A realistic target amount
Choosing a realistic target amount enhances your chances of a successful campaign. During the campaign you want the progress bar to fill up and show potential supporters that it’s possible to reach 100%. This makes your contributors trust your campaign and will radiate success, which makes people want to contribute faster. But how do you determine the amount? In the end it all depends on the number of people within your network that you can urge to make a donation. They know you, they feel the project is really important or they like a cool reward. It’s also relevant how much they want to contribute. This article answers all your questions on choosing your target amount!
Friends, neighbors and family often donate somewhere between €5 and €50. So if you want to collect €3,000, you’ll need 100 people who will on average donate €30.
“Choose a realistic target amount. The counter will go up faster with a lower amount than with a higher amount.” — Bert Jansen
Who are your donors?
Most people who contribute to your campaign are people who already know the initiative, are involved in the initiative or have a connection to you or to somebody else from your team. Research among our donors shows that on average 62% of all the donors know one of the initiators personally. They’re family members, friends, neighbors, colleagues, connections on social media and sports buddies. Will they contribute when you set up a campaign?
Probably you also want to reach people who don’t know you or your team or have never heard of your initiative. They can be friends of friends, people who live near your project or feel the target or goal is very important. Or they can also be foundations, companies or the local government. They often donate when they see other people donating too. Read more here.
Why do people donate?
There are three reasons why future supporters will contribute to your project:
- Because they know you: people know you and want you to succeed.
- Because they think the project is important: it will solve a problem or enhance the neighborhood.
- Because you offer a cool reward.
So ask yourself why the people you know want to contribute and what message you use to convince them.
We’ll talk more about this further on.
Dare to ask!
If you know who your potential donors are you can ask in advance what they think about your campaign, whether they want to contribute and what you can expect. Think of it as small market research and as a reality check. If you don’t succeed in finding twenty supporters during this stage, it will probably be very difficult to find 200 of them during the campaign.
If you are crowdfunding for a very large amount, you will probably need large contributions to reach your target amount. Find out first if companies would be willing to donate larger amounts. Be creative about this and don’t be shy, sponsoring can be a nice way for companies to engage in doing good. Sometimes companies need a little bit more time to make such a decision, so be on time!
Also, take into account that not everybody in your network will contribute. Logical reasoning like “if all my 400 Facebook followers will donate €10 then I’ll collect €4,000” doesn’t really apply. Assume that one in ten people within your network and one in fifteen visitors on your crowdfunding page will make a donation.
Collecting likes or thumbs up is very different from getting people to donate
What will your donors donate?
Our platforms collect amounts that vary from a couple of hundred euros to €30,000 or €40,000. It’s good to know that the largest part of our donations (about 80%) is somewhere between €5 and €50.
Is it realistic to collect €3,000 with a six person campaign team? This means that per person you’ll be responsible for collecting €500. Ask yourself and your team if it’s possible and whether they want to.
Donations up to €50 usually only add up to 30 to 40% of the target amount. When you need about €2,500 it’s still possible with 100 donations of €25 on average, but with a larger target amount you really need bigger donors who’ll contribute €100, €500 or even more than €1,000 to your campaign.
A wealthy support base, a large personal interest or valuable rewards often make supporters more likely to donate more than €50. But we see most big donations coming from local entrepreneurs, a fund, a council or an activity that raises a large amount of money instantly. Also, think about organizations that are already involved in the project or that you are personally connected to.
What if I need more money?
Maybe now you think that the amount you need to forward your initiative is too high for crowdfunding. For most campaigns on our platforms it’s a given that crowdfunding is just one revenue source and that money is also collected via a big sponsor, a fund, a municipal subsidy or a contribution from a fund.
Crowdfunding therefore is a good way to take the first project step and in doing so convince other financiers of your support base and your involvement in the project. You can use crowdfunding to collect those last couple of thousand euros you need to get your budget. Also, you can collect more than 100% of the target amount. So tell your sponsors what you will do once you reach 150%, which triggers donors to keep on donating.
Still difficult to estimate who’s in your network and what would be a good target amount for your campaign? Then contact us, we like thinking with you!
