No need to set up a booth, NGOs use crowdsourcing for financing

While miners and explorers may be hitting the investment conferences looking for financing, NGOs are successfully using crowd sourcing to get projects funded.

Crowd sourcing allows niche projects to get started by using the internet and social media to expose projects to the widest group of people possible and match the project with potential backers. The amounts raised are small, but projects are finding willing donors.

Community Radio for Mining Resistance, seen in the introductory film clip below, successfully reached its funding gold of $2,000 from 54 backers on Kickstarter.

“Our Kickstarter project is to build a community radio station for the Maya-Mam community of San Miguel Ixtahuacan, where 85% of Goldcorp’s Marlin Mine is located,” writes Sakura who submitted the application.

Yvonne Latty raised over $12,000 to fund her film on uranium mining.

“Nearly 4 million tons of uranium ore were mined from Navajo land during the Cold War as part of the U.S. effort to develop a nuclear bomb. As a direct consequence, cancer rates on the reservation – once the lowest in the nation – have soared,” writes Latty who hopes to produce a 30 minute documentary.

Most projects have pledge levels. The three people who pledged $500 to Latty will receive a thank you credit on the documentay, as well as framed photos and stills from the film.

Community Radio for Mining Resistance