Reddit launches Community Funds program with $1 million in funding

Reddit is serious about bringing the creativity out of its users with the official launching of its Community Funds program, which has $1 million in funding, as announced by the company on April 25.

“We want to foster more opportunities for connection by making Community Funds official, with $1 million in funding,” Reddit says in a post. “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.”

According to the social news aggregation and discussion website, it started testing the program for six months by providing financial support to the ideas produced by the Reddit community. “Reddit is home to endless human creativity, connection, and collaboration. People come together to do surprising, incredible, and inspiring things,” details the company. “… 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.”

Apart from big projects, the company also funded small yet meaningful community ideas, including the r/itookapicture photography competition with $5000 funding, r/Comics comic-creation competition with $5000 funding, and a nomination-based gifting event for r/pan streamers with $5000 funding. Through the experimental stage of the program, Reddit also granted $200 worth of gifts on Christmas to 25 children of families experiencing financial hardships at home. That is total to another $5000 funding through r/Random_Acts_of_Amazon.

Reddit plans to continue the acts that cover creativity and meaningful purpose in the community. According to the company, the submission of the ideas will be starting in June, wherein entries can range from projects, events, contests, and “almost anything you can think of to bring people together for inspiration and delight,” says Reddit.

Furthermore, Reddit said that the project nominations that will be considered will be those needing funds from $1,000 to $50,000. The selection of grantees will be based on three points indicated by the company: creativity, feasibility, and community impact. Nonetheless, Reddit promised to provide more submission details and guidelines for those aspiring to get their ideas funded.