future.lyA non-profit film studio that pays for itself
by selling the work it makes on the ground.
Most fundraising platforms treat the story as the pitch. You watch a video, you click donate, you get a PDF. future.ly is built the other way round. We go on location, live with the community, and make a documentary about something worth filming. Around that documentary we design real products — a tee, a print, a film stream — with the people in the story. Those products go on sale. The margin funds whatever they’re building. Every dollar is published, in public, before it moves. That’s the whole model.
A film, not a pitch.
Every story is backed by a proper documentary shoot. We live on site, shoot for weeks, and tell it the way the community would tell it. No pity edits, no stock footage.
Full focus. No browsing.
We run one campaign. When it's done, the next one begins. No catalogue, no algorithm, no five worthy causes competing for your attention.
A tee. A print. A film.
Real goods, priced like real products, shipped like real products. You buy what you'd buy anyway. The margin funds the build. Nobody owes anyone a favour.
Sustainable, not charitable.
We're a CIC — legally bound to the mission, publicly accountable. A small slice keeps future.ly running. The rest goes where the camera pointed.
How future.ly keeps running
without grants or donations.
We find a community
A place with something worth building and a story worth filming. For Episode 01 it's the Siargao kids making skateboards out of coconut wood.
We film, on location
We live on site for a month. We shoot the documentary. We design the products with the people in the story.
Products go on sale
You buy a tee because you want the tee. You buy the print because it'll look good on your wall. You stream the film because you want to watch it.
The margin builds the thing
Boards and safety gear, English classes, a skatepark. Milestones ladder up as sales come in. Every transaction published live.
Community picks what's next
Three proposals shortlisted from the open call. The community that bought in votes. Episode 02 begins, funded by the last one.
Every dollar, accounted for
in real time.
Every dollar that comes in is published on the economics page — the raised total, the milestone it’s funding, and once the drop is live, every individual order. Nothing is hidden, nothing is rounded, nothing is filed at year-end.
The line-by-line breakdown and the live order feed open the moment the drop goes live. Every purchase posts here the second it clears — what was bought, roughly where from, and where the margin is going.
See the campaign☞