September 20, 2021

Today, the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) received a $163,000 general support grant from the new Fortune Journalism PleasrFund, a partnership between FORTUNE Magazine, the digital artist pplpleasr, and Endaoment — the first cryptocurrency-backed 501(c)(3) nonprofit public charity. The fund is dedicated to advancing independent investigative journalism and programs that foster interest in quality reporting and journalistic integrity. 

The Fortune Journalism PleasrFund was seeded through an initial gift from FORTUNE’s first NFT (non-fungible token sale): in this case, an auction of the magazine’s cover designed by the digital artist pplpleaser. 

“FORTUNE is proud to have had such a successful first foray into the NFT market, and to support good journalism in the public interest,” said FORTUNE CEO Alan Murray. 

“Free journalism is important to me,” said pplpleasr. “I hope this can set a precedent for bridging traditional media and leveraging crypto for a good cause.”

FORTUNE and pplpleaser selected four initial grantees in consultation with the Endoament staff. In addition to INN, the other grantees are the Committee to Protect Journalists, Reporters Without Borders and The Groundtruth Project.

“We are delighted to be part of this innovative new approach to philanthropy,” said Sue Cross, executive director and CEO of INN. “This fund is an example of a growing trend in which individuals and organizations are investing in journalism as an essential public service.”

Endaoment CEO Robbie Heeger said, “We’re thrilled to be supporting these four amazing organizations, and are honored to be administering this Community Fund with Fortune and PplPleasr. The integrity of journalism around the world is critical to an informed global population, and we hope to see many others in the cryptocurrency community step forward to support this just cause into the future.”

About Pplpleasr:

Pplpleasr is a digital artist known for her collaborations with DeFi protocols such as Aave, Sushiswap, Yearn Finance and more. In the past, she has worked on movies such as Batman v Superman, Wonder Woman as well as the Diablo IV cinematic. Most recently, she is known for her work on the Uniswap v3 animation.

About Endaoment 

Endaoment is a California Public Benefit Corporation based in San Francisco, federally tax-exempt under Internal Revenue Code section 501(c)(3), serving as decentralized finance’s community foundation. It provides Donor-Advised Funds through its web-application, enabling users to donate any major crypto to nearly any U.S. nonprofit. For more information please visit app.endaoment.org.