The Interledger Community 🌱: Todd Hansen

Artist Rescue Trust — Grant Report #2 : Final Report

Todd Hansen — Mon, 08 Nov 2021 16:01:14 +0000

Project Update

This project officially came to an end on August 1, 2021. We are pleased to report that we have met or exceeded all our goals. We successfully built and launched our training program called Web Monetization School. It has been made publicly available for anyone to attend via our website. We also awarded 100 grants to musicians and artists who completed our Web Monetization School hosted on Teachable. As opposed to our public facing trainings on our website, placing this same content on Teachable allowed us to require all applicants to view and complete all modules and quizzes, ensuring they had a basic understanding of how Web Monetization can be used.

All 100 grantees completed the training and each were awarded $1500 grants. We also collected valuable survey feedback from each grantee after they completing the training. This feedback has been passed along to Grant for the Web to help inform further iterations of Web Monetization. Likewise admin access to our trainings on Teachable has also been made available to Grant for the Web to use as they see fit to further educate the Web Monetization community and beyond.

Progress on objectives

Build outreach partnerships with creatively focused online communities and platforms in order to utilize their network effect to promote the grant opportunity. (Met)

Engage with the early Web Monetization community of creators, developers and researchers to understand how adoption of this technology may take place and at what pace. (Met)

Coalesce these learnings into an easy to understand educational framework aimed at our target audience of artists, creators, their fans and followers. (Exceeded)

Partner and collaborate with training advisors and creative agency Ocupop to build these asynchronous trainings. (Met)

Focus on Underserved Communities for outreach to ensure that we do our best to provide equal opportunity at receiving a grant. (Met)

Fund 100 grantees with $500 a month for three months. (Met)

Key activities

Understand what Web Monetization is and the ways in which it could be valuable to artists and creatives and a potential revenue stream. (Met)

Expose all grant applicants to the Web Monetization community and encourage them to proceed with learning more with our Web Monetization School tutorial series.(Met)

Ensure that all one hundred grantees completed our Web Monetization School training and quizzes. (Met)

Ensure that all grant applicants are introduced to Web Monetization and encouraged to learn more about via our Web Monetization School tutorial series. (Met)

Introduce grant applicants and grantees to the Web Monetization community so they can interact and learn from others who are creating new tools and services that are Web Monetized. (Met)

Communications and marketing

General Community Outreach Summary

We successfully built an effective grass roots community to help spread the word about both the grants and our Web Monetization School. Our approach of partnering with other creative platforms and organizations like Reddit, NIVA, Bandcamp, Stageit, Austin Music Alliance and many others created a very powerful network effect. It resulted in us directly reaching those who would benefit from both applying for our grants and knowing more about Web Monetization. While we did try to go a tradition PR route to secure some official press opportunities, we found this to be less effected and in -turn doubled down on our grassroots efforts.

Underserved Community Outreach Summary

Beginning in December of 2020, we focused our outreach on communities that were and still are underserved by philanthropic funding opportunities. The primary targeted groups were BIPOC and women in the arts, and we effectively reached these groups. A significant barrier that we faced in our outreach was a tech literacy barrier that comes hand-in-hand with serving populations that are disproportionately served by higher education programs. We found that Web Monetization is hard for even those with some tech literacy to understand, even those coming from a generation where computer skills were mandatory to graduate high school.

The easy conclusion then was if they have a tough time understanding it fully, one can imagine how mythical it seems to people who lack the tech literacy skills to set up a simple blog or get Shopify store up and running. At times, we felt like we were trying to sell the emperor’s new clothes, and no amount of reassurance could truly assure people that there were garments on the hangers. People were still interested in applying to the program, but it took significantly longer to convince them of its validity than if it were a less novel subject matter. But we did make some headway in this part of our outreach we found incredibly valuable in shaping how we approached the build out of the training materials. Our instincts were correct in that adoption of a concept like Web Monetization was going to take simple, focused instruction in an asynchronous way with loads of reinforcement if it was going to be beneficial to any grant applicant or grantee.

What’s next?

Artist Rescue Trust was an idea brought to fruition during the first chaotic months of the pandemic. A group of likeminded artists, creators, fans and patrons came together to find a way to help as many as possible, as fast as possible. We have achieved what we set out to accomplish, if not a whole lot more thanks to this grant from Grant for the Web. We thank you and our grantees thank you for all the support over the last year.

