Crowdfunding Leadnow

Hi there,

My name is Adam Shedletzky and I’m one of Leadnow’s co-founders and the Chair of our Board of Directors. I’m writing this note to tell you a bit about Leadnow’s funding sources.

Here’s the short version: the overwhelming majority of our money comes from individual Canadians giving small donations online. We registered as a third-party in the 2015 election, we only used Canadian donations for our election campaign, and we have submitted a full report to Elections Canada.

With that said, let’s start with a bit of history. Leadnow was started by a group of young people before the 2011 election. The founding group relied on our personal savings and some kind donations from a few people in Canada to get things off the ground with a shoe-string budget.

We set out to help hold governments accountable and bring people together for lasting progress on the major challenges of our times. Since then the Leadnow community has grown to include over 500,000 people across the country. Through face-to-face events and online votes, the community has come together to focus on three big priorities: a strong democracy, a fair economy, and a clean environment for all generations.

We are incredibly proud and grateful to rely on these Canadians for small donations that provide the overwhelming majority of our funding. In 2015 alone, we received over 24,895 individual donations from Canadians to our crowdfunding campaigns, with the overwhelming majority of those donations totalling $10, $20 or $50. Our core funding comes from approximately 2,000 Canadians who contribute regular monthly donations.

All in all, individuals contributed more than 75% of our funding in 2015. The remaining 25% came from different groups for different projects, with less than 20% coming from outside Canada. These grants and donations focused on international cooperation to respond to the climate crisis – a major priority for our community members. Here are our financial statements for 2013 and 2014.

In these audited financial documents, you’ll see a breakdown of our revenue and expenses for 2013 and 2014. However, as with many other non-profit organizations, we have a privacy policy that prevents us from disclosing, selling, renting or sharing our list of supporters or donors, except where required by law – as with the report we filed to Elections Canada.

Last year, after two years of collaboration within the Leadnow community, we organized a major people-powered campaign to help voters who wanted change in the 2015 election. Our election campaign was funded entirely by Canadians, with zero foreign dollars, and we submitted a full report to Elections Canada as prescribed by law.

Again, we’re deeply grateful for the trust you place in us to help strengthen our democracy, build a fair economy and ensure a clean environment for all generations. If you believe in the need to continue supporting this good work, please donate here.

Sincerely,

Adam Shedletzky