Laura Inscho, JVA Consulting

About two years ago, it seemed like everywhere I turned, someone asked me if I knew about Kickstarter. After a few separate sources explained the premise to me—an online platform for funding creative ventures through individual donations—I pulled up the website and had a look for myself. I was astonished by what I found; people from all over the country donating to projects like children’s books and documentary films and artisan pickles!? It was every artist’s dream come true—wealthy patrons! Except the average donation size was only $25–$50, and it was the generosity of many, not one, that was driving these projects. Soon after my introduction to Kickstarter, I began to see the impact of this crowdfunding site in my personal sphere—musicians I knew were getting their new albums funded, and local nonprofits that I knew of were raising money!

At around that same time, the nonprofit board of directors that I serve on had a cash-flow crunch. We were a young, working board with far more Facebook friends than wealthy patron-type friends, and we needed to make money—fast. So we decided to launch our own crowdfunding campaign. After some investigation and trial and error, we determined that Indiegogo was the best option for us. Kickstarter is one of the most well-known crowdfunding sites, but it focuses its efforts on project-based funding in the arts, whereas Indiegogo allowed for funding for a mission-driven organization outside of the arts. Indiegogo is one of many crowdfunding sites developed after the success of Kickstarter—founded in 2009, including: StartSomeGood, DonorsChoose, Razoo, Kiva, and Community-funded (based out of Fort Collins, CO). All of these sites have their own focus areas and rules for engagement, but they all follow the same basic format: the organization or project uses the web-based template to put up a video and information about the project to be funded, often with incentives tied to each funding dollar amount and a timeframe for the giving campaign; then the donor—a friend, family member, community member, or stranger—makes a donation using a credit card through the secure website; once the funding goal is reached or the timeframe has expired, the crowdfunding site takes a small percentage of the funds raised as a fee for hosting the project, and a credit card processing fee (both are typically 3-5%) then sends the organization or individual a check for funds raised. As follow-up, the individual or organization sends the promised incentives to donors; this process is simplified, as the fundee can use the administrative options on the website to generate a complete list of all donors and amounts given.

Through Indiegogo, my board and I raised over $15,000 in under a month for our organization! For us, this was a scary and exhilarating goal—both reachable and challenging. We were thrilled by the outpouring of support that we received; we knew that we had a wide net of support in the community, but we had not previously been able to translate that generalized support into dollars and cents for our organization. Through this process, we also learned some important crowdfunding lessons for success.

Lessons for a successful crowdfunding campaign:

1. Make a great video: It shouldn’t be long, but it should be compelling—make your potential donors laugh, cry and love your organization; people will often donate $25 to a program or cause that is clearly awesome, whether or not they have any personal connection!
2. Work your networks: No matter how great your video is, it won’t matter much if no one sees it. Facebook, email and all other electronic forms of communication are critical for driving your potential donors toward your campaign. Identify people in your networks who are natural ‘connectors’ and ask them to re-post your campaign’s Facebook link on your behalf, and do a Facebook blitz—reposting everyday—during the last week of your campaign.
3. Provide fun, authentic incentives: Donors are typically going to be motivated to give simply because they love your project, but you can drive your donor toward a higher donation amount by providing incentives that are fun—for you and the donor—and authentically linked to your organizations goals and work. Following through to send the incentives to your donors is absolutely vital—you want them to trust you and donate again! So incentives that are fun to provide and inherently linked with your regular work are the best fit for keeping the donor relationship alive beyond the funding campaign.

Stay tuned for more information on crowdfunding in Laura’s next blog: Crowdfunding: past, present and future.