Online discussion forum Reddit is investing $1 million in its Community Funds program with an aim to help users get their projects and ideas off the ground. Reddit said that it has been experimenting with ‘Community Funds’ to help Reddit community ideas and passions come to life with financial support.
“Through our experiment, we funded 13 projects that communities nominated. Projects have included a comics tournament, a community-designed musical artist billboard in Times Square, and a digital conference for history buffs,” the company said in a blogpost.
“We want to foster more opportunities for connection by making Community Funds official, with $1 million in funding. Community Funds aligns with our mission of bringing community, belonging, and empowerment to everyone in the world. We believe that empowering communities to do more by awarding funds to support their best ideas is one way we can accomplish this,” it added.
The platform will award anywhere between $1,000 and $50,000 to help users launch their projects, events and other ideas. The only conditions are that the projects benefit a certain Reddit community and don’t promote an outside company, product or project.
The company said that beginning in June, it will invite communities to submit ideas for projects, events and contests. It will be accepting nominations for projects needing anywhere from $1,000 to $50,000 in funding, and selecting grantees based on their creativity, feasibility and community impact.
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“Sometimes it just takes a little boost to make a great idea come to life, and we want to help communities find that support,” said Laura Nestler, Reddit Vice President of Community. Reddit first tested out the Community Funds concept last October, with a pilot run that funded 13 different projects. Reddit this month added the ability to search comments for the first time to help improve search results for its more that 50 million daily users.
