Crowdfunding for Good

Devin D. Thorpe @devindthorpe #letsdosomegood

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Endless Computer

$176,538 raised!

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A little about me

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Teton Dam

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Treasurer/Investment Banker/CFO

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Champion of Social Good

Crowdfunding

• The use of third-party websites to raise money for your project

• Examples– Kickstarter– Indiegogo– Rockethub

• Hundreds of others

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Types of Crowdfunding

RewardsT-shirts, albums, games,

DVDs and technology

InvestmentsDebt and

equity issues

DonationsNothing but thanks

in return

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Crowdfunding Potential

• $200 million for a skyscraper in Bogota, Colombia (investments)

• $13 million for a cooler that will charge your phone and blend your drinks (rewards)

• $5+ million for Habitat for Humanity (donations)

What to Expect• Crowdfunding for investments is

new, with average raises of about $100,000 in the UK

• Crowdfunding for rewards and donations average about $4,000 to $5,000

• Many campaigns fail to raise any money at all

• Most campaigns raise less than $5,000

• A few, big winners skew the average

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Where The Money Comes From

• The “Crowd” is almost as difficult to find as sasquatch

• The money will come mostly from your own network (about 75%)

• The most successful campaigns get 75% or more from the “crowd”

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SMAC! Monkeys

Trust

• Are you trying to cheat me?– Use your real identity– Connect to social media

accounts associated with your real identity

• If not, are you capable of being successful?– Describe your qualifications– Highlight past success

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Crowdfunding Timeline

Phase I: Reconnaissance

Phase II: Preparation

Phase III: Ground War

Phase IV: Air War

Campaign

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Phase I

Phase II

Phase III

Phase IV

Campaign

Timeline in Weeks

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Assessing Your Team

• How many partners?• How many champions?• How many boosters?

• Partners are worth an average of $2,000 each.

• Champions are worth about $1,000 each.

• Boosters are worth about $500 each.

Assessing Your Cause

Score your cause on a 5-point scale:

Face Urgency Politics Geography Community Project or event

Face

• The “Face” of your campaign: is it appealing?

• Celebrity not required• Beauty not required• Authenticity required• Person or critter• Logos can’t be the face of your

campaign• Objects can’t be the face

Urgency

• The urgency: is there a native reason people must act now?

• Boston Bombing v. American Cancer Society

Politics

• Is your cause potentially divisive?• Cancer v. Marriage Equality

Geography

• Local v. Global

Community

• Is your cause tied to a larger community, religion or club?– Veterans– Football fans– Online gamers– Methodists– Rotarians

• Can you reach the community?

Project or Event

• Is there a specific project or event to be funded?– Construction project– Service trip– 10K Run

LiveMoreAwesome

Assessing Your Project• Rate your project on a 0 – 5 point scale for

each of the four areas:– Face: __________– Urgency: __________– Politics: __________– Geography: __________– Community: __________– Event: __________

• Total: __________

• A score above 25 has high potential to reach beyond your personal network.

• A score below 15 is unlikely to reach far beyond your network.

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• Reaching way beyond your network requires:– Passion among your friends, fans and followers– Media attention (blogs, newspapers, radio and

television)– Luck

Going Viral

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Platforms

• Indiegogo• Fundly• Razoo• Crowdrise• StartSomeGood• Many others

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Platform Considerations• Hundreds of platforms to

choose among• Remember, the money comes

from your network—not the platform’s

• Few people are browsing the sites looking for places to drop money

• There are thousands of projects on each site

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Crowdfunding Timeline

Phase I: Reconnaissance

Phase II: Preparation

Phase III: Ground War

Phase IV: Air War

Campaign

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Phase I

Phase II

Phase III

Phase IV

Campaign

Timeline in Weeks

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Preparation

• The activity you see in a crowdfunding campaign is a fraction of the total work

• Start preparing in earnest 30 to 60 days before you launch your campaign

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• Build and organize teams• Train your team• Organize lists• Design your rewards/recognition• Write a press release• Produce a video

What to Prepare

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Partners

• Your business partners should be your crowdfunding partners

• Get them committed• No one person can carry

the whole team

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Fanatics

• People who will campaign on your behalf

• Your mom• Customers who already

love what you are doing

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Train the Team

• Train Your Partners• Have your partners help

you train the Fanatics• Teach everyone what you

are learning here

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• Partners and Fanatics• Everyone prepares her own list• Gather names, phone numbers and email addresses • Download list from online email provider• Download list from LinkedIn

Organize Lists

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Rewards

• Nothing but thanks• Incentives• Products

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Acknowledgement

• Only acknowledgement or appreciation may be appropriate for:– Small donors in any

campaign– Campaigns for causes or

charities• Technologists will

generally want to use rewards in addition

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Creative Appreciation• For small donors, a simple,

automated email expressing appreciation

• For large donors, be creative– Social media– YouTube– Your website– Your product– Product features

• Be careful to ensure that the biggest donors get special recognition in addition to standard recognition

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Premium Priced Rewards• Works for:

– Causes– With creative appreciation– Social entrepreneurs– Launching a business with a compelling

new technology• Use cheap things:

– Tee shirts– Posters– Downloads– Your current products– Your future products

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Powerful Press Release• Press releases are fairly

standardized• Follow these instructions or use a

template• A press release is a pre-written

newspaper article you give to the media so they can post it online as if they wrote it

• Make it sound like they did• Use facts and figures and avoid

marketing language

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• Title• Subtitle• Introductory paragraph• Supporting paragraph• One or two quote paragraphs • About the company with a link to website• ### signals the end• Contact information

Press Release Basics

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Targeting Media

• Each partner and fanatic should:– Identify bloggers and reporters

with whom they have a connection

– Identify bloggers and reporters who cover your “space”

– Be sure to look for national as well as local media

– Target local writers for Forbes and Huffington Post

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Video

• Most important thing on your campaign page– Make an effort!

