The Freedom of the Press Foundation has just announced the results of its first crowdfunding campaign, and we at MuckRock are extremely grateful and humbled by the outpouring of support, enthusiasm and assistance. In total, the Press Freedom Foundation raised $16,000 for MuckRock alone, which will be used to continue to grow and improve the site and do more of our unique form of community-powered, document-driven journalism.

Already, we are working on a number of new initiatives to expand on the work we’ve done in the past, as well as ways to use public records and the Freedom of Information Act to engage in data-driven driven at a scale and with a transparency never before possible on any platform.

None of this would have been possible without your help: To those who donated, who shared the campaign, who sent in hundreds of emails of support and encouragement, thank you. We will do our best to earn the trust you’ve placed in us.

As a small gesture of thanks, we will double the requests given for every community account purchased over the next 24 hours. We’ve had an amazing three years so far, but 2013 is looking much, much more exciting.

I can’t wait to see what you will dig up.

Image via Freedom of the Press Foundation