#FundaMaldita: why we do crowdfunding

We believe that Maldita.es should not belong to anyone: it should belong to everyone. Maldita.es could have been a company, but it decided to be born as a non-profit association and wants to become a foundation.

A foundation?

Yes, a foundation. We have five reasons:
1 – We do not want this project to be a company.
2 – The purpose of Maldita.es is not to make profits and distribute them among the shareholders: we want to be a non-profit project and to use the income to improve the project.
3 – Maldita.es should not be owned by anyone: a foundation belongs to civil society.
4 – A foundation is more transparent.
5 – A foundation undergoes rigorous accounting control.

We have opted for this project, leaving our previous jobs, and now we need you to join us by collaborating in our crowdfunding at goteo.cc/maldita, Could you help us spread the word?

Why do you do crowdfunding?

Setting up a foundation in Spain costs €30,000. It is a non-profit and public interest model that will allow us to be more transparent with you than if we were a business model. Greater control of accounts and a board of trustees that monitors that we meet the goals of the foundation. For the foundation’s first payment it is the crowdfunding payment.

Furthermore, we want to continue doing our social work: fighting disinformation. For that we need more hands: more journalists and more engineers. Be more so that they deceive us less.

Everything we do is possible thanks to you and we ask you for one more step. Donate, if you can, and become an Ambassador for Maldita.es or spread this campaign.

What is it about being an Ambassador of Maldita.es? 

Between the “malditos” and “malditas” there is a lot of vital and necessary knowledge to deny hoaxes. A superpower that can be useful to the community in the fight against misinformation. We are already working on how to make this possible so that we can talk more and better with you: for this, we have obtained a grant from the European Journalism Centre. 

But we are still building that tool: meanwhile, we need you, if you can, to collaborate in our crowdfunding. 

How have you financed yourself so far?

Good question. In Maldita.es there is an investment of personal capital by Clara and Julio, who in addition to the money they have contributed to the project today do not receive any salary. The rest is financed with what we earn by collaborating with other media, giving talks and doing educational workshops. 

There is no advertising on our website, and we don’t want there to be: we want to bet on other financing models that prioritize citizens over clicks.

Surely you have heard that misinformation is winning, but the battle is not lost: we need you to fight against lies. Because together, and everywhere, it is much harder to be fooled.