More than a year ago, the idea of running a podcast scholarship program under Project Voice sounded surreal. “What a dream come true it would be if we were able to raise enough money to start our mentorship program for aspiring podcasters!,” I thought to myself. I had no idea how to launch a crowdfunding campaign, much less whether or not we would even be able to launch it in time. There were moments when I was close to giving up, moments when I was unsure whether or not we were able to find the right fiscal sponsor (until The Slants Foundation came in and saved the day!), moments when I told myself that reaching $1k or $2k would make me happy enough - but then, last week happened.
With only a few hundred dollars away from our goal, we started reaching out to even more folx than ever before. I could see that our momentum was gradually slowed down by the pandemic, but we were not discouraged. Though businesses were closing down and individuals were getting laid off, we still saw so much support from the same communities flooding into our inboxes, offering support in more ways than one. We saw unexpectedly generous amounts being pledged because people believed in us and the work that we do. We received many words of encouragement from our supporters. Our campaign page was shared more than 300 times! This is what we need during a national crisis.
We kept moving forward. After less than 3 months from our launch, we reached our goal. And the beautiful truth is: none of this could have happened without any of your support. As cheesy as it sounds, our success represents hope, hope in that we will overcome any obstacle as long as we come together and are there for each other.
REWARDS AND TAX DEDUCTIONS: As we get closer to June, I will be sending out another email about more details of your reward’s delivery and tax deductions.
April 30th will be our last day for you to be able to pledge to our campaign. Even though we‘ve reached our goal, we’d love to see how much farther we can go! Feel free to share our campaign as well - we have prepared visual assets and templates for you to use on social media, email, and DMs - click here!
From the bottom of my heart, thank you,
Jessica Nguyen
Project Voice, Founder