It’s better than local access.
More powerful than door-to-door.
It’s able to leap small quotas in a single fundraising campaign… it’s Kickstarter.
Unless this is your first time online, you’ve probably heard of Kickstarter’s fundraising potential. As of April 2012, the site garnered over $175 million in pledges for creative projects. A powerful platform, only in it’s fourth year, to be sure.
Here’s the essentials to determine is Kickstarter is right for you.
What’s Your Project?
Kickstarter is for creative projects. Think product and/or production with a definite completion event.
It’s not intended for charity or cause funding. That said, a number of projects could be a part of a cause such as this project about animal cruelty.
What’s Your Story?
Projects with compelling, interesting, or quirky stories get funded more often than projects that don’t.
Because video is king for telling stories, ensure your project gets funded by crafting a strong story that will convert viewers into pledgers.
Kickstarter projects launched with a well-crafted video succeed at a rate of 30-50% more than project that have no video. Determine your company and/or project story before launching on Kickstarter.
What’s Your Need?
Kickstarter is “all-or-nothing” funding. Meaning this: if you need $2,000 to start your project, if you only have $1,999 in pledges by the time the campaign is completed, the project will not be funded.
Sounds cruel?
Here’s the reasons it works, from Kickstarter’s website:
1. It’s less risk for everyone. If you need $5,000, it’s tough having $2,000 and a bunch of people expecting you to complete a $5,000 project.
2. It allows people to test concepts (or conditionally sell stuff) without risk. If you don’t receive the support you want, you’re not compelled to follow through. This is huge!
3. It motivates. If people want to see a project come to life, they’re going to spread the word.
If you’ve determined Kickstarter is right for you, what’s in it for Kickstarter? Fees.
For the use of their site and ever-growing platform, they’ll collect 5% of your pledges as a fee only if the project is fully-funded.
In the end 5% is a modest fee to get the exposure for your project and jumpstart your creative endeavor.