Non-profit group the Freedom of the Press Foundation said on Tuesday that NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden will join its board of directors in February 2014.

The group uses a crowd-funding structure to collect donations for journalism projects and to encourage news organizations to use encryption tools.

"Journalism isn't possible unless reporters and their sources can safely communicate," said Snowden in a statement, "and where laws can't protect that, technology can. This is a hard problem, but not an unsolvable one, and I look forward to using my experience to help find a solution.”

Snowden has been indicted by the federal government and lives in Russia where he was granted temporary asylum. The Freedom of the Press Foundation told the New York Times it consulted lawyers to make sure Snowden’s role would not create legal problems for the group, which has nonprofit status.

Daniel Ellsberg, the former military analyst who released the Pentagon Papers, co-founded the organization in 2012. Ellsberg said in a release that Snowden “is the quintessential American whistleblower, and a personal hero of mine.”

“Accountability journalism can’t be done without the courageous acts exemplified by Snowden, and we need more like him,” Ellsberg said.

The San Francisco-based group’s founding board also includes John Cusack, journalist Xeni Jardin and two recipients of the NSA documents, journalists Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras.