Crowd Fund This! - Indie GoGo Tips for Localize This! Action Camp
Past camp participants have mobilized their community, friends, and family to invest in their organizing work. They reached out making personal asks, crafted a compelling argument for how the community supporting their participation at camp would have far reaching benefits, and made evident their passion and commitment to social change work.
We encourage you too to build the excitement and investment of your community in helping to sponsor you participation at Action Camp.
Fundraising is a key skill of any organizing effort.
At some point in your organizing endeavors you'll need to fundraise for the materials for art builds, or bail for your friend's courageous direct action, or your ongoing community supported organizing. While money doesn't replace people power, it does compliment it.
Members of your community want to be involved and invested in important social change and community organizing work. Contributing financially is often one of the easier ways for them to do so. Also, contributing money is often a important first step in nurturing soon-to-be activists further along a spectrum of engagement. Through fundraising, you are providing them with an opportunity and invitation for them to play a vital role in the important work you are passionate about. Inspired by your engagement in social change work, they'll be thrilled by the rare opportunity to meaningfully share resources in a manner that actualizes their deeply held values.
Fundraising is also a show of power. Mobilizing many people to financially contribute to your work shows that the issues you are working on are important, that you can motivate people to take some sort of action, and you are able to bring resources to the fight to sustain your organizing for the long-haul.
There are many ways you can create a venue for making your asks and inviting your community to invest in your work. One of our favorite events is a simple house party. Framing your ask / pitch in a succinct and compelling way is paramount. A personal ask to those with whom you have a relationship is by far the most effective way.
Recruit Your Community to Help Fund Scholarships to Action Camp:
If you simply aren't ready yet to ask people to support your work, you can of course ask them to support the scholarship for camp in general. Let us know who you recruited to pitch-in and we're happy to direct those donations towards covering the cost for you participation in camp. Rally folks to support Action Camp scholarships HERE - http://backbonecampaign.org/scholarships2camp
Crowdfunding Your Camp Participation:
Below we've assembled some tips and best practices to make setting up your own Indie Gogo / Generosity crowdfunding campaign a breeze. (Many of the tips are transferable to other crowdfunding platforms)
- 1st things 1st, read through this page.
- Then check out the quick presentation.
- Take a peak at a successful fundraising campaign.
- Get going on you Indiegogo today!
Please review the Crowd Fund This Prezi HERE
Previous Localizers Indiegogo Appeals:
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/help-send-emerging-whatcom-county-organizers-to-artful-action-camp
http://www.indiegogo.com/geterictolocalizethis
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/help-send-chris-priest-to-direct-action-camp
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/get-dawn-2-localize-this
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/help-roya-to-localize-this
Tips that have helped others:
Start off by setting up your paypal account if you don't have one already. It may take a few days for paypal to verify your account and verification is required in order to make your Indie GoGo "live" vs hidden or in editing mode. Your paypal account will also have to be either a premium or business.
We suggest using a flexible funding campaign and plan to hit your goal so that you get a greater share of the funds. You may want to set your fundraising goal towards the lower end and impress people by reaching or getting close to your goal earlier on. You can accept contributions beyond the goal amount. Or, in your updates you can let funders know what you might use additional funds beyond the goal for.
You can look back to the registration form you completed for camp since this contained great questions that could help formulate an effective "pitch."
Where does the funding come from?
The bulk of your funding will come from your personal network. There are many people you know who appreciate the type of work you and Backbone does, but for whatever reason are not going to be engaged in the same way you are. Activating your network you already have established and imagining them as your audience is your best bet for framing your pitch and successfully launching your crowdfunding campaign. You should plan to have a couple of people contribute right off when you click "go live", this "salting" technique makes it more likely others will follow suit and contribute too.
To build momentum and excitement, ensure you have funders lined up so you get funding within the 1st two days of launching and aim to raise 25% of your goal in the first 24 hours. The easiest way to do this is to compile a list of 10 or more friends, family, and allies who agree to pitch in $20 or more on the day you launch your campaign. These are great people to ask to send out to their list of friends as well. Also, post a new video or photo twice a week or so. This way, people will know the campaign is active.
Your Fundraising Pitch:
As far as a pitch goes, just focus on what you are excited about learning at camp, one or two things you were involved in in the past, and what you will do after camp to put the new knowledge and experience into practice. Your enthusiasm is probably your best fundraising asset. People sense that and pretty soon it's contagious.
Lastly, as others have learned the hard way, before you go "live," review key details like your goal, and how long you want the campaign to run since you can not change these later. There are three different time-frames. If you want your funds by a specific date it will end the campaign about 20 days before that point.
As with the long-term strategic framework that organizers have taught at camp, hold in your mind the idea that this isn't the end-all. This IndieGoGo exercise will help you build a network you can rely on in the future, establish or strengthen a connection with the community you will be working in, and build momentum and skills you can use in the future. Until our society runs off of rainbows and sunshine, all organizers will need to know how to fundraise. After-all, when/if you engage in a arrestable action it sure is nice to have someone bail you out of jail!
So, set one up, don't get too bogged down with making it perfect, and have some fun with the perks if you like.
Contact us if you have any questions at 206-408-8058