Let’s start this new year off with a shout out to all my friends planning crowdfunding campaigns to support their dreams! More grease to your elbows. As a filmmaker, I’ve had to raise money myself and learn it all the hard way. With a $12K budget for my short film Aissa’s Story, I raised $6K on Indiegogo, another $6K from an investor, and another $3K in offline donations.
Image via CauseVox
All in all, I ended up having less out-of-pocket expenses on that project than any before or since–and it’s budget was much larger. So it breaks my heart when I see a friend or colleague struggle to raise money online because I know there are some tried and true principles.
Some perspective: Most successful campaigns start planning months in advance of their launch date with graphics, video, web copy, marketing, donor rewards, and (were applicable) funding partnerships aligned.
Great planning is the start to a great campaign. So here are some tips:
- Assess what you can realistically raise from your network. This may only be understood after running your first campaign, but it’s important to anticipate the resources available in your network. Some fundraisers advise running a small campaign to get your feet wet and build a platform, then run your big campaign once you’ve learned best practices. If crowdfunding likely won’t be enough, supplement your online campaign by approaching individual investors, family, and anyone else you can think of.
- Choose your platform. The main players by traffic rankings are GoFundMe, Indiegogo, and Kickstarter. I recently heard about (new!) Kickbooster, an affiliate program for crowdfunding campaigns that actually pays your friends for promoting your campaign. There are a bunch of others, but you should figure out what works best for you. I would use one of the top three because they have strong web and social media integration that makes them easy to share.
- Choose carefully between flexible and fixed funding. Fixed campaigns that are going well can have a galvanizing effect, motivating folks to give more. Flexible campaigns that are floundering may never raise much at all. But if you are running your first campaign and aren’t sure about reaching your target, that might be your best bet.
- Have a clear message. Look at some successful campaigns (below) and study their videos, images, and text. Nobody wants to give money to someone who can’t layout a convincing web page, define their product/project/company/service mission statement, and explain exactly what they need the money for. Well…maybe somebody will…but you don’t want to rely on folks with questionable discretion. If you have to pay someone to shoot your video, then do, if it means the return on that investment will be much greater.
- List more than one team member on your campaign page. Nobody likes a lone wolf, and your donors need to know that a competent, committed team is helping put their donation to good use. Always always always use profile pics for each team member.
- Consider using a fiscal sponsor. Fiscal sponsorship is a formal arrangement in which a 501(c)(3) public charity sponsors a project that may lack exempt status, allowing you to seek grants and solicit tax-deductible donations under your sponsor’s exempt status. I am a member of Fractured Atlas that has a partnership with Indiegogo that allowed me early access to funds raised while I was shooting my film.
- Reach out at least 7 times to your network via mailing list blasts, private emails, text messages, snail mail, and social media. The “Rule of 7” is a basic marketing principle that says it takes seven touches before someone will internalize and/or act upon your call to action. That means they have to see the same message that many times before they will give money. For blasts, you can export contact emails from your LinkedIn or Gmail account. Don’t discount a text or an old-fashioned letter in the mail–since there are different levels for different folks. And don’t rely on your friends posting to social media as your main marketing tool; as far as strategies go, unless they have >10K followers, it’s like rolling the dice.
- It helps to have a strong social network before launch because trying to build one at the same time as you try to raise money is heavy lifting. I can’t count the amount of times I have seen people who lack a web presence try to raise money and outright fail. If you know you’re launching a campaign in June, start building your social media network at least a few months before then. You can also use the time to start sharing info about your project and priming the pump for when the campaign starts.
- Post regular updates on your campaign page to communicate your project status, thank people for donations, and provide new information and incentives for giving. There’s nothing worse than going to a page that has NO UPDATES and wondering what’s going on.
- Keep in mind that, depending on the platform, a portion of your proceeds will go towards administrative fees and another portion will be used to fulfill rewards. This is what inevitably hurts most folks in the long run. They over-promise on rewards and under-deliver on them. That has a direct negative consequence on your next campaign.
Winning campaigns are not magical. When in doubt, research successful campaigns online like:
- Nicole Pouliot’s Art Education for Rural Kids!
- April Yvette Thompson’s Good Bread Alley
Also check out campaigns that didn’t raise much, but probably could/should have and try to reverse engineer what went wrong and how it could have been done differently:
- Ronald K. Brown/Evidence, A Dance Company’s The Subtle One
- Mya B’s Black Men, Afraid of Dark
The most important thing is to get the word out in as many ways as possible. Strangers are far less likely to give than people you know, particularly for arts or service campaigns. Products with a tech vibe and solid marketing seem to do really well from strangers, particularly on Kickbooster.
When I’m not writing or making films I work as a freelance marketing consultant helping organizations figure out how to connect with people, raise awareness and capital. As you can see from the examples above, small arts organizations have the same kinds of struggles with online fundraising as individual artists do. (And for folks on the other side of the equation, helping others raise money, I would never agree to a percentage of the profits as a form of payment. You’re gambling with your time and an organization that may or may not have the web presence and savvy to raise the funds they need. That’s why they want you to do it…for free.)
So do yourself a favor and align all the necessary elements before you launch a crowdfunding campaign. The psychic repercussions of “failing” to fund your dreams may create ripple effects in your life that are difficult to bounce back from. In the end, though, all of life’s supposed failures are truly lessons. Passing on a few of mine!
My name is Iquo B. Essien and I’m a multimedia storyteller and creative consultant. You can follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. For more info, visit: www.iquomma.com