Chalk it up to the New York Times bump. Homicide Watch, Washington’s comprehensive murder coverage site, was facing an imminent shutdown this week, until a Sunday write-up by New York Times media reporter (and ex-Washington City Paper editor) David Carr put the Kickstarter project to keep the site running over its $40,000 goal.

The site’s goal was filled primarily by small donations. The average backer gave around $40, which means that all that belly-aching about the Kickstarter’s unappealing rewards for big-money donations was beside the point.

Now that the site’s funded, founders Laura and Chris Amico, whose move  study journalism at Harvard on a fellowship necessitated the Kickstarter drive, plan to start hiring student reporters soon.

“We are joyful and we are grateful,” wrote Laura Amico in a blog post. “We have witnessed incredible generosity, not just of dollars, but of support, effort, and emotion.

Murder photo by Shutterstock