalism seem increasingly precarious, more creators are striking out on their own to build relationships with paying readers, and some outlets are turning to fundraising over depending on ads or greedy investors. So it’s not surprising that Kickstarter, a platform for creators to collect funds directly from supporters, has recently seen a surge in use for journalism projects. We spoke to Oriana Leckert, Kickstarter’s Journalism Outreach Lead, about how journalists are using Kickstarter to and the role the platform plays in the current media landscape. Leckert has a background in journalism herself, having previously written for outlets like Slate, the New York Post, Gothamist and Atlas Obscura. She also was an editor for MTV News, Hyperallergic, Pitchfork and more. 

Note: Kickstarter applies a 5-percent fee to funds collected by successful campaigns, and its payment processor applies an additional 3-to-5-percent fee.

Study Hall: A bit of a broad question, but: how do you see Kickstarter fitting into the current media landscape? Between self-publishing platforms like Substack and traditional media outlets, where does Kickstarter fall?

Oriana Leckert: Honestly, the most exciting thing about this position for me is exploring all the different ways to answer that question. Kickstarter exists to help people bring creative projects to life, and even though things are rough in the media right now, there’s certainly no shortage of creativity. A few of the cool ways I’ve seen journalists use the platform are: Paul Salopek, who has funded six years (and counting) of walking around the world doing “slow journalism”; former DNAinfo Chicago editors and writers, who came together to launch a nonprofit neighborhood news site after theirs was tanked by a malevolent billionaire; For Truth Media, which did a fast campaign to produce an in-depth report about phosphate pollution in Florida; and a pair of radio producers who funded a season of their 90-second podcast about sounds. Basically I see Kickstarter Journalism as an innovative way to build community and fund radical ideas. And radical ideas are very needed in these dark media times.

SH: Funding for journalism is obviously in a precarious place right now, with different outlets trying out different modes of funding — how would you pitch Kickstarter as a funding model? What sort of publication would you say it suits best?

OL: I think it’s wise to look at Kickstarter as one part of a broader financial strategy, so I encourage people to think about how a small amount of money could make a big difference for what they’re doing. For example, The Vancouver Observer​ used Kickstarterto fund a year of expanded coverage of Canada’s tar sands, and that work went on to be recognized by everyone from Archbishop Desmond Tutu to Al Jazeera, raising the profile of their outlet in a big way​. I’d love to see publishers explore using Kickstarter to send someone out of town to cover an under-reported story, or to set up a fellowship for emerging voices, or to pay for research to develop a new app. I’d also love to work with foundations or grantees to Kickstart funds for matching grant programs.

I’d say the most natural fit is digital media, podcasts, and online video journalism, mostly because those are people who know how to build a support network on the internet and market to it; members of the more traditional media tend to need a bit more hand-holding and education when it comes to developing an online-focused outreach plan. But one of the things we like to say is that every Kickstarter is a story, and I think that really any kind of publication can make a compelling case for who they are, what they’re trying to do, and why people should support that idea with their money.

SH: How do the majority of media workers on Kickstarter use the platform? Are they individuals raising money to support their work, or fledgling publications looking to get off the ground? 

OL: It tends to be more organizations than individuals right now; I’m working with several of the Civil newsrooms, like Popula, which just ran a lovely campaign to give themselves a bit of a runway after the coin offering didn’t go quite as expected. But we’ve seen some terrific success with journalists also. One that just closed is The View From Somewhere: journalist, anti-racism organizer, and trans-rights activist Lewis Wallace raised seed funding for a podcast about journalists from marginalized communities throughout history. He ran an incredible campaign, and because we really believe in what he’s doing, Kickstarter put a lot of promotion behind it as well. Wallace made his $6,600 goal in 24 hours, then went on to raise an additional $10,000.

SH: Have you seen Kickstarter’s user numbers increasing? Do you think Kickstarter has a significant role to play in the future of funding for media? 

OL: Here are two things that are simultaneously true: Journalism is the second-lowest-performing category across Kickstarter, but last year was our best journalism year ever, both in terms of projects launched and funds raised. I think this points to the fact that we’re at a critical moment for the media in public consciousness, where people are finally getting the message that if we want journalism to continue to exist, we need to start paying for it, and so folks are looking for ways to do that. I can definitely see Kickstarter becoming a significant way for people to find and support the media that they want to exist, and for people in the media to experiment with new ideas for community-supported projects.

SH: How do you see the future of Kickstarter Journalism – how would you like to see it grow?

OL: Kickstarter has given me a lot of flexibility to structure my outreach in ways that I believe will be the most effective, so I’ve started out by focusing on a few different areas: marginalized communities, underserved markets and news deserts, journalistic experiments, and nonprofit media organizations. I’m striving to get the word out in all of those areas that Kickstarter wants to support journalism and that I’m here to make that happen. If we start seeing projects in all of these areas, in addition to the more traditional journalism projects that already exist, I think that will go a long way toward developing a healthier, more exciting journalism ecosystem on the site, which in turn will help Kickstarter become a place where readers go to find media they’d like to support.

SH: What are the benefits of using Kickstarter over subscription platforms like Patreon or Substack? 

OL: Given how dire things are for the media at the moment, I think that pursuing a diversity of funding strategies is wise. I’m having a lot of conversations about how to use Kickstarter in conjunction with, or as a springboard for, a membership or subscription drive, and I think there are effective ways to do that, because running a campaign is an excellent way for a person or organization to build community. Two examples are nonfiction comics site the Nib, which used their Kickstarter to launch a membership portal, and City Bureau, a startup journalism lab in Chicago, which ran a campaign a few years ago that had only a single $10 reward tier because they were more interested in expanding their network than raising tons of money.

Additionally, Kickstarter can be a very effective discovery tool. We have an audience of 1.9 million backers just in Publishing and Journalism, to say nothing of the enormous backer community across the site as a whole, and we use our social channels and newsletters to get the best projects in front of as many eyes as we can. (Hey, sign up for our publishing-specific newsletter, Kickstarter Reads, here!) Because great community-supported journalism projects tend to have broad appeal, we often see a high percentage of funding come from the wider Kickstarter community, as opposed to that of the creator. And although running a Kickstarter campaign is not exactly an innovative thing to do anymore, lots of creators get press if their campaign is itself particularly innovative, which helps raise your profile and build support and momentum.

SH: And since Study Hall is a collective of freelance workers, I want to ask how Kickstarter can be utilized by freelancers — what advice would you give freelancers interested in using Kickstarter to self-fund? 

OL: I hope I don’t sound like a broken record, but it would all come down to how you tell the story and how many eyes you could get that story in front of. We see a lot of aspirational, “magic internet money”–type campaigns, as well as plenty that are not well thought through—obviously I would not advise doing any of that. Think hard about what you’re creating, why it matters to people, and how to frame that journey as one that strangers might want to accompany you on. Also, call me! My job is to help people in the media figure out how to run campaigns, and to set them up for success when doing so. Whether you have a crazy, pie-in-the sky dream of launching a wild new media outlet, or a modest idea for a new kind of story that you’d be the perfect one to tell, let’s talk. I’d love to help you figure out how to make it work.

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