Greg Maqoma, Founder of Vuyani Dance Theatre
Joy Dancer is an upcoming documentary project on choreographer Greg Maqoma, founder of Vuyani Dance Theatre, South Africa’s first black-owned dance company. Produced by Sylvia Solf and Suzanne Smith, the documentary will explore the life story, creative process, and artistic leadership of Gregory Maqoma, who rose from the streets of apartheid South Africa to receive a dance scholarship to study with world-renowned dancer/choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker. Today, Greg is an award-winning choreographer and activist while teaching dance to kids in Soweto, using his work to help create opportunities for youth.
On August 5th, the documentary successfully raised more than its $20K budget on Indiegogo. Halfway through the fundraising campaign, a producer reached out to me for insight on how to leverage social media, ads, and personal networks for crowdfunding. My notes were comprehensive, cutting across their campaign tactics, messaging, web presence, and strategy.
I found that personal networks were far more important than social media or ads would be, given the strength of the producers’ professional contacts and their relatively small social media following. In the end, I was pleased they were able to leverage those contacts to meet their overall goal without spending a lot of time and money on social ads.
In hindsight, my number one advice to anyone planning a crowdfunding campaign is: devise a strategy before you launch. Most successful campaigns have messages, content, mailing lists, and ads set up well before they go live. In fact, they use pre-launch outreach to raise awareness of the campaign, so that people get ready to give; to find corporate/nonprofit matching partners; to pitch press; to build a social media following; and handle other critical launch activities. Starting those things mid-way through your campaign puts you at a disadvantage. If you’re lucky, your network comes through and funds your project, but it’s better to be prepared!
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Onwards and upwards,
