MinnPost and The Uptake are partnering to cover the Minnesota governor’s race, and to raise money for the coverage through a crowdfunding enterprise called spot.us.

The partnership will combine MinnPost reporting and analysis with The Uptake’s high-quality video coverage, including livestream video.

Nieman Lab, which covers media innovation, wrote about the deal here. And David Cohn, the founder of spot.us, pitched it here.

It’s hard to raise $40,000 five dollars at a time, but here’s a way you can provide $5 of support for this partnership, without reaching into your own wallet. 

Spot.us is experimenting with something they call Community-Centered Advertising, in which a reader takes an advertiser’s survey, in exchange for which the advertiser donates $5 to help fund a story - chosen by the reader.  Read about it here.

Right now, spot.us is using this advertiser spot itself - in other words, it will pay the $5 if you fill out its survey.

Here's how it works in 5 steps.

1. Go to spot.us and register/login (upper left hand corner)
2. Click the "Earn Credits" button in the navigation
3. Answer the quick survey (Don’t leave any questions blank.)
4. After hitting submit - you'll be sent to a page that lists pitches in order of percentage funded. The MinnPost/Uptake pitch is on the SECOND page.
5. Click "apply credits" next to the Minnesota Gubernatorial Coverage pitch. Confirm that selection on the following page.

Then, if you enjoyed the process of donating someone else’s money to our good cause, tell your friends through Facebook, Twitter or whatever way you prefer.  Five dollars here, five dollars there, soon you’re talking about real money.