The Best Crowdfunding Advice You Need To Read
A master post of the best crowdfunding advice weâve gotten from our community
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Recently, I asked our filmmaking community what new articles theyâd want to see, and overwhelmingly, the topic with the most votes was crowdfunding. We actually happen to already have a lot of great crowdfunding advice on this forum, but in a variety of different places. Today, I thought Iâd consolidate some of the great thoughts our experts and community have already shared into a single masterpost.
Overview: what makes a successful campaign?
Julie Keck, Head of Education and Outreach at Seed & Spark:
Iâll say the most successful campaigns have these things in common:
- their pitch video is very short and very clear
- their goal is reasonable
- they are VERY communicative with their supporters during the campaign, activating
- them to spread the word
- they show constant, public gratitude
Jeanette Bonner, creator of Ghost Light and The Scoop and successful crowdfunder:
The first misconception [people have about crowdfunding] is YOU ARE NOT ASKING FOR MONEY. You are asking for HELP making your film, in whichever way possible. That will change the way you ask for donationsâŚ.
In that vein, create things of value. Little shorts. Sketches. Pictures behind-the-scenes. Incorporate your community in the perks. Every day of the campaign you should be making or doing something entertaining. This is actually an Ask hidden in a âlet me show you something funâ package.
Pitch video tips
Emily Best, founder and CEO of Seed&Spark:
We always encourage filmmakers to show the filmmaking skills theyâll need to make the movie or show theyâre pitching. That could mean a LOT of things. It could be test footage, it could be previous films, it could even be a sizzle. In any case, you have to show your audience youâre capable of making the thing youâre promising. If you can do that cleverly without money, that gives audiences confidence about what you will do when you have money to spend.
Anthony Ferraro, creator of Galactic Galaxy, recommends using the following structure for your video:
- Intro with emotional hook
- Briefly explain your project
- Whatâs special about it
- How much backing do you need
- What will the budget pay for
- Timeline to completion
- What rewards are you offering
- Call to action
Email tips
Ben Rock, co-creator of 20 Seconds To Live, a successfully crowdfunded series, made this deal with himself when planning his email reach-outs:
I had to be willing to ask literally ANYONE to look at our Indiegogo page but in return I had to be okay with ANY response. Only one person out of thousands responded negatively. A lot of people donât respond at all, and those who respond are often encouraging.
Monica West, creator and star of the award-winning The Best Thing Youâll Ever Do, which crowdfunded successfully on Kickstarter, suggests the following for drafting your crowdfunding emails:
Write out your long email first â include everything you feel is important, funny, truly your voice. Then go back through and find the three most important parts of the email (and pretty much delete everything else).
Separate those points into three short paragraphs (readersâ eyes tend to skip over dense paragraphs) of 1,2, or 3 sentences each.
The last point should be the CTA or call to action. ie) support me by backing this project!
Selectively use italics or bold (or both), or titles like âWHAT IS THIS?â âWHY DO I WANT TO DO THIS?â âHOW YOU CAN HELP ME:â to highlight points in the email, directing peopleâs eyes to whatâs important and breaking up the look of the email.
Other thoughts: make sure your Subject Heading is spelled correctly and grammar makes sense (spellcheck wonât catch it)
Tone: Remember that people are investing in YOU at this point and they might not even care what the project is! Tell them why itâs important to you to make this series.
Incentive/perk tips
Julie Keck:
In my mind, BEST perks are always unique to the project AND free for the filmmaker to share. For example, when I ran a campaign in 2010, I offered a $15 perk where each backer at that level for a fanciful bio on a Google map I made set in the setting of the film. By the end of the campaign, we had over 200 âtownspeopleâ on the map with interwoven bios AND their real life websites and twitter handles so that they could network. It cost me nothing (except time), it allowed me to show my writing skills, and it gave backers something to show off and share to others (thus sharing my project with others.)
Other thoughts: keep perks digital, sharable, and free (to you.)
Bob DeRosa, the other co-founder of 20 Seconds To Live, agrees with Julie:
Come up with a perk that is unique to your show. Our show â20 Seconds To Liveâ just successfully raised funds for our second season and our most popular perk (at $25) was a personalized death certificate that includes a ridiculous cause of death. Dark, yes, but our show is funny and someone dies every episode so this perk fit thematically with our show and fit our audienceâs sense of humor.â
Emily Best:
The most common contribution is $25, but the average contribution size is around $100. We think your $25 incentives should be personalized, visual, shareable, and immediate.
Jason Ryan, creator of Real Adult Feelings and successful crowdfunder:
As far as price points I would say to not be afraid to go a little higher than you might think⌠maybe $5â20 more than your minimum. I learned that generally speaking if somebody is willing to fund your project they are ok with donating a decent amount. I went in assuming our average pledge would be like $5â10 but it ended up being more like $30â50.
Julie Keck:
[Perks] you should stay away from:
- t-shirts (youâre a filmmaker, not a t-shirt factory, and you donât want to end up with boxes of expensive, leftover t-shirts in your attic)
- signed scripts (unless youâre famous already, WHY?)
- big promises (youâre already making a big promiseâŚyouâre making a movie. so donât promise trips to Sundance or Cannes or red carpet at the Oscars.)
Building an audience/community tips
Julie Keck:
The audience/filmmaker relationship is just that: a relationship. So you have to take your time to identify what your ideal audience members look like, find out where theyâre already meeting online, then become a part of those communities.
Think about it this way: itâd be weird to walk into a room and just start asking everyone for $25 dollars for a movie you havenât made yet, right? So instead, you walk into a room MONTHS before youâre crowdfunding, get to know people, take interest in them, share what youâre up to, and then â when the time is right â say âhey, Iâve created a FB page, or hereâs my website, or I launched a crowdfunding campaign.â FIND AND EMBRACE YOUR COMMUNITY
The bad news is that it takes research and time; the good news is that itâs worth it. The fans you gather now will follow you and support you your whole career.
But wonât I be annoying people?
Julie Keck:
You have to make sure that you have a network of true fans for your project BEFORE you crowdfund so that the responsibility for funding your project isnât only on your friends and family.
Your friends and family (and co-workers and school mates) are often your first fans, so it makes sense that youâd want to tell everyone when youâre crowdfunding so that they can support you â many will want to!
Emily Best:
Think of it more like a dinner party, where everyoneâs been invited and they know why, and theyâre all gonna participate in making it fun.
Bri Castellini is an award-winning filmmaker and the Community Director at Stareable, a hub for web series.
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