More on the MinnPost, Uptake, Spot.Us fundraising collaboration–with the unique advertising survey revenue model added in as another layer…

"..Barnett and his staff had been working with MinnPost, supplying livestreamed video for, among other things, the long saga that was the Al Franken/Norm Coleman Senate recount. The collaboration — MinnPost supplying the reporting, TheUpTake providing the video — worked so well that they wanted to continue it for other political stories.

So a Kickstarter-esque, all-or-nothing proposition this is not. “Even if we don’t raise a lot of money, we’re going to do a lot of this stuff anyway,” Buoen says. The question is how much reporting they’ll be able to do with whatever funds they’re able to raise. Cohn said that, for Spot.us pitches that don’t reach their fundraising goal, reporters have the option to take the money donated and do the work anyway."

A collaborative, crowd-sourced fundraising effort bw/ spot.us, MinnPost and The Uptake. Goal is $40k.

"The partnership will combine MinnPost reporting and analysis with The Uptake’s high-quality video coverage, including livestream video."

"It’s hard to raise $40,000 five dollars at a time, but here’s a way you can provide $5 of support for this partnership, without reaching into your own wallet.

Spot.us is experimenting with something they call Community-Centered Advertising, in which a reader takes an advertiser’s survey, in exchange for which the advertiser donates $5 to help fund a story – chosen by the reader."