Everything old is new again when it comes to raising money online. While face-to-face fundraising is still the most effective way to raise money, an online campaign can broaden your reach and help spread the word about your project. But even if you do all of your fundraising online, the same principles of relationship fundraising apply. You’re still raising money from people—you are just reaching them in a different way.
And what’s stopping you? Never before has it been possible to reach so many people in such a cost-effective way. Online promotion has spawned a generation of artistic entrepreneurs who in the past might have been daunted by the prospect of assembling mailing lists and contacting donors one by one. The challenge today is to make your campaign stand out from the pack. The best way to do that is to try to understand your audience as best as you can, which will affect your online fundraising goals, the look-and-feel of your campaign, and what type of online service provider you use.
By now, you have likely received many solicitations from friends to support a Kickstarter campaign. Kickstarter.com is the largest of the creative crowd-sourcing sites, and recently claimed to have distributed more money to the artistic community than the National Endowment for the Arts. Kickstarter operates on an all-or-nothing basis: you will receive funds only if you achieve your fundraising goal by the deadline you set. Fall a bit short, and you win nothing. According to their website, slightly less than half of all projects are successfully funded.
This element can work for or against you. On the one hand, it sets a fire under you to make this campaign a success. On the other, if you miscalculate the goal and the campaign fails, your project loses a lot of momentum. Another important thing to keep in mind is that donors who support your project on Kickstarter cannot take the donation as a tax deduction. Donations are processed through Amazon.com, which is not a charity and will not be credited to your donors as a charitable gift. If you plan on soliciting larger gifts ($100 and up) from people who would benefit from a tax deduction (usually property owners), Kickstarter might not be your best choice.
Kickstarter charges a 5 percent fee of total funds raised, in addition to the 3 to 5 percent credit card fee that Amazon charges. In other words, if you raise $5,000, you will clear up to $4,500, which is something to keep in mind if you are relying entirely on your online fundraising to fulfill your budget.
Another online option is Indiegogo.com, which is open to fundraising for business startups and even personal needs, while Kickstarter is restricted to creative projects. Indiegogo also allows you to offer tax deductions to your donors if you are already a nonprofit or if you link your campaign to one of their nonprofit partner organizations, such as the artist service organization Fractured Atlas. Fractured Atlas acts as a fiscal sponsor to projects that are not incorporated as nonprofits, in which donors can give to Fractured Atlas and receive credit for a tax-deductible donation, and the funds are disbursed to the project minus a small processing fee.
Indiegogo offers a little more pricing flexibility than Kickstarter. You can choose the all-or-nothing model, in which case you are charged 4 percent of your total successful project, or you can keep what you earn if you don’t reach your goal—and pay a higher fee of 9 percent of the amount raised. In either case, you are also charged a 3 percent credit card processing fee. To make gifts tax deductible (they are not automatically), you link your Indiegogo account to your Fractured Atlas account and pay a flat rate of 6 percent. With costs being comparable between gifts being tax deductible or not, it makes sense to offer this added incentive to your donors.
After you choose an online provider, it’s time to get creative and make a short video to explain your project. Find ideas by browsing both websites for examples of successfully funded projects in your project area. Build on someone else’s experience. If you find a project that raised a similar amount of money to your goal, presented comparable repertoire, and maybe even involved some of the same donors you would like to approach, do what they did but do it better. Also take note of projects that failed. Did the girl explaining the project in the video look like she was being held hostage? Were the musical examples of poor quality? Try not to do those things.
Make the video as professional looking as you can. Even though the bulk of your fundraising will come from people you know, this video will be available to the whole world for a while, so make it something you won’t be embarrassed by later. It’s not hard to get your hands on a good camera nowadays. Many still cameras also take high-quality video, and if you don’t want to invest in one, ask around if you can borrow a camera. Many cities have pro shops where you can rent equipment as well. Get a friend to help you shoot—you can’t be in front of the camera and behind it at the same time—and be sure to use a tripod and plenty of light to get the best shot.
Write down the top things you need to communicate about your project, usually the basic details, such as when and where; who is involved and why they are awesome; how this project is worthwhile and exciting; and why you need the donor’s help. Write a script that covers these things in a conversational way, say it out loud a few times until it’s memorized but not wooden, and record a few takes. Here is the important part: look at the camera! But don’t blink too much; it closes your face off. And make the person watching the video feel as if they are having a conversation with you. Oh, and do this all in about three minutes.
Once you’ve recorded it, iMovie.com is your friend. Find a couple of online tutorials to get your basic editing skills up and you’ll be able to add music, images, other video clips, and classy effects to make it look impressive. You’ll also need to write out a brief narrative explaining your project, which is another chance to make it sound fun and engaging.
Set a reasonable fundraising goal and break it up into donation sizes. If your plan to raise $3,000 includes two $500 gifts, can you name the people you think would be able to give that amount? Even better, can you name five people who could, as most will likely fund less than you expect. Divide your goal into gift sizes you think your target audience will be able to manage, and then offer neat perks as rewards. Top donors ($100-$500) might get complimentary tickets or dinner with the cast. You can offer recordings to donors at lower levels. Both Indiegogo and Kickstarter report that their most popular donation amount is around $25; unless you know for certain that big spenders will be donating through this campaign, you should go for small gifts.
After all that, you are almost ready to take it public. But before you Tweet it, Facebook it, and shout it to the stars, try to get about 20 percent raised. People like success. Announcing your campaign once it looks like it has a chance of being successful will increase the likelihood of people giving.
And once they do, then it’s time to brush up on the dying art of saying thank you. But first, you’ve got a show to put on.
Amanda Keil is a singer and writer living in New York. She recently conducted an online fundraising campaign for her first opera production, Monteverdi’s Il ballo dell’ingrate with her group Musica Nuova. You can see the results at indiegogo.com/ballo.
