Crowdfunding is a great potential resource to support your fundraising strategy. If you go about it the right way and make it work for your film, then there is the opportunity for not only financial contribution, but much more besides.
What Is Crowdfunding?
Crowdfunding is “the practice of funding a project or venture by raising many small amounts of money from a large number of people, typically via the Internet” and in terms of what we’re trying to do, it is an online platform for people to give money to help support your film. |
Why Crowdfund?
It’s important to know why you’re doing something in order to be successful at it and get the most from it. So why crowd fund?
Money
Of course, Money being the big reason. You need money for your film and this is a way to get it! Especially as an independent documentary filmmaker, crowd funding can be a dream come true as it offers you the ability to gain valuable and substantial financial support with minimal financial output.
Support
Okay, so money is awesome and very much needed if we’re to get our films made but another big incentive to run a crowd funding campaign is that you will be building support for your film. And that can be wonderful on so many levels. Not least that you have no idea who will come forward, with what information or with what resources. You may make connections you couldn’t have dreamed of, be provided with information you didn’t even know you needed or introduced to people you didn’t know existed.
This happened to us a lot with our Elvis of Cambodia Kickstarter campaign, because the subject of our film died many years ago and almost all documentation, archival footage or photographs where destroyed during the genocide in which he was killed, it was very valuable to us that people came forward to share their stories, recollections, connections and documents. This may be an important aspect in your film too or perhaps less so, but regardless, it’s exciting to consider how people will step up to share with you and support your film.
Audience Building
The next point to consider is that you are building your audience for the films release. If you get your campaign right by putting in the necessary effort and energies to promote it, then you can exponentially grow your email list and social media numbers. With our Kickstarter campaign our Facebook likes grew by multiple thousands with people genuinely interested in seeing our film, and continued to increase long after the campaign had ended and our email list more than doubled. These are valuable resources when it comes to promoting your finished films screenings and distribution.
Validation
Regardless of where you are in the making of your film when you run a successful crowd funding campaign you will feel a sense of validation and affirmation of support from your potential audience or fan base. Whether you’re raising production funds and haven’t shot anything yet or looking for finishing funds, knowing that someone is giving you money for something that hasn’t been made yet and trusting you to come through with your promise, provides both a sense of personal satisfaction and reinforces the belief that you already hold in your project, that you’re sharing a story that needs to be told.
Empowering
Depending on your skillset, as discussed in the fundraising strategy video, when you consider which funding sources to tap into you may find that crowd funding is quite an empowering option. After all, film grants can difficult to obtain, complex to administer and take a long time to come through. Direct, face-to-face, asks for donation can be challenging for those uncomfortable with doing so and for those people crowd funding can be a really viable source of funding.
You decide when you run your campaign and for how long, which gives you the time and space to build the necessary resources and strategies to ensure the best chance of success.
You decide how much to ask for and for what stage of production or for your overall project, you decide to fund.
You build out the campaign and you engage with your backers and other people connecting with you.
If this speaks to your organizational and people skills then crowd funding could feel like an empowering avenue to meet your fundraising objectives.
Where to crowdfund?
There are two main places where you can hold your crowdfunding campaign online and those are your films website or an established crowd funding platform, such as Kickstarter, Indiegogo and Seed & Spark.
Which platform should I choose?
Let's look at which option might be best for you and your film.
Reaching your funding target
Obviously if you choose to run your campaign from your film’s website then you will be able to keep all the money you raise even if you do not reach your goal. That can also be the case with a platform like Indiegogo which offers flexible funding, meaning you don't have to reach your target to still obtain the money. However, on Kickstarter, it's all or nothing, if you don’t reach your target you won’t receive a penny of the money raised.
Fees
Any crowd funding platform you utilize will take a cut of your raised funds as payment for using their service, you won’t have those fees if people are donating directly to your website. And another advantage to campaigning from your film's website is that you can request that people looking to donate larger amounts send money in other ways. You could request that for larger amounts they send a cheque directly to you to reduce processing fees from your payment system (such as paypal) or you can give them the added incentive of a donation by making it tax deductible by sending it to your fiscal sponsor.
Greater Reach
One of the primary advantages to running your campaign on an established platform is the perceived potential for it to have a greater reach to potential donors. However, it should be noted that the crowdfunding platform will not be promoting your film, that comes down to you. The closest a crowdfunding platform comes to promoting you is the pages they have which show projects that they have curated as their top picks. Indiegogo has a team favorites section, Kickstarter has a projects we love section, and Seed and Spark has the staff picks and highly anticipated section.
And an additional advantage is the concept that when people visit established crowdfunding sites that they are actually looking for, and are interest in, finding projects to support.
Campaign format
When you create a campaign page on an established crowdfunding platform the format is all set out for you, you just need to input your campaign information. That can be quite useful and effective.
If you wish to create your own campaign on your film website we recommend you take a look at the proven formats of other crowdfunding platforms and decide what looks and works best.
Credibility
Which option you choose will depend largely on the following that you have already garnered for your film so for newbies to crowd funding and newbies to filmmaking we may recommend you go with a more established platform on which to cut your crowd funding teeth.
Note: Please see the resources section for additional information on the various crowdfunding platform, a breakdown of the costs and various rules of engagement associated with each.
What You'll Need
In this video we take a look at what you'll need for your crowdfunding campaign page.
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Target and Rewards
In this video we take a look at the target and dates you may decide to set for yourself, when you may wish to run your campaign and some reward options you may wish to consider.
Top Resources
Crowdfunding Platform Fees & Rules of Engagement
Kickstarter : All-or-nothing, reach your target amount or you don't receive any of the money. Fee 5% of funds collected.
Indiegogo : Option for a flexible funding, where you keep whatever you raise or fixed funding where you must meet your goal to receive any of the money. Fee 5% of funds raised, not of target set (if flexible funding).
Seed & Spark : Must reach 80% of goal to keep funds. Fees are 5%, but supporters can cover that fee (and often do).
Further reading on rewards/perks: Kickstarter and Indiegogo
Crowdfunding Rewards Calculation Sheet
Use this crowdfunding rewards calculation sheet to work out the cost of your rewards
Download here >>>> Crowdfunding Rewards Calculation Sheet
Crowdfunding Further Reading
5 Reasons For and Against Running A Crowdfunding Campaign by The Documentary Life
Free Filmmaker Crowdfunding Course w/ Seed & Spark by The Documentary Life