How to Run a Successful Crowdfunding Campaign
I’m delighted to welcome Sarah Carradine, theatre and opera director, librettist and playwright to the blog today. She’s here to discuss the successful crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo to take Perch, the first production of her new physical theatre company, The Leaps on tour to Boston & New York.
ARC: How much lead-time did you give yourself before your campaign went live?
SC: My co-producer and I started planning more than a month before the campaign went live. We picked a final date, and worked backwards to get a launch date, giving ourselves a 40-day campaign.
ARC: How difficult was it work out the right amount of money to ask for, and did you allow for any contingency?
SC: Quite difficult. Because we were in a situation where any amount of money would be helpful, there was a temptation to set a low target. But we felt very strongly that we wanted to value our work, so set a figure of $12,850, which covered airfares, accommodation and publicity costs in the US, as well as fees for our designer & composer here in Australia. In the end, we exceeded our target, which allowed us to fund some long-term goals.
ARC: How much time did you give yourselves to raise the money?
SC: We decided on 40 days, and during our preparation phase, carefully plotted out our smaller targets, and updates on Indiegogo and other social media.
ARC: Can you tell readers why you chose that particular funding model and which option you chose (any amount or taking the money if you reached your goal).
SC: We picked Indiegogo because they tend to host more creative endeavours, rather than technology & manufacturing. We opted for ‘flexible’ funding, which meant that we got whatever funds were pledged. The downside is that if we didn’t raise the whole amount, the percentage taken by Indiegogo was almost double. This gave us a great incentive to campaign strategically and intensively to reach our goal.
ARC: I thought that the perks you offered were particularly imaginative Can you talk us through some of them?
SC: This was the advantage of giving ourselves a decent lead time. Deciding on the perks, and writing the descriptions, was always going to be the core of our campaign. We looked at a lot of campaigns for theatre productions, and felt that just promising tickets, and a thank you on social media, was not going to cut it. We planned a Backers Showing in Sydney before we left for the US. So we crafted perks around this showing, from a ticket to see the play, then adding on a catered cocktail party afterwards, then other ‘packages’ of tickets, cocktail party, plus other perks on our menu. This gave us a range of donation levels from AUD$45 to AUD$120. Then we thought about what we could offer personally. I’m a bridge player and a surf lifesaver at Bondi Beach. So offering bridge lessons, or a guided ocean swim, was a natural for me. My co-producer Brian teaches contemporary dance and yoga, so we were able to offer private yoga sessions. I asked our designer if she would like to conduct floor talks at NGV (National Gallery of Victoria) in Melbourne. She jumped at the idea, and then came up with a wonderful perk, which was to make a 3-D white-card model of the facade of the supporter’s house. So we had another range of perks whereby supporters could meet us personally and have some fun. These supports levels ranged from $75 to $250.
We made a blue sky perk, worth $2,500, where you could have the show performed in your living room, for you and ten guests. We doubted anyone would take that up, but it’s fun to have a range of perks. In the end our cheapest reward started at $25, where our supporters could get a souvenir from New York, and went all the way up to that $2,500 mark.
ARC: Did you encounter any difficulties in getting the perks to the sponsors and had you budgeted for that?
SC: We thought a lot about postage. Some campaigns add on postage, but, in the end we wanted to make it simple, so we included postage within the price. This was another juggling act, as some perks we could hand-deliver, some required postage within Australia and others went all over the world, to Denmark, Germany, America and the UK.
We made the text of Perch (a finalist in the UK Fresher Prize) a perk on its own, (as well as part of other packages), thinking that we would have the print version to post out last October. The late arrival of the books has been troubling to us, but we have kept our supporters updated as we go along. This was the one perk that was out of our hands.
ARC: Talk us through what the campaign entailed and the amount of time you had you to devote to it while it was live?
SC: While the campaign was live, we worked on it every day. We thanked each supporter personally as the contributions came in, and let them know when they could expect their perk or sent them instructions for the showing and cocktail party. We had already planned out our updates, keeping our campaign in the front of people’s minds, but not so frequently as to annoy our supporters. Meanwhile, we kept up on social media, reaching out to all our networks, and asking them to publicise the campaign through their networks in turn, and so spread the word as far as we could.
ARC: What advice would you give to other creatives wanting to fund their projects?
SC: The best advice I can give is to take plenty of time in the pre-planning stage. Write clearly about your project, and what the money is going to be used for. Think about your perks from the supporter’s point of view, rather than how much money you think people should give you. The other thing to remember is that these campaigns are not ‘set and forget’. Once your campaign is live, it has a momentum that you must keep driving. Treat it as a job you have to work at every day. And be prepared to be a bit shameless while you are fundraising.
Me: What’s next for The Leaps?
Next up for The Leaps in a season on Perch in Sydney as part of the Mardi Gras Festival in February. The success of the US tour meant that we got our first choice of venue, and is certainly helping with publicity.
