A small step for me, a giant leap for my daughter

Hi, 

I am a Taiwanese mother with a 5 years old girl living in Hong Kong. 2020 was an extraordinary year, and everyone has been impacted by COVID-19. My daughter saw all the changes around her, and to express her own feelings through drawings. Together we have published a story book with a simple wish to give back to society. A small step for me to fund raising and publish this story book becomes a giant leap for my daughter!

We used a professional crowdfunding platform “嘖嘖ZecZec“ in Taiwan to fundraise our book. Our campaign ran for 60 days from Jan 16th (my brother's birthday) to March 10th (my husband’s birthday). We achieved our fundraising target within the first 5 days since launch, and raised NT$105,533 (=USD$ 3,694), 350% of our target in the end. 118 donors from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, US, Austria and Spain! Some of them also donated this storybook to local libraries, kindergartens, and primary schools to share this love with more people. That is impactful!

Excluding the cost of printing and shipping, a final donation of NT$ 74,101 (70% of total fundraising) went directly to two non-profit foundations in Taiwan: 

1. Child Welfare League Foundation to help 3 underprivileged children to have proper dinner and holiday meals for 6 months. Thanks to the volunteers who help disadvantaged families so these children can go back to school as usual. 
2. Vox Nativa Association. In August 2017, we went to a concert of Vox Nativa Children’s Choir from Taiwan. They are a group of Indigenous children wearing traditional costumes, standing barefoot on stage, singing Taiwanese songs such as"Grandma's Penghu Bay" and "Darkness and Darkness" with clear and heavenly voices. 

Inspired by the mission of this music school, Verdi's grandmother therefore made a wish that one day we will help these Indigenous children from native Taiwanese tribes. So, this time, we decided to send part of the donation to Vox Nativa Association to support the diligent principals and teachers on their contributions to the native community!

How did you create a story book?

In December 2020, I had two weeks of holidays but couldn’t travel abroad because of COVID-19. Since my little artist daughter loves to draw with tremendous creativity, in her own special way to tell a story with simple illustrations, I started to organize her artworks during the past year, and decided to create a photobook as family memorabilia. 

When I looked at her artwork, more than 100+ drawings this year, I got inspired to select some and combined them to story-tell Hong Kong's journey during the pandemic. A simple and interesting story of how COVID-19 impacts our daily life from children’s perspective, and thus the book “The year I was Five” is born!

Why did you have an idea for fundraising? 

After we had the first edition of the book, the family wanted to print more hard copies and give away as a gift to family friends. Along the way, several of our friends suggested making it a fundraising and charity project to share this storybook with more people as a way to contribute to society. 

This idea sounds very meaningful, but as we started the planning exercise, we found out that it actually requires a lot of manual work when we scale it up. For example, how to initiate a bookselling charity event during the pandemic? How to collect payments from different countries, and ensure transparency to donors? How to make sure the quality of book printing, and international shipping services? 

During the research, I almost gave up the idea of fundraising, and to donate money out of my own pocket to any of the foundations was MUCH EASIER. Encouraged by my father-in-law, he said to me that “The process of initiating an event to raise money from others for a good cause will be a great journey for all of us. Charity is not meant to be easy. It is gonna be a valuable lesson to teach Verdi on how to give back to society and inspire others.”

How did you decide to use a Crowdsourcing Platform for Fundraising? 

We brainstormed for a few ways of online fundraising, analysed the pros and cons, and decided to use 嘖嘖zeczec Crowdsourcing platform.

Why 嘖嘖zeczec platform? 

There are many Crowdsourcing platforms globally, for example Kick-starter, Indiegogo, GoFundMe… etc. But since our target markets are in Taiwan and Hong Kong, we decided to select 嘖嘖zeczec which is the largest Taiwanese crowdfunding platform focusing on creative projects. Beside the good reputation of 嘖嘖zeczec, it also has a comprehensive platform to initiate a proposal, collect donor’s information, provide analytics during the promotion, and a secure payment gateway. 

After I submitted the draft of my proposal, there was a dedicated employee from 嘖嘖zeczec to help me ramp up on the crowdsourcing process. A project manager then reviewed my content and creatives on the proposal, provided constructive feedback, and referred me to other successful projects which I can learn more from. They also taught me to create a 1-min video to introduce the project; be transparent on the cost estimate and spending; and if possible, create a Facebook page to engage with more people...etc. People from 嘖嘖zeczec are always there whenever you have a question, and you can chat with them via Line or emails easily. In my engagement with 嘖嘖zeczec, I do appreciate that their products and services are really consumer-centric and built for good user experience. I was blessed to meet with young talents from Taiwan to make this happen! (The link of my proposal)

Could you share the process and timeline of the project? 

1. Dec 2020: Created a story book in two weeks, using Powerpoint.  
2. Jan 2021: Signed up on 嘖嘖zeczec and proposed the project. After a few rounds of review, the project was published on the platform. 
3. March 2021: During the 60 days of campaign -

• Used the Facebook page and Instagram account to create ad campaigns to drive traffic to 嘖嘖zeczec to increase the conversion.
• Used Whatsapp/Messenger to families and friends to support the project.
• Since there were some frictions in account opening and payment issues for friends in Hong Kong, we also used AlipayHK or FPS to collect the donations and encrypted Google Sheet to document donor’s information.

4. After the project ended, 嘖嘖zeczec contacted me for some documentation, and processed the funds (deducting 8% service fee) to my personal bank account as temporary escrow.

5. Printing: It was more cost-effective to print and ship in the same country. The more books you print, the cheaper the book’s unit cost. I chose Gainhow 建豪雲端數位網 a well-known Taiwanese printing vendor for Donors in Taiwan; and 淘寶:爆發歷旗艦店 for Donors in Hong Kong and other countries. 

6. Shipping: 40 domestic packages and 6 international packages in total. We also saved some shipping fees by giving story books to Hong Kong friends in person. A reminder - to measure Length, Width, and height of the book when purchasing the envelope. If you have more packages, you can prepare a sender’s label from this vendor. 

7. Kept the receipt, reported total income and expense, and donated proceeds to the aforementioned foundations. An example of my report is listed below. 

8. Wrote thank you notes to update the completion to all donors.

Anything surprised you during the promotion period? 

1. A little girl supported our project by using her Red Pocket money after Chinese New Year. Her mother taught her how to use the money in a good way for a meaningful cause to help more people. Also some friends sent me a note of how this project inspired them to give more back to the community. Very touched!
2. To test the quality of a printing vendor from Taobao, I printed 5 books as the first batch. But the cover and the end got reversed! I was so surprised and confused...how can the provider make such a mistake? Was there any quality checking before delivery? Luckily, the vendor redid the batch again with no charge, and made it right in the end. A lesson for risk management in the printing business. 

3. 嘖嘖zeczec is built mainly for Taiwnese market, and some of our friends in other countries don’t really know how to open an account, and unfamiliar with the payment gateway. Thanks to my father-in-law, he created a step-by-step guide to share with our friends to reduce the friction on sponsoring the project. 

4. On the 7th days after the project launched, my project performed very well, and ranked at the top of 嘖嘖zeczec platform to gain more exposure.

Any other things to share? 

We tracked our book sales everyday during the campaign period by using a line chart on our family board.

My little artist sometimes asked why people want to buy her book. As she felt a sense of achievement, this became a great opportunity to educate her on how to use your power to make the world better. Learn more, observe more, and help others. Below are some of the donors’ feedback. With their kind words, we felt empowered in this crowdsourcing journey. A step to impact and inspire others. Giving is receiving. Starting with our own community!