Crowdfunding is increasingly becoming an essential financing component for independent films. As filmmakers, it’s important for us not to look at crowdfunding as a single, laborious effort, but as an audience-building tool for the project we are working on, and for our entire career.

But crowdfunding is hard, and no matter how much you prepare, stagnation during the dog days of your crowdfunding campaign is not uncommon, and can be very discouraging.

This video below is part of the 12-part series Crowdfunding to Build Independence, a course designed to teach you how to leverage the tools for kickass crowdfunding to build a lasting, sustainable, direct relationship with your audience you can leverage through distribution. 

Emily Best and Erica Anderson of Seed&Spark walk you through the tried and true tactics to revive a stalled crowdfunding campaign.

1. Email

Share your vision!  People are excited when you’re excited.  Email 10-20 people every day telling them about what you’re making and why you believe they should join you on your journey. Personalized emails are your best tool for converting your network into supporters. Don’t forget to keep it short and sweet. 

2. Research

Get creative with your outreach. Researching is exercise for your brain!  Reach out to new people, brands, bloggers, organizations, etc. Tag them and share across all of your social media channels.

3. Update your audience

Demonstrate your project momentum and inevitability by posting shareable images, videos, and language.

4. Social the media

Engage, engage, engage! Make people care. Be funny, charming or witty; share your artistic voice. Start a dialogue and ask for participation. Creating relationships is the best way to build a community—and don’t forget to say thank you.

5. Do something fun

Making films is hard work, but it’s also fun. Throw a party, create a contest—do something out in the world that gets people excited about your project. There is a lot of noise out there; you have to do something to rise above it.

Main article photo: Shutterstock, 

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Fundraising & Crowdfunding