YouCommNews is an Australian non-profit organisation based on the US group Spot.us which brings journalists, publishers and the public together for crowdsourcing of ideas and resources (including funding) for high quality, community driven journalism. It was founded in 2010 by freelance journalist Melissa Sweet and Dr Margaret Simons of the Public Interest Journalism Foundation (PIJ Foundation) based at Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne.
Members of the public can participate either by suggesting ideas for stories they would like a journalist to cover, or by donating money towards a story pitch. Journalists can either suggest a story idea or apply to fulfil an existing story idea.
Publishers can either jointly fund stories or purchase completed stories, with funds reimbursed to donors.
The project launched with a story investigating the suspension of a childhood immunisation program following many instances of childhood febrile convulsions in Australia.