Im in Paine ... and I need to get out!

Aim

Parliament cited my work. TEDx wants my talk. I'm still sleeping in a car. £50k ends the absurdity and funds what's actually making change.

UPDATE: Let's play a little game! See my list of 300+ movements map and make sure the comment you leave includes the name of your favourite movement. Is it the Wellbeing Economy or Degrowth? Solarpunk or Matriarchy? Regenerative Economy or P2P/Open Source? Transition Towns or Social Enterprise?

For as little as $1, you get to cast a vote (one person one vote). Whichever wins will be the subject of my first published longform media and whoever voted will get to have a hand in its making!

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Do you ever feel like something has to change, but revolution feels a bit scary, the bread and circuses were never more expensive, nothing makes sense, and honestly you just need a nap?

I've spent four years answering that question. 

What I found surprised me.

Enough solutions already exist. People are already making it work. 

You just haven't been told about them.

Celebrities like Bryan Johnson are saying "Humanity doesn't have a plan" on Twitter. 

Meanwhile, we literally do. Reports from hundreds of leading scientists and researchers around the world have outlined it (multiple times I might add!)

You're just not hearing it on the news.

Why?

My Story

For four years I've been researching, connecting, filming and writing — building a map of the 300+ moving towards a fairer economy, many already running and thriving in towns and cities across the UK and US (and globally), better jobs, more money, sustainable -- and less lonely. 

Hundreds of thousands of people watch my videos covering a tiny fraction of these stories each month. 

Chances are, you might've seen my face on the internet before.

The response is always the same:

"Hope for humanity!"

"What can I do? How do I get started?"

"Why has nobody told me this exists?"

"THIS is the fix!"

Nobody told you because nobody has built the thing that would tell you. 

That consistently gets these messages in front of the world, along with supports and resources to jump in and help us grow the fairer economy that works for all of us (yes, wealthy AND poor alike).

That's what this crowdfunder is for.

But I want to be honest about something first.

I have spent four years making the case for economic justice for other people. 

I have not been making it for myself.

I went homeless doing this work. 

Missing out on years with my kid. 

(You'd be sad to miss out on years with him too, he's awesome!)

Going from shelters, to couch surfing across continents with friends and strangers who support the mission taking me in, to rough sleeping just upstream from megayachts, to now living in a car in the Carolina summer, hoping I don't oversleep in the heatwave.

That stops now.

Photo: me at some low points. Sleeping in the woods, and next to said megayachts.

American Founding Father Thomas Paine wrote Common Sense — the pamphlet that helped turn a feeling into a revolution — from roughly the same position I'm in now:

Broke. Outside any institution. Trusted by ordinary people and ignored by powerful ones. 

He didn't wait for permission. He just named the truth in plain English and trusted people to act on it.

I've learned the mechanisms to inspire widespread actions. 

I've learned what those actions need to be to create a fairer economy.

I've been working on two guides that reveal all of it.

And I'm about ready to debut them to the world.

But right now it's Painefully obvious I can't do that without help.

I need to get out of this Paineful situation and be supported to share these past four years of work with the world.

Image: Me hanging with Calcifer, my car and my bed! (Kiddo got me a Snorlax to go with the whole sleeping-in-car theme xD)

This crowdfunder is the first transaction of the new economy I've spent four years describing. 

I'm going to the people directly — you — and asking you to make the next twelve months possible.

In February 2026 my video covering Scotland's Community Wealth Building bill, a method that fundamentally rewires wealth and power to create common sense economies that are fairer for everyone, went so viral it caught international attention, Scotland's own newspapers wrote about it, and it was cited in Scotland's parliament at the passing of the bill.

More importantly, it inspired people to start learning how they could start Community Wealth Building in their own cities and towns today.

It showed them the new economy that's possible -- that's right around the corner once word gets out.

Due to spending most of my energy on survival, only a few of these videos ever get posted.

Imagine if they were posted consistently, imagine if others learned how this can be repeated to inspire people to action (99% of content does the opposite), and the whole world learned how we can take the economy into our own hands within months instead of years?

What Your Money Builds

£50,000 ($67,000 USD) to cover 12 months to do two things.

1) A Directory and Map of the New Economy

A properly designed, searchable online directory of the 300+ movements (and thousands of organisations under most), many already running the new economy playbook — organised by sector and location, so anyone anywhere can find what works for them, or exists already in their neighbourhood. 

Tools so you can see where your project lands on the map and how to find collaborators. This is the missing piece. Nobody has built it. I have the relationships, the knowledge and four years of research to do it.

