THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of Communications

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 4, 2013

 

White House Highlights Andrea Seabrook as a Crowdfunding “Champion of Change”

 

WASHINGTON, DC – On Tuesday, June 4th, the White House honors Andrea Seabrook as one of twelve people who are Crowdfunding “Champions of Change.” This Champions event will focus on entrepreneurs who exemplify the promise of crowdfunding to fuel the growth of startups, small businesses, and innovative projects across the Nation.  "Crowdfunding" means raising money in small increments from many individuals, typically using an Internet platform.  Donation-based crowdfunding is already empowering many entrepreneurs, while investment-based crowdfunding platforms will soon be facilitated by the bipartisan Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act, which the President signed last year and the SEC will implement.

 

“The Champions of Change that the White House is honoring today are using crowdfunding to create jobs for our Nation’s veterans, accelerate the deployment of solar energy, revitalize our cities, and expand the frontiers of citizen science,” said Thomas Kalil, Deputy Director for Technology and Innovation for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.  “Crowdfunding is the 21^st century equivalent of barn-raising.  We can use it to help our neighbors and fellow citizens start a business, enrich our culture, and apply grassroots creativity and imagination to challenges big and small.”

 

The Champions of Change program was created as an opportunity for the White house to feature groups of Americans – individuals, businesses and organizations – who are doing extraordinary things to empower and inspire members of their communities. 

 

To watch this event live, visit www.whitehouse.gov/live at 2:30 pm ET on June 4th.  To learn more about the White House Champions of Change program and nominate a Champion, visit www.whitehouse.gov/champions.

DecodeDC collects the stories of those most often left out of the immigration debate: actual immigrants.

In the first of a two-part series on immigration, DecodeDC looks at how humor can get closer to a problem than political talking points ever could.

Special thanks this week to Radio Ambulante, a Spanish-language radio program telling uniquely Latin American stories.  Check them out at http://radioambulante.org/!

The fine thinkers and doers of Transom asked Andrea to join the likes of Ira Glass, the Kitchen Sisters, Jad Abumrad (and more!) in writing a radio manifesto. Here's what Transom founder Jay Allison had to say about it:

"One of our favorite new podcasts is Andrea Seabrook’s DECODE DC. It approaches political reporting from a fresh angle and we like the way it sounds. Andrea doesn’t regurgitate party lines and buzznews. Instead, she flips stories upside-down and pokes at them, or she finds new stories that undermine the standard ones. Rather than ride the daily wave, she dives under it or floats above. That’s refreshing and illuminating.

She quit a pretty good job in order to do this. In her Transom Manifesto, she tells us how and why she got to this point. In true Manifesto Style, she lays out her principles and measures her work against them."

Check out Andrea's Transom Manifesto