CROWDFUNDING CLIMATE LITERACY: A 21ST CENTURY BAKE SALE (Invited Presentation)

The Teacher-Friendly Guide™ to Climate Change, published by the Paleontological Research Institution (PRI), is a resource for science teachers and others interested in exploring the science of climate change, as well as effective strategies for communicating what has become a politically polarized issue. As our guide went to press we learned that the Heartland Institute planned to send copies of their climate change propaganda booklet (Why Scientists Disagree about Climate Change) to 200,000 science teachers nationwide. In response, we initiated a crowdfunding campaign to increase the dissemination of the TFG to Climate Change to a national audience.

At the one-year mark in this effort we have distributed materials to 50,000 teachers and have a useful toolkit of lessons learned. The nature of crowdfunding includes some built-in advantages over more traditional sources of funding. Among these, (1) unlike a grant proposal the outcome is not a binary yes/no, and partial support can be used to further the goals of the project even if the funding target is not reached, and (2) crowdfunding both depends upon and creates a community of supporters – the bake sale aspect – which is an enormously beneficial outcome regardless of fundraising success. The feedback loop required to build a community of supporters is, itself, a means of promoting climate change literacy. The distribution of resources creates additional interest in the resource itself. Through outreach to media and advocacy groups we reach supporters who are outside our circle of usual suspects. Through buy-in and support from state and national science teachers associations we build credibility and access to resources for teaching climate science. Challenges remain – being heard above the noise, providing place-based support to teachers – but each challenge is also an opportunity to improve our effectiveness in reaching teachers and their students with the best possible climate science.