I am amidst my first Kickstarter campaign for a nonprofit environmental conservation client. We are 7 days away from the conclusion of our 30-day crowd funding campaign and I decided it was as good a time as any to take a moment to reflect on lessons learned over the past month. The good, the bad, and the ugly….whether we make the goal or not. When my brother in law enlisted me to help with his Kickstarter campaign, I was a little nervous. A) because I had never done one of these before and B.) because people generally don’t like to think about pollution. Lets, start with the ugly. Here is what I learned quickly which only confirmed some of my worst fears about humanity:
PEOPLE ARE CHEAP.
You would never imagine in a million years how hard it is to get people to give even one dollar.
PEOPLE ARE LAZY.
People can’t be bothered to go into uncharted territory. If people feel even the slightest bit inconvenienced, they won’t bother.
PEOPLE ARE SERIOUS ABOUT THEIR FACEBOOK PAGE.
I am not on Facebook. I never have been. Even people who are constantly on Facebook posting the most minutia unimportant details of their day will probably not help you promote.
PEOPLE DONT LIKE TO READ.
I already knew this, but now I appreciate this concept even more.
PEOPLE ARE FORGETFUL.
Some people have the best intentions, but forget about your campaign five minutes after they thought to theirself, “Ill do it later.”
That said, today I am feeling a encouraged (the good). If you consider the above ideas to be true, then I believe your chances of success in a Kickstarter campaign may double. On the heels of some really great press, a mass appeal to social media mavens and an email campaign, we are well on our way.
Here are some of the things that seemed to work and some to be weary of (good/bad):
1.) Plan Your Kickstarter Campaign Strategy Six Months In Advance and Run it For One
It may seem like a really long time but getting all of your ducks in a row is important. Your videographer is busy. You key man wont send you a bio…you know the drill. Smaller time frames, while a little scary are probably the best bet. People will feel zero urgency if your campaign is any longer than that. Be aware, once the clock starts time flies. All the more reason to head this advice.
2.) Press is Important
Have your press release ready to go and send it to select press in advance of sending over any wires. The best coverage our campaign received was through a personal connection. There are also sites like Crowdfundingpr.org which are news sites dedicated strictly to crowd funding initiatives.
3.) Be Aware of Wait Times
If you are ready to launch tomorrow, think again. You may have to hurry up and wait so prepare your team/friends/family it may not happen on the exact date as planned. We got the below auto response from KS. Luckily, we were able to get ours launched the same day we submitted.
| “Here are some details on the review process:It generally takes 2–3 business days for a Community Manager to get back to you. They’ll review your project, and if everything meets our rules it will be accepted. If you’ve submitted a Design or Technology project, it may take up to a week for a Community Manager to get back to you due to the high volume of submissions in these categories.If changes need to be made in order for your project to be accepted, you’ll be given the opportunity to update it. The Community Manager will take another look once you’ve done so. Depending on the number of changes that need to be made, the entire process can take up to a week or more.Once your project’s been accepted, you can choose to launch whenever you’re ready.” |
4.) Personal Pleas are King
By far the most fruitful pleas were those to strategic partners that in turn scored our campaign the largest donations. For us that meant reaching out to schools, community organization and organizations with a vested interest in the success of the campaign or whose values, endeavors aligned with our own. I would emphasize this even more my next go round.
5.) Social Media is the Prince
Unless you either have a really strong social media presence or have a good amount of people around you who do, Kickstarter may not be for you. I don’t know that the success can be attributed to social media efforts but it certainly helped particularly because of my last point on the “people” list above. A few tips: create scripts, send several appeals to the people you know are the most influential on social networks. Explain to them to please add a personal appeal to whatever it is they post, it will affect the impact the post has.
Speaking of begging….all this begs the question…what are the implications of using Kickstarter for nonprofit fundraising? I’ll let you know… and perhaps in my next blog post.
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