2) Twelve Podcasts in Twelve Months

One long-form conversation a month with one of the people doing the most interesting work in this space. Voices doing brilliant work that don't get the opportunity to get their work seen, to share how to grow this new economy with the world. Recorded simply, published free. By month twelve there will exist a body of work that maps the landscape of the new economy in a way that has never existed before — and you will have been a part of it being made.

Why £50,000 and not less?

Because £30,000 is survival. It keeps me housed and fed and caught up with backdated medical and other care from years of homelessness, the wraparound supports that anyone who has been chronically homeless needs to get back on their feet. 

It does not give me the resources to build anything that lasts.

£50,000 is survival plus the work. The directory and map needs designing and hosting. The podcast needs basic production. And I need to do both without the constant background noise of financial precarity that has made the last four years so much harder than they needed to be. 

I'm being honest about the number because you deserve honesty about the number.

What People Are Saying

"Jess is creating the kind of content and storytelling the world needs much more of, and she’s creating it with ways to help us all get active. These are the doorways we need to amplify the new economy that’s emerging all around us and help it go mainstream."

- Matt Golding, Antidote

"Jessica’s managing to engage tens of thousands of people into building a kinder economic system that keeps money local and which resists extractive business practices. I’m delighted to recommend her to all my friends and colleagues in this movement - in the hope she gets properly funded to keep on with her amazing work."

- Dan Edelstyn, POWER STATION

"Jessica’s ability to harness the power of the internet and good old human connections to amplify and spread the work of people building the fairer economic systems we so desperately need is nothing short of phenomenal.  As someone who has worked at making stories accessible to wide audiences, Jessica is that rare person who makes the next right actions seem inevitable, obvious and downright fun and exciting."
- John Hepworth, Filmmaker, Hepworks Productions

"As we confront the complex challenges of our time—inequality, disconnection, ecological crisis—it is practitioners like Jessica Friday who light the path forward. Her ability to synthesize theory and practice, to bridge local action and global movement, and to foster hope and agency in the face of adversity is both rare and urgently needed."

- Tony Budak, Time Bank Mahoning Watershed

"Plenty of people can tell you the economy is broken. Jessica Friday tells you it is already being rebuilt, then hands you the door and shows you how to walk through it.
Her piece on Scotland's Community Wealth Building bill is the whole gift in one place. She took dense, first-of-its-kind legislation and made it land for a civic novice, an organizer, and a policy wonk all at once, with the receipts to back it and a clear-eyed read on what it will take to be real. She turns despair into agency and readers into participants, which is the hardest trick in this entire space.
Backing her crowdfunder is not charity. It is one of the highest-leverage bets you can make on the transition actually happening."

Michael J. Muyot, Founder, APEX DAO, Author, The Bloom Protocol Trilogy

"The further your message gets the better the world becomes"

- theoceanandthestars via Tiktok

The Tiers

£10/$14 — Early Supporter & ALL TIERS INCLUDED (PLEASE READ)

Your name on the website and my World History Logbook, published on Instagram / in emails.

Acknowledgement that you showed up early for something that mattered.

Book inclusion and promotion for non-anonymous donations only, either include in comment here on Crowdfunder or email [email protected] your name and and the name of any project or movement you'd like to be included in the book and reels. Example: Thomas Paine, The Common Sense Economy by 2026 Network / Matriatchy, Solarpunk, Wellbeing Economy etc. If you pick a movement, winning movement at end of the campaign will be first featured in longform Youtube and article!

£50/$67 — Get the Work
Both guides when they're ready, plus your name in every podcast episode and all of the above.

£200/$268 — Go All In
Everything above, plus a year of full membership when the platform exists (1 year full membership to newsletter and priority opportunity to feature your work).

For people who already know this matters.

£500/$670 — Named Producer
Your name as producer on the documentary film. Limited to 20. For the people who want to say they were there at the beginning. Plus your name as sponsor on a podcast episode of your choice. Opportunity to go on a live interview with me!

£2,500/$3,345 — Full Access (5 spots only)
Everything above, plus direct time with me. Real access. Five spots, because that's all I can genuinely deliver. Let's cover your story with a live discovery, article, and reel tailored to your vision.

The Close

Within six months, the colonies didn't just feel differently. They declared independence. 

A few thousand words, written for ordinary people, in plain English, helped turn a feeling into a country.

I can create the occasional video, but many content creators knowing how and you knowing how to spread the word?

We can turn this all around, with a little common sense.

I'm in Paine. Will you help me get out?

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 5th August 2026 at 1:18pm CDT