As we look to the future for Artist Rescue Trust we know that it may take on a different form with a different mission. But at its core, it will remain a testament to the huge amount good that can happen when people come together to find a way to help others. Regardless of how much it feels like the world is falling apart at the time. Thank you to all our supporters, volunteers, friends, family and grantees. We'll see you all down the road.

What community support would benefit your project?

Help spread the word about our Web Monetization School training programing. It is available to everyone right here.

Relevant links/resources

Artiste Rescue Trust - Grant for the Web Applicant Data Summary

Attend Web Monetization School

Todd Hansen — Wed, 14 Jul 2021 17:04:48 +0000

We are beyond excited to finally launch our Web Monetization School tutorial series!

As part of our grant program with Grant for the Web we built this education program with the goal of getting anyone up and running with Web Monetization regardless of their technical acumen. We also we wanted arm people with basic knowledge about Web Monetization so they can easily explain it to others, further seeding the ecosystem.

All one hundred of our grantees will be attending Web Monetization School and need to "graduate" before they receive their grants. So far the feed back from our grantees has been very informative and we will share it here in another post very soon.

If you're game (and have about 45 minutes), go ahead and attend our Web Monetization School.

A.R.T. Update #4

Todd Hansen — Fri, 04 Jun 2021 20:29:26 +0000

It's been over a year since we started Artist Rescue Trust and our work with Grant for the Web has made up a big chunk of our journey. As we get to the end of our grant period we are honored and feel very lucky to be doing this work. Big thanks again to Grant for the Web for allowing us to contribute to their mission and giving us a way to help more artists and creatives.

We are in the home stretch! Our grant application closed on May 14th with a week long extension added to make sure everyone had a chance to apply. We had great response from both new applicants and applicants who had not finished their original application. So while we slowly work our way out of the pandemic the need is still very real for those in the arts seeking financial relief after a very tough year. We are humbled to be able to help.

We've been working through the application submissions while also finishing the last pieces of our Web Monetization School curriculum. All of our grantees will have to attend and "pass" this curriculum before they are awarded their grant. The trainings are looking really great and we can't wait to release them to the world.

We are aiming to notify our one hundred grantees just after the middle of June if all of our content production stays on it's current timeline. We are confident it will. In development are also follow up surveys for our grantees to take in the months after they complete their Web Monetization training. Our hope is to collect some valuable data around adoption of the technology and discover how they did or did not incorporate it into their online world. Our Web Monetization School will also be available on our website by the end of this month so anyone can go through the trainings ala carte to easily get up and running with Web Monetization.

That's the latest from us to you. Onward!

Artist Rescue Trust — Grant Report #1

Todd Hansen — Mon, 03 May 2021 16:12:40 +0000

Project Update

Since our grant period began we have been focused on three key areas. First is understanding the potential for how creative/arts communities could use Web Monetization in their online world. We approached this through the lens of how to make this new technology approachable and easily understood. So no matter if someone is sixteen or sixty-two years old and of varying technological acumen they could understand and deploy the technology.

The second was finding and connecting with potent creative communities, organizations, and companies in the United States that could help amplify our messaging about the grant we would be awarding and also use the opportunity to explain Web Monetization. This has allowed us to understand some messaging hurdles that are present when explaining what Web Monetization is and how it works. We have become aware at times that for some it is confusing and at times, not an easy sell. So we’ve taken note of this and done our best to hone our pitch to alleviate as much confusion and, at times, the concern we sometimes encounter.

The third was taking the research and feedback from the first two and folding it into our strategy as we build out our asynchronous training modules about Web Monetization. Our outreach efforts are ongoing and we continue to get insightful feedback from past and current outreach partners. What we’ve come away with is that simplicity is key to understanding as well as repetition. While Web Monetization feels familiar to us as a result of this grant, for many it is initially confusing and met with some skepticism in regards to the relationship between our grant-giving and our Web Monetization. As we’ve developed our training modules these takeaways have been the lens through which we have viewed our content and focused our curriculum.

We are halfway through the development and production of our training materials with a completion date set for mid to late June. Our grant application will close on May 14th. After which we will finish the review of all applications and build our eligibility pool of applicants. Grants will be awarded in June and grantees will be notified and required to attend our Web Monetization School hosted on Teachable which must be completed before they receive their grants.

Progress on Objectives

Many of our objectives/goals/measures of success are dependent on the full suite of training modules to be completed and accessible to both our grantees and the general public. We currently have our “Introduction to Web Monetization” video on the application page of our website. It must be viewed before someone can apply. When our application closes, we will move this to the homepage of our site. We have completed our first training module with the second and third now in full and pre-production phases. All four will be available on our website when complete. These will be accessible to the general public and laid out as full training courses to be completed step by step or done ala-carte.

