While crowdfunding for  journalism projects is dwarfed by the big bucks attracted by film, music, theater, technology and other categories, “the growing activity here is about more than just dollars and cents or prizewinning reporting,” according to a new  Pew Research Center report.

 “In today’s evolving digital era, it represents a new, niche segment of nontraditional journalism driven in large part by public interest and motivation,” Pew said in its study of journalism funding projects on Kickstarter, one of the largest single hubs for crowdfunding journalism.

 “It is bringing voice and visibility to efforts that would likely otherwise go unnoticed or unfunded, adding yet another way for the public to engage in creating, funding and disseminating journalism and adding one more option to the arsenal of revenue sources that the industry is desperately seeking to build up,” Pew said in its report Crowdfunded Journalism:  A Small but Growing Addition to Publicly Driven Journalism.

Here are some highlights:

Track record: From April 28, 2009 to September 15, 2015, 658 journalism-related projects, proposed on Kickstarter, received full, or more than full, funding, for a total of $6.3 million.

Slow but steady growth: Number of projects funded at Kickstarter started at 17 in 2009, tripled to 64 in 2010 and reached 168 in 2014. The number rose to 236 in 2015.

Who uses: Individuals, independent of any journalism group, accounted for the largest share (71%) of the projects. Over the seven-year period, individuals alone made up 43% and those who were part of a small group (29%). Established media such as ProPublica and the Boston Review made up 22% of the requests.

The money:  Donations to journalism projects rose annually from $49,256 in 2009 to $1.74 million by the first nine months of 2015 (latest available figure).

Donors: The numbers of people contributing rose from 792 in 2009 to 25,651 in 2015

Drop in the bucket: "Overall, journalism projects produced and revenue gained from these crowdfunded ventures is still a drop in the bucket compared with the original reporting that occurs on any given day and the roughly $20 billion revenue generated by newspaper ads alone." Kickstarter-backed journalism also trails venture capital and philanthropy funded journalism.