Crowdfunding
DO create good-quality,
eye-catching visuals
A picture paints a thousand words, but a video does even more! Crowdfunding’s meteoric rise as a fundraising model is largely because it allows sponsors to engage with projects and their creators, and experience their enthusiasm. A video is your opportunity to get this across, and is far more effective than even the most elegant prose. It can convince your sponsors that you are serious about carrying out your project and making it a success. Even if you can’t be funny or don’t even want to be seen on-screen, just doing a voiceover video of screenshots and/or photos about your project can be enough as long as you explain what your idea is, what you’ll do with the money, and what rewards are available to donors. Subscribers can read our guide, Creating a Big-Impact Video, at funded.
org.uk/crowdfunding. You should also prepare a range of branded visuals, with different messages, for use across your social media channels.
DON’Tforget to shout
campaign (a lot!) When mind-mapping your support base, consider which communication vehicles work best for each sector, for example LinkedIn for business leaders, Facebook for parents, etc. Word-of-mouth, posters or distributed at school events can also be effective. As well as your planning schedule, draw up a promotional plan, then create collateral that will engage the largest possible audience. Marketing should begin before you launch – announce to your community that your crowdfunding campaign is coming on xx date to start building some hype. Maintain a buzz about your project with regular updates (again, prepared in advance), such as letting people know when you reach milestones, e.g. ‘we’ve achieved 50% of our target’, or share behind-the- scenes photos or interesting facts about your project. If there’s something newsworthy about your campaign, then let the local newspaper, radio and online magazines know about it.
DO keep your campaign short and snappy
Maintaining momentum throughout your project is vital, which is why projects with a shorter timeframe tend to be more successful. When your campaign out to your community. Then things go quiet. As your deadline approaches, you start to panic! Promoting your project more vigorously and stressing the deadline often works, but isn’t good for your blood pressure! Aim for your campaign to be live for between four and 12 weeks – better to put more energy into your campaign than spread the effort out over time.
about your
DON’Texpect donations to flood in
but this doesn’t happen without some pre-planning! Aim to get commitment from a number of people who will all add their donations as soon as the project launches. Challenge your core team to secure ten donations, or around 30% of your target, before your project goes live. Once the rest of your community sees that your project is gathering support, they are more likely to pledge.
DO show that your project is credible
Donors want to know how their hard-earned cash will be spent, and that they can trust you. No matter what your funding target, you’ll need to justify it and demonstrate that you are well-placed to deliver the project. A sensible plan shows sponsors that your project is
feasible. You should also build in a contingency should you exceed your target or fall short – so explain what you will do if your project is over-funded or if you don’t achieve your target.
DON’Tunderestimate how much time it takes
Executing a successful crowdfunding campaign requires a good plan and a solid communication strategy. There are several factors to consider when planning a schedule: Do you have a set deadline by which your project funding needs to be in place? How much time will it take to collate information about your project, i.e. supplier plans/quotes, amount of time you need to allow will depend on the size and complexity of your project. As a rough guide, the process can be broken into four stages: Plan you want to achieve, prepare full costings, gather evidence to show the impact your project will have, create a database of potential donors, prepare visuals, compile a promotional plan and contemplate what rewards you can offer as an incentive. Recruit (allow one to two weeks) – appoint a core team, run a soft launch to get feedback and adjust messaging prior to launch and engage supporters before launch to create hype. Engage (allow six to twelve weeks) – using a bank of pre-prepared messages, communicate with different contact lists using different channels, review supporter engagement and
adjust messages accordingly. Finish push in the last week, post daily social media messages (keeping them positive). Once your campaign has ended, thank supporters, post on your project’s progress. Allocate a chunk of time each day, from
pre-launch to campaign completion, to dedicate to the crowdfunding process.
FundEd SPRING 2018 25
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