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Ten Must-Read Posts Before Running Your Own Crowdfunding Campaign

08.19.11 @ 12:42PM Tags : crowdfunding, fundraising, indiegogo, kickstarter, manchild

I just launched a Kickstarter campaign for my first feature film (seen at left), and I hope if you’re reading this that you’ll help me turn my dream into reality. Seriously: my entire life has been leading up to this, and I can’t do it without you. However, this site has always been about helping others while I’m learning these things myself, so I kept track of all the valuable posts I found during my research. If you’re thinking running your own crowdfunding campaign — defined as asking for small amounts of money from a large number of people, as opposed to asking for large amounts of money from a small number of people — consider the following posts essential reading. I should note on my own campaign that there are some great rewards available — get the entire film for just $10, or get a producer credit for $120!

Louis Pasteur once said, “chance favors the prepared mind.” If you use an all-or-nothing platform like Kickstarter, as I am, you’re taking a huge chance: if you don’t make your goal, you get nothing. To prepare, then, I read everything I could get my hands on. Here are ten of the most helpful posts for anyone thinking about launching their own fundraising effort on Kickstarter, Indiegogo, or any of the other crowdfunding sites: More »

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Five Ways to Fail at Crowdfunding

10.18.10 @ 3:51PM Tags : crowdfunding, indiegogo, kickstarter, shericandler

Many folks seem to think that crowdfunding is some magical new way of raising money that works like the Staples Easy Button. People love to talk about the success stories, but of course there are hundreds of campaigns that fail (and no one hears about them). With this in mind, marketing and publicity specialist Sheri Candler has written a great post about mistakes to avoid when about running a Kickstarter or IndieGogo fundraising campaign. Her post is a must-read for anyone thinking about crowdfunding. Here’s one of her reasons: More »

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What is the future of crowdfunding? The Crowdfunding Campaign to Change Crowdfunding Law

05.17.10 @ 12:06PM Tags : crowdfunding, indiegogo, kickstarter, microinvesting, microinvestment

A lot of savvy independent creatives are using Kickstarter and IndieGoGo to fund their projects via small donations. Instead of asking ten people for thousands of dollars, you ask thousands of people for ten dollars. As seen in the Obama campaign, the internet enables mass communications and mass donations in a way that wasn’t possible before the rise of e-mail, social networking, direct deposit, and online credit card forms. I’ll be using one of these very sites come July when I launch a crowdfunding campaign for my first feature! But these sites don’t offer profit participation in a project, because they can’t — it’s illegal in the United States. Now there’s a Crowdfunding Campaign to Change Crowdfunding Law, to allow for microinvestments instead of microdonations. More »