5 Tips for launching a successful crowdfunding campaign

 

In the last few years, crowdfunding has become an extremely popular means of raising money for individuals and organisations alike. The principal is quite easy: pick one of the many online platforms, make a video and write a text to promote your project. If you want to add an incentive, you can also organise rewards based on the amount of money someone donates.

Let me talk to you a little bit about Good On You. Good On you is an absolutely amazing organisation that makes ethical consumerism easy by rating thousands of brands based on their respect for the environment, human rights and animal rights. You can visit their website to check out how your favourite brands rank, read their entertaining and educative blogs and even shop for clothes! 

Now why am I saying all of this? First of all, because I am an extremely proud Good On You volunteer who believes in their cause. Second – and you’ve probably guessed – Good On You has just taken a giant leap into the world of crowdfunding in order to raise money to develop an app that will help you make ethical choices wherever you are.

Check out their amazing campaign and video here.

Here are 5 quick tips from Entrepreneur to launching a successful crowdfunding campaign:

1.  Keep your campaign under 30 days

Statistics show that projects shorter than 30 days have higher success rate. According to Kickstarter, this might be because shorter campaigns set a tone of confidence. 

2.  Make a budget and include it on your campaign page

Your budget doesn’t have to be super detailed, but it does show potential backers that you’ve thought through your project. Don’t set your minimum budget too high though, because many crowdfunding platforms have an ‘all or nothing’ policy: if you don’t reach your tipping point, you get nothing. On the other hand, you don’t want your tipping point to be too low either because your will be offering rewards and you don’t want the cost of the rewards to completely scrap any profit.

3.  Offer a lot of small rewards

Yep, we’ve said it: rewards for giving you money. Offer a reward depending on the amount of the pledge. For example, if you pledge to give Good On You $10, you get a personalised thank you email and project updates. If you pledge to give $80, your reward is 4 pairs of the amazing Conscious Step Socks. If you give $2000, you and your team will get to attend a half day workshop facilitated be Good On You CEO Gordon Renouf on what drives consumers to make ethical choices.

4.  Reach out to people you know before the launch

Contact anyone you know that might be interested. According to Entrepreneur, ‘once the funding window opens, it's important to reach the 20% benchmark as soon as possible’. Not only will this bring you so much closer to your tipping point, but it will also help set the pace to the campaign.

 

5.  Send out tailored messages and follow up individually

Customise your messages depending on who you are reaching out to, but be wary not to spam! The next step is to follow up with the people you have contacted, especially before the official launch.

Although Alexandra didn’t know much about conference production before first coming across this opportunity with Akolade, she has quickly become passionate about her job. Gaining in-depth knowledge in a variety of new fields without going through exam stress? Who could ask for more? If ever you speak to Alexandra and wonder what that funny accent is, it is from Quebec, French-speaking Canada. Do not hesitate to ask Alexandra about her former life on the 47^th parallel; she will be thrilled to talk to you about snow storms, skiing and -35⁰c!