Key Activities

Three key activities have been taking place. The first being the scoping and development of our Web Monetization School. We’ve had the benefit of having the ear of a professional workshop organizer to soundboard ideas and review our content. The second has been building out a grass-roots base of outreach partners across arts organizations, companies, and art-focused technology platforms to help raise awareness about our grant-giving and Web Monetization.

The third has been our focus on reaching underserved communities and understanding better how our grants may help them and also how they view something like Web Monetization. A major theme that we’ve found in our underserved community outreach is that tech literacy and access tend to be a major hurdle. Likewise, there at times is a heavy amount of skepticism to overcome when explaining how something like Web Monetization could benefit them. As stated earlier in this report, the feedback and conversations we’ve been having during our outreach have really informed how we approached our training scope and content.

Communications and Marketing

We did have some funds earmarked for marketing and PR. After some initial research with the Jones-Dilworth agency around running various targeted ad campaigns through Facebook, Instagram and Google we stepped away from that strategy. It was just not going to be cost-effective. Too much upfront spend was needed to accurately drill down to potent audience verticals. We found that our grass-roots approach was/is more effective in communicating and getting buy-in to help spread the word about both our grant-giving and Web Monetization.

On the PR side, we have seen mixed results as well. We hired Giant Noise out of Austin to help us develop a press campaign and messaging about both the grants and Web Monetization. Again we ran into some challenges with explaining the relationship between ART and Web Monetization as well as cultivating understanding about Web Monetization in general. So there were some challenges there. About 50+ local and regional outlets were pitched as well as about 40+ national outlets over a two-month period from Feb-March. We saw some interest but mixed results and little interest in coverage. The feeling from Giant Noise was that while the grant amount was big, it was maybe not large enough to garner attention. Likewise, feedback from their initial outreach to the media was in line with our grassroots outreach efforts. A bit of confusion about Web Monetization but a lot of love for the direct funding of artists in need.

I was interviewed on this Podcast about a few things including ART. Our Underserved Community Outreach Manager, Audrey Ullman participated in a conference session with the National Museum of Women in the Arts. And we’ve seen a fair amount of success from our outreach partners sharing our grant-giving on social media and messaging it out to their communities and customers via email campaigns. This outreach continues until the grant application closes.

What’s Next?

We will continue to finish our training modules and finish the build-out of our Web Monetization School. Outreach will continue to raise awareness about the grants. Once we have our grantees chosen they will be notified and required to complete our Web Monetization School to release their funding. We will follow up both with our grantees and also those who have signed up to learn about Web Monetization via our website with some surveys in the fall to better understand their journey with Web Monetization.

What community support would benefit your project?

Continued help with raising awareness about our grant-giving until our application closes on May 14th.

Go! Grant Application Now Open @ Artist Rescue Trust

Todd Hansen — Thu, 01 Apr 2021 21:05:10 +0000

We are beyond stoked to announce that our grant application is now open. As part of our program with Grant for the Web, we will be awarding $150,000 in grants to eligible creatives and artists this Spring. If you or any artist, musician or creative you know has lost their primary source of income as a result of canceled shows, tours, or events due to the ongoing pandemic please apply below.

Artist Rescue Trust Grant Application

Also, as part of the program, we will also be releasing a series of training tutorials on Web Monetization. Our goal? To educate as many people as possible about how to incorporate Web Monetization into their online world.

Watch below for a short introduction video explaining the program and a little bit about Web Monetization.

We'll be launching our Web Monetization School in the coming weeks. If you'd like to receive updates on when we drop new Web Monetization tutorials, sign up here to join the email list.

That's it! Big thanks to everyone at Grant for the Web, ART, and Ocupop for helping us get to this point. Let's go!

ART Update #3: Ready...Set...

Todd Hansen — Wed, 03 Mar 2021 18:49:59 +0000

It's great to see the Web Monetization community growing here and digging into all the potential around Web Monetization. Go, team!

It's also exciting times over here at Artist Rescue Trust. We are deep in the weeds of building out our Web Monetization training tutorials and boot camp for our soon-to-be awarded grantees. We're crouching at the starting line waiting for the starter pistol to fire. Then it's off to the races!

