Feedback from our pilot schools
We asked three schools to pilot the CrowdFundEd platform. With two of
THEATRE TRAINING
Kathryn Cox, Director of Science and Technology, Cantell School, Southampton (856 pupils)
THE PROJECT A two-year programme of improvisation workshops
with Pupil Premium students, run by The Point Theatre. participation, trust, teamwork, listening, literacy
and risk-taking. Schools will receive 30 improvisation workshops per year, a CPD workshop for teachers,
TARGET: £3,000 TOTAL RAISED: £2,970 NUMBER OF DONORS: 28
PLANNING: I estimate that we collaboratively spent around 24 hours preparing the project, gathering information, marketing collateral and collating our database of supporters.
UPLOADING THE PROJECT: The Fundraising Fellow at The Point Theatre, Claire, uploaded the project – there were a few issues with the text formatting, which were quickly resolved.
LAUNCHING THE PROJECT: We did a soft launch to stir up interest, promoting the project to parents via email and text. Shortly after this, we reached out to a wider
22 SPRING 2017 FundEd
audience via social media. Claire worked hard to gain support from sponsors in the arts sector, as well as a local mortgage broker.
COMMUNICATION: We received quite a few donations within two days of launching. We shared photos, videos, milestones and testimonials throughout. Claire managed and updated the page regularly, as I would time in addition to my current role. We tried to tailor messages to different audiences, but stopped sending texts and emails to parents after the much response. Social media was key to maintaining momentum, but as we ran the campaign from July to
August, lots of people were on back to us. If we were to run a campaign again, we would
SOCIAL MEDIA UPDATES: CrowdfundEd: A few times during the campaign Facebook: Most days Twitter: Most days School website: Once Email: Twice
MARKETING: We used video clips and photos to promote to measure the impact of these. Featuring a video on our crowdfunding page was an effective way to explain the aim of our project and why we needed the money, but I only received evidence which social media channel was the most effective.
OFFLINE DONATIONS: We received £1,500 from the Denplan Community Fund, £280 from Community Kickstarter and £150 from some European teachers who visited our school.
THE FINAL PUSH: Social media was used to create a days. We asked footballers Matt Le Tissier and Francis Benali to retweet our pleas for
donations, and emailed local businesses. This seemed to work well, and we received a few large donations this way.
TIMEFRAME: The project ran on for 37 days. This worked well but it was a shame that we had to run it in the school holidays – though we needed the funds for September.
REWARDS: These included social media shout-outs, personalised postcards, and an invitation to our end-of- year celebration. However, most people chose not to accept rewards, including four so we would offer these again.
OVERALL: experience of crowdfunding, have done it without the partnership with Claire at The Point and Berry Theatre – she put in a lot of time and work. The best thing about the CrowdfundEd platform is that you receive all reach your overall target, however we did experience some issues. Notably we emails that were sent out to our supporters, which we would have preferred.
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