19th century
crowdfunding
It’s not Lady Liberty, but
the City of Detroit’s
Robocop statue, slated to
be unveiled later in 2014,
was financed through
crowdfunding. More than
$60,000 was raised in just
six days for the project
that started with an
offhanded tweet.
“If I can have a way better version of the product or get
more items with it, I will likely donate the extra 20 dollars or
even 50 dollars to get more,” said Tang.
Vojvodin, who is running a reward campaign, says
rewards can give more incentive to donate but depending on
the campaign, some people may have to be more creative with
their rewards.
“I don’t have any materials to give back and can’t
physically say, ‘If you donate this, I’ll give you this,’ so that’s
why I went another route,” says Vojvodin. “So I said, ‘If you
donate such and such, I’ll be happy to go into whatever
organization donated or school or the community wherever it
is and speak to the people in that area about my story; about
how I made it here... about how the arts are thriving in
Windsor-Essex and how they can make it in the arts.”
Crowdfunding campaigns aren’t a perfect art and there
are some negatives that can create reservations. Donors and
fundraisers alike may have an issue with websites that take a
percentage from the funds raised if the campaign is a success,
usually five to 10 per cent. Others say a big issue is the lack of
connection between the fundraiser and their backers.
“They are a little impersonal,” says Hewitt. “Fundraisers
can be great community events and you miss out on that when
you fundraise online, but there’s added bonuses and cons to
everything.”
This is often where the pitches come in. By talking to your
audience, it can give a person the ability to connect with you
and believe in your pitch just as much as you do. According to
Indiegogo, videos used in campaigns often result in 115 per
cent more money raised. Kickstarter also says it helps “make
potential backers see your commitment to see it through.”
14 The HUB - July 2014
21st century
crowdfunding
To achieve your goal however, it’s more than the initial
pitch, it’s keeping in touch. Updating backers of the project
spreads the word.
“It’s word of mouth,” says Vojvodin. “But it’s word of
mouth in a new technological sense where it’s not only
meeting up with somebody over coffee to talk about it but it’s
as quick as, ‘I’m going to send this over to someone on
Facebook,’ or ‘I’m going to like it’ and then somebody else will
see that they liked it and they’ll like it.”
Many projects who kept their backers updated were ones
that raised large amounts of money. The Veronica Mars movie
project updated donors 23 times leading up to the end of the
funding period and another 74 times afterwards. The
campaign eventually raised more than $5.7 million from
91,000 backers. Not all campaigns have fans from a previous
TV show but still see large donations; the video game Star
Citizen had 470,000 backers and raised $46 million, making it
the highest funded crowdfund campaign since the industry
started.
Crowdfunding has become a creative way of fundraising
because of its easy-to-use methods. Through it people are able
to reach a wide variety of people who may be intrigued by
their project or by the person themselves and in turn donate.
While these campaigns may not always work out, the added
benefit of not having to pay unless the campaign succeeds
prompts more people to donate because there is no risk if the
crowdfund fails.
Crowdfunding isn’t a magic bullet – the idea still has to be
good, and you still have to connect with the right people. But
with more crowdfunding websites getting in on the game, any
idea has potential.