Crowdfunding. Is it a thing?

Renee

what platforms are used

• Razoo, Kickstarter, indiegogo, Chimp Fund (only for Canada).

• Indiegogo/Kickstarter : both have fairly high fees. 10 percent if you don’t make your goal. 5 percent if you make your goal. This doesn’t count paypal and other processing and doesn’t count cost of shipps swag/perks. Kickstarter - if you don’t meet your goal you don’t get any of the money. Does not allow you to ask for donations by check. Goes against terms of service.

• Opentilt : Open source, no fees

• Chimp has giving groups that allows people to leverage their personal networks.

• Danna.io : Open source also does bitcoin, no fees

• Razoo : Allows for different levels of giving, allows for monthly. 4.9% fee.

Lessons about running campaigns :

• Wishes she had done a pre-cheerleading lesson to move people out ofidea that they are begging for money and engaged in somethingimportant.

• People need to be emotionally hooked. It’s about telling stories that encourage people to feel like they are contributing tosomething important.

• Most people have no idea the amount of work involved. It requires planning before hand, needs to be engaged.

• Crowdfunding fatigue : sometimes happens when you do two or more.

• Strong start, strong finish and quiet in between. This is actually a normal thing.

• Don’t ask for too little but don’t ask for too much.

• Matching is a great motivator

• Not all donors want to donate online. You need to account for donations by check/cash.

• Also account for fees in your goal

• Look at the blogs of crowdsourcing sites for help support

• You need a good video. It’s way more important than the text. It should be short/catchy/maybe funny that way it goes beyond your direct targets. It doesn’t need to be really polished.

• Videos ideally should be under two minutes. If it’s going to be longer make sure it’s compelling/engaging.

• Think of your perks/gifts. People like experiences like parties/donor events etc. Some people may not even want things. Askthem. Some people just want to support. People are also interested in learning about what happens behinds the scenes.

• You are building relationships. Some of these donors could become long term donors.

• Content updates are essential

• crowdfunding works really well when it acts as a ripple effect.

• Campaigns on organizational issues is harder. Doing campaigns on project.

• How long to run a campaign? Deadlines are your friend. They add a sense of urgency. It’s not just how long you run it for but also when you run it. For example best time is not around the holidays unless it’s relevant connected.

• End of September/October or April have worked well. Typically 4-5 weeks.

• No one had any good experience with orgs crowdfunding for operating expenses

• Question should we be doing a couple of big campaigns or project campaigns? Project campiagns are good because they tell a story and and can provide funding