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Disclaimer and Book Information All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. Email: [email protected] CONTENTS 5 Crowdfunding: The 59 What’s a Great Picture? Big Picture 63 What About Perks 10 Pre-Game Plan and Gifts What to do before the 67 Launch Day campaign begins? What to do the first 24 14 Messaging is Key to hours? the Campaign 73 Running the Campaign Cultivate a Community Media Telling Your Story Updates and 22 Team: Recruit Your Engagement Team and Lock in Timeline Beginning Donations Offline Fundraising Share Connections Efforts to Create Your Advice and Feedback Peripheral Team 84 The Final Push to the 31 Write an Awesome Campaign Goal Crowdfunding Email 89 Appendix 37 Phone Calls are Important 92 Acknowledgements 40 Goal Setting for Fundraising 95 About the author 44 How to Make a Great Crowdfunding Video Crowdfunding: The Big Picture Crowdfunding Best Practices 5 CROWDFUNDING: THE BIG PICTURE What is crowdfunding? As the larger dollar donations, usually name suggests, crowdfunding from a few philanthropic involves asking a crowd of individuals or investors. people to donate money to an Crowdfunding individual project or campaign. allows for small Crowdfunding is another type of donations fundraising, but this fundraising is from many done online. individuals anywhere Crowdfunding works because a around the large number of people donate world. what are usually smaller amounts of money to a project or venture. Smaller This is the cause behind the amounts campaign. Crowdfunding is by many. used to raise money for a wide The common range of projects from businesses ability of many to films to personal medical to donate small expenses. There are different amounts of money kinds of projects and campaigns, to a cause, coupled with but we are going to focus on the power of connectivity crowdfunding for medical via the Internet means that campaigns. anyone anywhere can support projects around the world. It Crowdfunding has created a also means that anyone can paradigm shift in fundraising. share the information about Traditional fundraising involved the campaign with their own 6 Crowdfunding Best Practices network. Crowdfunding provides versus “Keep It All.” In the first entrepreneurs, small business model, you must reach the goal owners, and individuals an amount you set in order to keep alternate funding mechanism at a the money raised. In the second time when the traditional sources model, you keep everything you of funding have become more raised, minus any fees, even if you difficult to obtain. do not reach your goal. Social media. Crowdfunding is In this book, we will evaluate not a new concept, but over the some of the most successful last few years, it has become crowdfunding campaigns and more widely used and publicized share advice from the experts through the media. What and the founders of the most usually starts out as a small circle popular crowdfunding platforms. of friends and family knowing Our focus is crowdfunding for about a fundraising cause can personal medical causes and quickly spread to thousands of scientific research. Their insights people using the power of social are synthesized into this guide of media. The biggest benefit of a best practices to show you how crowdfunding campaign is that to run a successful campaign. a lot of money can be raised in a short amount of time. There are many choices when it comes to crowdfunding platforms with more than 500 different sites as options. An important difference to consider is the two models, “All or Nothing” Crowdfunding Best Practices 7 WHAT YOU WILL LEARN: Crowdfunding: The Basics of securing 30% funding on Crowdfunding involves asking a the start date. crowd of people online to donate • Create your media: high- money to an individual project quality photos, a video, and or campaign. It works because a written materials will be large number of people donate essential. what are usually smaller amounts During the Campaign of money to a project or venture. Crowdfunding is very effective for • Hold a launch party on Day medical campaigns. One. • Provide regular, detailed Before the Campaign Begins updates. • Set a clear, realistic, • Use social media for the measurable goal and campaign every day. timeframe. • Engage in offline fundraising • Engage in detailed planning and link it to the online work. before your start date. • Contact the media. • Create your message, identify • Elicit feedback and act on it. your target community, recruit your team, and figure out how • Make a strong final push at the to tell your story. end of the campaign. • Strategize about how to After the Campaign create energy and group • Thank your donors and momentum to prompt more provide them with anything activity. you promised to them. • Arrange initial commitments • Revise for next goal, as from your circles with the goal needed. 8 Crowdfunding Best Practices Planning Crowdfunding Campaigns Experts agree that successful • Why should people fund this campaigns boil down to knowing project? Explain what will the right problem, the right happen if they fund you, what approach, the right audience, and will you be able to do, and the right timing. If you mix these what the broader impact may elements together in the correct be. way, you will be successful; this is why planning is essential. Think about these critically to ensure that you When planning remember to ask make a connection and answer these questions: with your • How will I present this case? audience. Consider message, branding, and visual factors here. • Why is this problem important? Explain why people should care about it and what effect funding will have. • Why is this timing important? Explain why you need funding at this point: mention the need for testing, an upcoming procedure, or a roadblock to finding cures or medicine that exist. Crowdfunding Best Practices 9 Pre-Game Plan 10 Crowdfunding Best Practices PRE-GAME PLAN So, how will you create this momentum and raise funds What to do before the campaign before the campaign even begins? begins? The secret is to get Because crowdfunding is so commitments early from your different from other kinds inner circle of supporters. of fundraising, the key to a successful campaign is planning. Crowdfunding uses the core Focusing a cause online by technology of the Internet and crowdfunding can create a existing communities of people. momentum that relies on the Crowdfunding is just a power of the group to encourage technology that enables reach. others to donate to a campaign This means that the biggest or cause. determinant of a successful campaign is how you present One of the best indicators of a your case. successful campaign is when it raises a lot of money before the start of the campaign. When the crowd sees a campaign that quickly raised funds, especially on the launch day, there is an energy and momentum that occurs. Often the crowd follows and donates more to the campaign. This is thanks to the energy and momentum of the group which prompts more activity. Crowdfunding Best Practices 11 “The game is won or lost Sometimes people don’t really before you set foot on know what to think the first the field. There are two time they hear about a important aspects to the campaign. However campaign: content and when they see distribution.” people talking —Ethan Austin, about a co-founder campaign and GiveForward donating to it, they will As GiveForward, co-founder do the same. Ethan Austin explains with What are crowdfunding, “The game is won the most or lost before you set foot on the important field. The two most important lessons we aspects to any crowdfunding can take away campaign are content and from a successful distribution.” Content tells the campaign? story. You have to paint the Ethan Austin said, picture of what you are going “Personalization, through for your audience. promotion and persistence Successful campaigns carefully are the keys.” plan how the cause should be presented. Distribution means how the campaign is marketed. 12 Crowdfunding Best Practices Case Study: Successful Planning One example of a very successful Kickstarter campaign was the Coolest Cooler that raised $13.3 million in 52 days. They had 2 campaigns. In the first launch, only $100,000 was raised. Although this is a significant amount, it was not the goal they had hoped to reach. In their second campaign, what changed that made them so successful? The content was basically the same for the cooler, so that did not change. However, they built up $100,000 dollars of commitment on Kickstarter in the first campaign for the cooler. They assembled a crowd of people that knew about it and supported it. When they launched it a second time, they had about 1000 fans of the product, so they seeded it. The first time they were outsiders, the second time they had a tribe of followers. Crowdfunding Best Practices 13 Messaging is Key to the Campaign 14 Crowdfunding Best Practices Create your message and identify your target community During the Campaign • Tailor your message for momentum. Strategize about how to create energy and group momentum to prompt more activity; experts agree that successful crowdfunding campaigns boil down to knowing the right problem, the right approach, the right audience, and timing all of these factors appropriately. • Research the community. Find out which groups of people are most likely to support you. Only well thought out, planned, and emotionally moving messages and campaigns take off, and your target audience heavily influences what message will be effective.