Announcing Our 20th Anniversary “Better Sharing” Campaign

by Catherine Stihler Sustaining the Commons

Creative Commons is turning 20! We are delighted to be celebrating this milestone with our global community, honoring our commitment as a nonprofit to creating a world where everyone has access to knowledge and creativity. 

As we considered CC’s goals for the next 20 years, we kept returning to a simple idea: 

Better Sharing for a Brighter Future

In the last two decades, we’ve helped shape the culture around sharing,  increasing access to valuable information, historic images, scientific articles, educational resources, cultural artifacts, and so much more. 

Now we’re looking forward to putting the tools to accessing, using, and resharing content in the hands of everyone, everywhere. We know that greater access to information means a stronger global community, more innovation, and increased capacity to solve the challenges the world faces today and in the years to come. 

To make this happen, CC has set an ambitious goal to raise $15 million. 

These funds will ensure we can continue to build accessible, equitable Open Infrastructure that truly responds to community needs and start new projects in Open GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums) and Open Science.  

Alongside our community of creators, partners, and users, Creative Commons is grateful for the donors who power our work from all corners of the world. 

Whether it’s $1 or $1,000, your gift makes everything we do possible. We hope you’ll consider supporting our Better Sharing campaign.

We’ve come a long way since 2001. 

When Creative Commons first started, there was no Facebook or Twitter, and Wikipedia was only just getting off the ground. The internet was a newer landscape full of potential, while older institutions like libraries and museums offered a blueprint for how we might open up educational materials, journal articles and more to regular people. We were excited by the prospect of a world where everyone has access to knowledge and creativity and Creative Commons was an opening to start creating that. 

Thanks to supporters like you, since those early days, we’ve made a significant impact. Our licenses have been used to openly share nearly two billion works globally, from historic images to scientific data to cultural artifacts. Moreover, we’ve steadily built up a global movement of over 86 countries all united by a belief in the power of Open Access.

We still have so much work to do.

As we look toward the next 20 years, we are committed to building a world where everyone, everywhere has access to free and open knowledge. For us, this means doubling down on our efforts to develop clear license and legal tools that are easy to understand and available in many languages; ensure access for all to open information and materials, not only those with privilege; and empower easy to use platforms, where free content can be accessed by anyone regardless of skill level with technology. 

It also means we must expand existing efforts like Open GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums), building the tools necessary for these institutions to more openly share their collections, and launch new ventures in Open Science to remove unnecessary barriers to addressing key issues like COVID-19, future public health crises, and the Climate Emergency. 

Please join us in our pursuit of Better Sharing that serves the public interest and creates the world the internet promised, one where everyone has access to culture, science, and knowledge. 

20 years is a huge milestone, and all of us here at Creative Commons are committed to 20 more. 

Here are some ways you can support the Better Sharing campaign:  

Donate

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Stay Informed 

Posted 24 May 2021

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