Online discussion forum Reddit has officially launched its Community Funds program with a $1 million investment.
Reddit said that it has been experimenting with ‘Community Funds’ to help Reddit community ideas and passions come to life with financial support.
“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,” the company said in a blogpost.
“We want to foster more opportunities for connection by making Community Funds official, with $1 million in funding. 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,” it added.
The company said that beginning in June, it will invite communities to submit ideas for projects, events and contests.
It will be accepting nominations for projects needing anywhere from $1,000 to $50,000 in funding, and selecting grantees based on their creativity, feasibility and community impact.
“Sometimes it just takes a little boost to make a great idea come to life, and we want to help communities find that support,” said Laura Nestler, Reddit Vice President of Community.
Reddit this month added the ability to search comments for the first time to help improve search results for its more that 50 million daily users.
This latest update, rolling out first for desktop users, can be accessed by heading to the home feed and clicking within the search bar, and conducting a search.
