The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation has contributed an additional $100,000 to support the development of Audience Engine, an online platform designed to help public media organizations raise money and engage communities.
WFMU announced the grant Monday. The New Jersey freeform radio station is developing Audience Engine in collaboration with Bocoup, a Boston-based software developer.
The Dodge Foundation had previously contributed $400,000 to the project. WFMU will use the additional donation to host a launch event this fall and develop training workshops for early adopters of the platform.
“The Audience Engine has great potential to revolutionize how media publishers operate in the digital world,” said Chris Daggett, Dodge Foundation president and c.e.o. “It is an effective and innovative publishing and community engagement tool that not only strengthens the relationship between news operations and their readers but also, we hope, generates a new and much-needed community-based revenue source to support quality journalism.”
“We’ve built amazing crowdfunding and community building tools at WFMU, which has kept WFMU alive,” said Ken Freedman, WFMU station manager. “By building tools for an independent public radio station, though, I think we’ve found tools and strategies that can really help sustain and serve all sorts of digital content makers.”
A subsidiary of WFMU will make Audience Engine available to content creators for free and will offer hosting services for a fee. Congera, the subsidiary, announced the completion of its first round of private investment, raising $195,000.
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