We're aiming for the middle of March to begin our awareness campaign with our outreach partners and PR agency. We've been refining our PR campaign over the last few weeks and continued to on-board new outreach partners to our mission and introduce them to Web Monetization. The response has been very positive and the feedback we've received has helped steer our tutorial strategy as well. So a win, win for everyone.

Two new organizations we're honored to be partnering with are the Black Music Collective and the National Museum for Women in the Arts. These are key communities for us to hit and make aware of our upcoming grant-giving and Web Monetization. Both have deep and influential networks in the arts that will help us create even more awareness and momentum.

If all goes to plan, we'll be announcing our next grant-giving opportunity in a couple of weeks. If you want to chip in and help spread the word, we'll have an outreach kit you can download with all kinds of images for social and some suggested blurbs to use in a caption. Hit me up if you're interested in helping out at todd@artistrescue.org or there will be a link to it in our next post announcing the grant-giving.

Ok, back to work!

ART Update #2: We're gonna build it and they will come.

Todd Hansen — Fri, 15 Jan 2021 22:14:20 +0000

We've been head down and cranking away on our grassroots and underserved community outreach efforts over the past few weeks. We are slowly building a collation of various arts focused platforms and services that are committing to amplify messaging about our grant-giving when the time is right. Thus driving traffic and attention to our Web Monetization education resources. This will be a coordinated effort with our PR/Publicity strategy that we have been refining with our agency partner Giant Noise out of Austin, Texas. Our goal is a tidal wave of attention that will drive awareness and interest in the application of Web Monetization. As well as shine a strong light on all the projects being worked on as part of Grant for the Web. Exciting times to say the least.

We are beginning to see some good traction via our underserved community outreach efforts. Conversations are beginning with various groups nationwide and we continue to unlock new communities to potentially approach. A big win happened today when we secured help from the Chamiza Foundation to raise awareness throughout the Navajo Nation about our upcoming grant-giving.

Work continues on scoping out and refining the focus of our Web Monetization training and education resource build-out. We have been working closely with our agency partner Ocupop on the user and content journeys. Our efforts are being aided by Howard Gray who inhabits the workshop and training space, bringing a deep bench of knowledge to our work. We're grateful to have him advise and tell us when our ideas are good, bad, and ugly. Our hope is to have these resources ready and available for the general public and our grantees by the middle to end of March. If it is possible to deploy sooner, we will but only if everything is as it should be.

Last week we were stoked to be able to notify five more artists that they will be awarded grants. This is a result of our "Fund Five Drive" in December where new and past donors gave over $9,000 in under twenty-four hours. Huge thanks to them for their generosity!

Lastly, we will be launching our Artist Rescue Trust store in the coming weeks. It will be filled with all kinds of great gear (shirts, hats, hoodies, and more). 100% of profits from sales will go directly to funding artists and musicians who've lost income as a result of the pandemic.

We'll see you again in a few weeks with another update as momentum continues to build!

ART Update #1: Kick the tires and light the fires!

Todd Hansen — Fri, 11 Dec 2020 17:00:27 +0000

We are more than stoked to get going on our program for the Grant for the Web(aka GFtW...we love acronyms)! You can read more about the scope of our program in this recent announcement. We'll be posting updates here every couple of weeks along with other reporting for GFtW (acronyms!).

Since we began work a couple of weeks ago we've been moving at a quick pace to get things ramped up. Here's the breakdown so far:

We ran a fundraiser on Giving Tuesday called Fund Five Drive. The goal was to raise $7,500 to fund five more artists and musicians. We landed over $8,000. Mission accomplished! Thanks again to all those who supported the effort.
Working alongside our partners at Ocupop we've begun scoping out content and narrative for our Web Monetization training build-outs. A lot of exciting ideas bubbling up here as we think on the best ways to visually educate people of all skill levels about Web Monetization. This will be a cornerstone part of our program.
Our first part-time hire has been made. Audrey Ullman as our Community Outreach Manager. She is a SXSW alumn along with myself. We will build out an underserved community outreach plan over the next couple of weeks to be deployed in January 2021.
Strategic partner outreach has begun to key artist, creator and musician platforms (Ello, Soundcloud, Stageit, Twitch, Reverb Nation...many others). The ask is to have them come along side us, understand the power of Web Monetization and spread the word about it and our grant-giving to their communities when the time is right.

Those are the big ones. Stay tuned for more updates every couple of weeks. If you're reading this and think of something or someone who may be helpful, let's chat! I'm at todd@artistrescue.org.

Todd