Lessons Learned in Crowdfunding

LINK: https://www.gofundme.com/books-for-cristo-rey-hs

FUNDING GOAL: $400.00

ACTUAL FUNDING ACHIEVED: $945.43

NUMBER OF BACKERS: 30

AIM TO ACCOMPLISH: We wanted to empower students and teachers with adequate resources and provide them better opportunity in the scholastic world. Cristo Rey High School in Tarlac, Philippines started their semester curriculum June 4th, 2018 without any formal textbooks. Initially our goal was to raise $400.00 for the school through crowdfunding, seeing that buying and shipping an individual textbook per student/teacher would cost about $6.00. Thus, to raise that specific amount of money would contribute to purchasing about 50 textbooks more or less for both the professors and the students in one class. We started a donation-based campaign "Books for Cristo Rey High School" on GoFundMe and exceeded our goal within 14 days of launching.

PICTURES:

PERSONAL LESSONS:

1.      EXECUTE PLANNING BEFORE YOUR LAUNCH.

Planning played a crucial role in every aspect of this crowdfunding campaign throughout the beginning, middle and end. However, the most effective planning took place before we launched the crowdfunding campaign. Wanting to reach %50 of our funding goal the first day seemed like a daunting task but looking back is a completely manageable one. Much of the coordinating and performing that went on after our campaign had launched would have been most effective had it already been planned out before we started to receive donations and backers. Of course, there will always be communication and planning necessary during the process of the actual campaign, but it allows the team to focus more on maintaining their campaign’s relationship with the backers rather than technicalities of the campaign itself.

2.      HAVE A LAUNCH PARTY.

A big part of getting traffic to your site or your campaign has to do with creating urgency and passion. The backers must see that your driven, dedicated and passionate about your campaign. If they do not see that you have a personal connection to this campaign that inspires them to do good, the chances are you will have little to no success. A launch party is a perfect way to invite this enthusiasm to literally “launch” your campaign into its beginning! It can involve the local community – and in this case a more global community – which helps to cross the virtual campaign with your real-life campaign. This is a lesson I wish we had taken advantage of!

3.      COMMUNICATE WITH BACKERS DAILY.

This was an obvious task that we had planned we wanted to accomplish from the beginning, but it was easier said than done. We posted/thanked collectively on all different social media platforms nearly daily. What was most unanticipated was the number of hours spent on designing and publishing each post. Each needed to be carefully tailored both to the needs of the campaign and likeability of the backers. It can be tricky finding a balance and takes a significant amount of time – plan for it!

4.      TAKE ADVANTAGE OF ADVERTISING.

We learned about Facebook advertising later in the game and wish we could have understood better how to use it as a leveraging tool – such as boosting or having paid advertisements. There were other forms of advertising that may have been useful in generating a more constant flow of momentum in our campaign implemented early on. Especially advertising done outside of the virtual world was another resource we could have used more. You should not underestimate the power of a poster, flyer or billboard outside of the virtual world!

5.      DELEGATE TO TEAM MEMBERS.

Share the load! We worked well together as a team and all had different skills/knowledge to contribute. We were able to complete every task, though sometimes it would have been nice to know what responsibility went where when new ones came up. That way, the campaign would have worked more efficiently and smoothly. Given the circumstances, we handled each new challenge that came our way and were able to reach our goal! Trust your team members and be a dependable team member!

6.      CROWDFUNDING IS NOT EXCLUSIVE.

I touched on this in lesson 4 learned, but crowdfunding is not exclusive to the virtual world! Get off the electronic devices and get out! Talking to people face to face was one of the most effective ways we found to spread the word on our campaign and find resources we needed to get transportation, event venues, volunteer help, etc. We must think that the “crowd” includes more than just the online crowd – there are people that want to help but it’s up to you to find them!

7.      BE GRATEFUL.

Gratitude goes a long way. We tried to thank our backers habitually whether online or in person and it was a good opportunity to seek out more people who would be potentially interested in backing our campaign. Those who had already contributed through volunteer service or contribution or had previous experience working on similar projects, were happy to help or point us in the right direction. Gratitude shows that you care not only about the campaign but about the backers as people, which is a unique opportunity. Especially when you are dealing with so many people who we generalize as “backers”, it is easy to overlook them. However, a simple thank you or display of gratitude is a nice way to connect personally with the backer as a person and add credibility to your campaign.

8.      THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX.

Dynamically, our campaign was interesting in that it included our local community and directly impacted another niche community in the Philippines. We spent most of if not all our efforts on how we could appeal to the local community by way of donations. This also included our boosters and champions whom we closely associate with or have close circles with. However, there was more opportunity in working with those close to the student community in the Philippines; parents, educators, local officials and their associates. Overall the purpose was to help those in need seeing that they lacked financial resources as a poorer community, but this is one area in which I wish we had worked harder to involve, especially since this project directly affected them. 

9.      BE PERSONABLE.

Remember, you are working with people! Yes, we handle their money or their food or their rewards but at the end of the day all the connections and change we make is done through people! Sometimes I worried that I was crossing boundaries between wanting to be too personal or too professional. Of course, we don’t want to post the intimate details of our personal lives or relationships (unless they pertain to the campaign) but we should remember our audience and find ways to make the campaign relatable to them. Nobody will connect to numbers much less to a computer monitor if they don’t know there is purpose and benefit to their deeds. 

10.  EMOTIONAL CONNECTION.

Last but certainly not least is the emotional connection we bring to our campaign. Throughout these lessons learned we’ve dabbled in this concept which can be argued is the most important. I think that at the core of every campaign we are propelled by our own emotional connection and how it influences us. As students ourselves, we were passionate about this project understanding their necessity and desire to learn/teach. Everything about the campaign that is marketed to the public (video, social media, backer’s messages, etc.) should be geared towards allowing them to experience a personal emotional connection to the campaign. We found that backers who donated the most always had a strong emotional connection either to people in the Philippines or ourselves as team members of the campaign.