On March 5th, 2009 Kara Andrade and David Cohn of Spot.Us presented their new model for crowd funding local investigative journalism. 

Spot.Us is a nonprofit project of the Center for Media Change and funded by various groups like like the Knight Foundation.

Here's what Kara had to say about Spot.Us:

"We are an open source project, to pioneer 'community funded reporting.' Through Spot.Us the public can commission journalists to do investigations on important and perhaps overlooked stories. All donations are tax deductible and if a news organization buys exclusive rights to the content, your donation will be reimbursed. Otherwise, all content is made available to all through a Creative Commons license. It¹s a marketplace where independent reporters, community members and news organizations can come together and collaborate."

Here's a short video of David explaining the Mission and Guiding Philosophies of the organization:

How you can help:

And here's a slide show of how and why to use the site:

Here's a list of things you can do to support the project:

~ Register! Please sign-up at www.spot.us.

~  tart submitting tips and story pitches. This is community-driven journalism so it's what YOU think is important to cover that will make the news and be supported by the community.

~  Donate and support to stories! No donation is too small!

~  Spread the word and help us find possible collaborators.

~  Don't give up on journalism!

 Contact David at spot.us