VoiceDeck is a platform empowering citizen-led impact journalism through retroactive funding. It was founded by Devansh Mehta, a journalist who has been building VoiceDeck since 2018, bringing years of reporting experience and a deep understanding of how stories translate into real-world change.
Pollen Labs partnered with the Next Billion Fellowship to identify VoiceDeck as a mission-aligned project to develop and bring to market as an open-source public good.
From November 2023 to March 2024, Pollen Labs worked closely with the VoiceDeck team to design, build, and launch both the VoiceDeck website and the VoiceDeck app.
- UX & interaction design
- End-to-end product design
- Product concept & strategy
- Web app
Impact by citizen journalists
VoiceDeck turns community knowledge into measurable, fundable outcomes.
At the center of the platform are everyday citizens and local advocates, people who live the stories and see the problems firsthand. These citizen journalists don’t just consume information; they help document what’s happening, build evidence over time, and direct support toward reporting that drives real change.
In practice, this means reports become trackable impact: they spell out what changed, why it mattered, and what it took to get there, so support can follow outcomes, not attention.
A highlight story from the field
Some stories start with a daily routine that shouldn’t be hard. In Kurkuri, water scarcity isn’t an abstract headline, it’s a lived reality shaped by waiting, rationing, and constant uncertainty.
The “Water Scarcity – Kurkuri” report documents what people experience on the ground and translates it into evidence: what’s broken, who it affects, and why it matters.
By turning firsthand observations into a clear, structured impact narrative, the story becomes something others can rally behind support that’s grounded in proof, and momentum that can sustain advocacy and follow-through until access to water becomes reliable, not conditional.
Local-first
We designed VoiceDeck from the ground up for the realities of grassroots journalism in India. That local-first approach shows up in both product and interaction design:
Indian context is the default. Reports are organized around local categories and states impacted, reflecting how outcomes are experienced on the ground.
Verification fits the context. Instead of importing a generic identity model, VoiceDeck integrates privacy-preserving verification for Indian citizens using a zero-knowledge proof protocol called Anon Aadhaar.
Community legitimacy is built in. Trust and credibility aren’t treated as abstract labels—they’re grounded in mechanisms for endorsements and transparency that align with real community dynamics.
Culture-influenced design
From the earliest roadmap, we centered many perspectives in the process, journalists, engaged citizens, and local advocates so the product could reflect how trust is actually earned in communities.
Through workshops and collaborative working sessions, we gathered insights into local context: how people interpret information, what signals credibility, and what motivates participation.
The work wasn’t only about building a retroactive funding platform, it was about rethinking how the “value” of journalism is defined, recognized, and shared.
Funding public-interest reporting isn’t a cold transaction. The experience needs to balance urgency with credibility, optimism with proof, while still carrying the warmth and expressive energy often found in Indian celebratory culture.
VoiceDeck leans on clear language, visible progress, and trust signals so supporters can feel confident that their contribution is both meaningful and grounded.
Implementation
VoiceDeck v1 brought multiple components together into a cohesive system.
We used Hypercerts to enable funders to receive proof of contribution, while allowing newsroom partners to retain report ownership onchain. Donations are deposited into multisig wallets, with shared access directly with partner newsrooms, supporting transparency and accountable fund flows.
To power content operations, we leveraged an open-source CMS (Directus) so the VoiceDeck team can manage app content and publish reports with consistent structure.
Within a four-month build window, the partnership shipped the app as an early Hypercerts use case, delivering real product feedback while helping VoiceDeck build momentum and unlock additional support.
Built as open source, rooted in community self-growth
VoiceDeck is built to be a public resource, not a closed platform.
We see the need for many grassroots journalism initiatives globally, and open-source is how the work scales beyond any single team.
The result is a platform that can grow with its community, supporting builders, newsroom partners, and local contributors who want journalism that doesn’t just inform, but transforms.
