Why Fund EcoHustler?

EcoHustler is a not for profit social enterprise which broadcasts information and ideas about climate change and environmental issues. It pulls together a network of activists, writers, photographers, filmmakers, musicians, creatives and rebels who believe not only that another world is possible but also that we are the people to build it.

EcoHustler features content from over 30 partner organizations from around the world. It features over 10 writers (and growing) as well diverse multimedia content.

Over the three years that it has been operating EcoHustler has seen traffic to the site grow from very small to its regular steady stream of several hundred a day with major peaks. The increase in comments, social media interactions, requests to contribute and requests for reposts on other sites suggest that the site is increasingly engaging a growing diverse, international audience.

Aside from the general achievement of carving out a vibrant and popular creative space online, EcoHustler has successfully translated this into a series of positive direct actions that have brought people together and had a real impact locally.

With the support of funding the plan is to register EcoHustler as a limited company and build new features into the site to make it financially sustainable and more effective whilst strengthening its core offering.

As traffic increases and followers on Twitter cross the 1000 threshold EcoHustler can have more impact supporting partner projects, activating a lively community of readers and participants and overall helping to spread an ecological awareness and a proactive networked response to environmental (as well as interconnected social and economic) challenges.

A relatively small injection of funding now will enable EcoHustler to take the website and associated work to the next level and cross thresholds in traffic that will enable it to connect with a boarder and deeper audience and to together achieve more.

The priority of current work is to consolidate these achievements, involve new people and expand the ambitions of what EcoHustler can achieve whilst keeping it small, lightweight, adaptable and highly cost effective.

What we hope to achieve:

• An increased awareness of environmental issues and of effective responses to climate change. Also the spreading of this awareness to a new audience as readership continues to increase and reach new people
• A sense of ownership and connectedness in readers so that they feel EcoHustler is partly theirs as a resource for sharing ideas and getting heard
• A beacon of positivity showing that a response to climate change can be edgy, musical, rebellious, fun and lead to improvements in people’s lives – not just sacrifices
• A thriving space (both online and offline) in which people feel more empowered to respond and to take effective action locally
• An engaged community of readers and participants who share information and ideas and feel empowered to make appropriate responses to climate change
• Where necessary offer a vigorous response to government and / or corporate actions where these are deemed unethical and wrong
• Build a shop selling books, Earth Flags, stickers, composters etc into the site to raise revenue and make the magazine financially sustainable

The top priority for the next 12 months is to continue to improve the flow of content to build and engage the audience and to increase reach and influence.

Specifically:

• Write and produce engaging multimedia content about environmental issues with a focus on accessible climate change articles which provide practical and life-enhancing responses
• Curate quality third-party content. This naturally involves on going outreach and network building with aligned organizations. This network itself is a response to climate change, building resilience and offering a resource that can be drawn on at key times where coordinated actions are required
• Involve new writers, campaigners and artists especially those with exciting ideas and work which would typically not be featured in the mainstream media
• Organize campaigns and direct actions. As a small, independent organization EcoHustler is well positioned to organize and lead small, rapid-response protests. The ambition will be to help coordinate at least one direct action every 12 months where good results can be leveraged on minimal resources
• Produce useful materials. A new range of stickers and posters will be developed for supporters, for gorilla marketing and to sell through the new online shop (to be developed)

Funding is sought to build improvements and new functionality into the site and to add (ethical) commercial features to make the magazine financially sustainable and able to do more.

Specifically:

• An online store will be developed which will sell World Flags (see below), books and CDs (via an eBay store), stickers, t-shirts (see below) and eco-hardware such as wormeries and rain water butts through affiliates
• The eco-jukebox will be developed to be a unique and engaging interface that will increase the value of the site as a destination, building the audience and increase regular returns
• World Flags – are large flags that have planet earth as the central icon. They immediate evoke feelings of unity and interconnectedness and will appeal to festivalgoers, EcoHustler readers and others. Matt has met with a woman’s group in Sri Lanka who sow beautiful tapestries and who could make the flags out of previously used parachute silk. The idea is to split the profits between them and the site.
• T-shirts – THTC organic / ethical / activist clothing company are keen to make EcoHustler t-shirts. Again the profits will be split whilst helping to spread the message

Further ideas that could be developed:

• One of the most popular EcoHustler posts of all time was Navy Seals to the Rescue which proposed that national navies should be used to protect oceans, for example, by policing large marine nature reserves (MNRs), collecting plastic pollution and preventing dangerous overfishing. This campaign could be formalized and taken to other partner organizations to develop and take forward
• EcoHustler events would be an opportunity to bring together readers, campaigners and partners to network, plan future actions and have a good party