• The page is not so important to your campaign– Don’t break the bank!– Budget less than 5% of your

goal

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Be Sure to Ask

Ask viewers to:

Donate

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Crowdfunding Timeline

Phase I: Reconnaissance

Phase II: Preparation

Phase III: Ground War

Phase IV: Air War

Campaign

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Phase I

Phase II

Phase III

Phase IV

Campaign

Timeline in Weeks

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Line Up The Big Backers

• Strategic partners• Suppliers• Distributors• Large customers• Wealthy friends and family• Target 3 to 5 who are likely

to support you

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Work the Phones

• Every partner should work her own list

• Choose 20 to 30 people from your lists– Most likely to support– Friendly to you or your

project– Make this easy on yourself

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Email—Not Spam!• Personal email messages can

yield up to 50 percent results• Every email must be

personalized• Do not BCC all of your friends at

once• Email 50 to 150 people personal

notes one at a time• If you have a commercial email

list, use it, too

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Commercial List• If you have a commercial list, you

track results• A majority of your email

messages go unopened• Most of the opened messages

get no clicks• Go ahead and use your list to

generate support• Getting 1 to 2 percent of your list

to participate will be a big win

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Track the Contacts• Keep a log of every contact• Don’t call someone twice who

turned you down!• Follow up with email reminders

weekly until they pledge online• On the first day of the campaign,

remind them to go online to pledge• You want 50% of your total on day

one (if only so you can actually get 30%)

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Crowdfunding Timeline

Phase I: Reconnaissance

Phase II: Preparation

Phase III: Ground War

Phase IV: Air War

Campaign

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Phase I

Phase II

Phase III

Phase IV

Campaign

Timeline in Weeks

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Have a Ball! (or at Least a Party)• On the first day• Have fun!• Engage as many people as

possible• Make giving easy• Create incentives for using social

media• Announce contests for your

“fanatics”• Be creative

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How to Reach the Media

• Don’t just send a press release and expect people to share it

• Connect with the media; pretend you are dating

• Give them a reason to care• Follow protocol• Send a second release• Be prepared for an interview

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Don’t Just Send the Press Release

• A typical reporter sees 200 pitches per week

• Reporters have stories they are pursuing, too

• Statistically, your chances of getting coverage are low

• If you just send your release in an email you guarantee reporters hit the delete key

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How to Date the Media• Read what they write or watch what

they produce• Subscribe to them personally where

they write and on social media• Send a “love note” with the release

– Start with her name– Explain what you’ve read and why you

loved it– Note that you’ve subscribed and followed– Pitch your story as being a good fit for her

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Give the Media a Reason to Care

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• Explain why your story is relevant based on what she’s written in the past

• Identify reasons the audience will care• Highlight the reasons you are

interesting– A cause– New to town– Young entrepreneur– Old dog learning new tricks– Great speaker/funny

• Sell, sell, sell

Follow the Protocol• The media has learned to hate

email attachments• Send your press release—after

your pitch—in the email itself• Note in your pitch that:– You have photos and video

available or provide links– You are available for interviews

• Do not follow up more than once without an invitation

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The Second Round with the Media• After the launch send a second press

release• Highlight:

– Success and momentum of the campaign after only one or two days

– Talk about the party– Refocus on goals and/or the product

• Provide links to photos and video of the party

• Tell the story of a groundswell of support

• Be available for interviews

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Social Media: Where the Rubber Meets the Road

• Post daily across all of your platforms• Post everywhere you have an audience

—and on Google+• Keys for good posts• Examples• Tips for:

– Facebook– Twitter– LinkedIn– Google+

• Keep posting pictures of your lunch or selfies with bed hair

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Keys for Good Posts• Announce funding progress– People want you to succeed– The more backers you get the more

backers you get• Remind people why you are

raising money– Focus on the product and its

benefits• You can never thank people too

much for their money and their trust

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Coordinate with Your Team

• Send an email each day to every member of your team

• Include suggested posts for all of the main platforms

• Be sure to include links to new media hits

• Make it easy for them to be active on social media

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It’s Not Over…

• Keep your team engaged• Keep making phone calls• Keep sending personal

emails• Tell everyone you meet

about your campaign

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Make a Coordinated Push

• Rally the team• Update the media • Have another party• Make more calls• Send more email• Big finish

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Vivienne – Make a Stand

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Visit devinthorpe.com/acvtp• Free download of my book, Crowdfunding for Social Good• Today’s slides• My contact information

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