Top 3 Crowdfunding Myths - why you can do it too!

A fortnight ago, we held our first ‘Introduction to RSA Crowdfunding’ event, open to both Fellows and non-Fellows who were interested in learning more about crowdfunding. People were able to attend the evening session both in-person at the RSA House and remotely over free videoconferencing software. After nearly 6 months since the launch of the RSA curated area on Kickstarter, we have realised that the main difficulty facing project leaders is how intimidating crowdfunding can seem. Fellows often have lots of questions and reservations about it, ranging from how high a fundraising target they should set, to how much work a campaign actually is. In this session we set out to allay some of those fears. By simply going through the basics of crowdfunding, we were able to ‘totally demystify crowdfunding,’ in the words of Jane Glitre FRSA, who attended the event. Here are the answers to just a few of the worries people had about running crowdfunding campaigns.

By simply going through the basics of crowdfunding, we were able to ‘totally demystify crowdfunding.

A fortnight ago, we held our first ‘Introduction to RSA Crowdfunding’ event, open to both Fellows and non-Fellows who were interested in learning more about crowdfunding. People were able to attend the evening session both in-person at the RSA House and remotely over free videoconferencing software. After nearly 6 months since the launch of the RSA curated area on Kickstarter, we have realised that the main difficulty facing project leaders is how intimidating crowdfunding can seem. Fellows often have lots of questions and reservations about it, ranging from how high a fundraising target they should set, to how much work a campaign actually is. In this session we set out to allay some of those fears. By simply going through the basics of crowdfunding, we were able to ‘totally demystify crowdfunding,’ in the words of Jane Glitre FRSA, who attended the event. Here are the answers to just a few of the worries people had about running crowdfunding campaigns.

By simply going through the basics of crowdfunding, we were able to ‘totally demystify crowdfunding.’ 

-          I don’t think my project/social enterprise is suitable for crowdfunding. While it is true that massively, out-of-this-world successful projects tend to be things like video games or technology products, many different kinds of campaigns have the potential to be successful, and there are crowdfunding platforms for all different kinds of projects. Kickstarter, on which the RSA has a curated area, favours ‘creative’ projects. However, the term creative should be interpreted broadly, and depending on how you phrase your project, can accommodate a wide variety of projects that don’t initially seem creative. For example, Nalibeli, a project seeking to create an online wiki educating Nepalese citizens about their rights, successfully crowded for over $3,200 on our curated area. Projects that receive our support to prepare for a crowdfunding campaign can choose to go on other platforms—such as Indiegogo, which is what Sunday Assembly decided to do—but at the moment we can only offer our publicity to FRSA projects on Kickstarter.

-          How much work is crowdfunding, really? Anybody who has run a crowdfunding campaign will tell you that it is a lot of work. In fact, we brought in a Fellow who had recently crowdfunded to talk about her experience, and she said that her campaign almost became a second job. However, I think the underlying fear here isn’t the amount of work, but rather the possibility of wasted effort. What we’ve found after six months is that most project leaders who are able to put in the necessary time and effort towards a crowdfunding campaign end up being successful.

Conversely, a common theme of unsuccessful campaigns was that they suffered from a lack of capacity from the start. Kickstarter cites the statistic that of the projects that reach 20% of their target, 80% are eventually successful. It is also worth mentioning that many rewards-based crowdfunding campaigns are selling a product or service directly to its potential audience in the form of rewards, which provides the project leader with valuable information on the demand for the project and experience with marketing it.

-          What happens if my project doesn’t reach its target in an all-or-nothing campaign? Even if your project is unsuccessful you will be able to message your backers through Kickstarter. In many cases, some backers are still willing to donate to your project even if the campaign hasn’t been successful because they really want your project to happen. In other cases, you can use the support for your Kickstarter campaign in things like grant applications as evidence of the demand for your project. MAKLab, an FRSA project which did not reach its target on Kickstarter, used their 64 backers to convince foundations to provide the funding for the project, still housed in Somerset House, at a slightly lower budget.  No matter what, you’ll have a new group of people who liked your project enough to back it and who can get involved in your work in the future.

Since crowdfunding support is a unique offer from RSA Catalyst, we plan to run several more ‘Introduction to RSA Crowdfunding’ events in the future, open to both Fellows and non-Fellows. If you are interested in crowdfunding for your project or social enterprise, or would simply like to learn more about this fast-growing source of funding register for our next session here, which will be held on Wednesday 19^th March, 6:00-7:30pm, both at the RSA House and online.