Can you Crowd Fund Journalism?

The answer appears to be Yes.

Former student Trevor Clark pitched an idea on Kickstarter a while back, looking to raise $8,500 to tell the story of Jessie Stone who left the medical business to pursue whitewater kayaking, only to end up opening a malaria clinic in Africa and helping to bring mosquito netting to the continent.

The result? It got funded, with a little to spare. Clark reports on his blog:

Sunday morning I arrived at Miami International Airport after a weeklong shooting assignment on a remote island with no Internet or phone connectivity. I powered up my phone as I stepped off the plane, went straight to my email and there it was, “Congrats! Your Kickstarter project has been successfully funded!”

I stopped dead in my tracks as the line of travelers behind me kindly pushed me aside. I could not believe what I was reading and just stood and stared blankly. I went numb and the raucous world around me went quiet. All of my focus was on the subject line of that email. I just couldn’t believe it.

Awesome news, Trevor.