Our goal is to make crowdfunding easy. Follow our simple campaign creation steps and you can fund your dreams.
Crowdfunding 101
- 1:Creating Your Campaign
- 2:Coming Up With a Reward System
- 3:Setting Your Goal
- 4:Photographs and Videos
- 5:Constructing Your Project
- 6:Promoting Your Project
- 7:Keeping them posted
- 8:Fulfilling Rewards
Describe your campaign
Clearly outline what you are raising money for. A good example of a campaign would be "I'm producing a short film and need funding". Not "I want to launch my acting career". If writing is not your thing, we'll gladly help you out.
Set rewards
The best rewards give your donors a piece of your project. Make sure your rewards match your offerings. If you're seeking donations for a music album, consider offer
a song download for $5. For a $25 donation, you can offer the entire album. Digital rewards are easier to deliver than physical ones.
Get creative: For large donations you can give donors movie credits or a small role, name a character in your book after them, or give them the product itself.
The amount your raise should always cover your project, and the shipping charges for
the promised reward. With shipping costs, make sure you factor in both local and international rates.
Define your goal
Clearly define your project goal for potential donors. Make it very clear what you intend to achieve with the funds. Fund Dreamer has a "keep it all" funding model. When setting a campaign goal, keep in mind the duration period. It's best to keep campaigns under 30 days to ensure maximum crowd participation. When a campaign goes past 30 days, crowds tend to loose interest.
Social media + your network
To create a successful campaign you need to create a strong social media campaign.
Your backers will come from various circles: your friends and family, social networks.
If your message is powerful, strangers from around the world.
Developing your social media (FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram, Vine, Pinterest,
Personalised emails, etc.) skills before finalizing your campaign is highly encouraged.
Fund Dreamer will do a lot of social media promotion on your behalf but you will need
to drive your campaign to successful completion.
Photographs and videos
Populate your campaign page with relevant photographs showcasing your project goals.
The best picture size is 1024x443 at 72 dpi. If you want to upload your own video, please
post it on Vmeo or YouTube and use the link to upload it to Fund Dreamer.
If you decide to use a video, ask a friend to help you. Be genuine, have fun, and tell a story
worth listening to. While you don't want to sound too rehearsed, craft your message with
poignant information about yourself and your project. Make sure to explain why you need
the monetary support and what you will do with it. Mention your rewards and make sure
to thank everyone ahead of time.
Unless you are a musician and are using your own music, try not to use any copyrighted
materials in your video. You can go to ccMixer, SoundCloud, Vimeo Music Store, or Free
Music Archive.
Toot your own horn
This is your opportunity to share more about you. What makes you perfect for your project? You can also include your facebook, linkedin and twitter profiles here.
Photographs and videos
Most projects get funded through your own network. Some of the donations can also come
from your friends network as well. Make sure to tell a lot of people through social media
about your project and ask them to tell their friends. You will have to tell them more than
once and in a few different ways.
Here are some ideas for sharing your campaign:
Send an email to close friend and family about your campaign.
Don't forget to ask them to share it with their friends on social media.
Use Facebook and Twitter to share your campaign message.
Set up a Tumbr blog if you like and spread the word on your campaign.
Talk to people in person, have a kickoff/pledge party to get everyone excited. It can
even be at your house. Get people excited about your campaign.
Too many blasts can make people lose interest. Create a communication strategy and
make a plan for who you will reach out to and how day by day and week by week.
Be mindful of your personal activities during the campaign. Don't post pictures that might
send the wrong message.
Keep them posted
Providing updates serves as a great reminder of your progress. It's also a great way to
remind your donors who haven't made a contribution yet that the campaign is still going on.
Once you receive a donation, acknowledge it immediately and send a personal thank you
email. Let them know how much you appreciate their efforts.
Keep everybody updated on progress. If you are planning to record a CD, tell them you
settled on a recording studio. If you had a great night performing some of your songs that
will go on the CD, post some pictures/clip of the recording on social media.
Notify the donors when you've reached your goal and share your progress success:
• let them know if you a having a book signing
• invite them yo your play opening
• let them know that your album is coming to itunes
Fulfilling Rewards
Once your project is funded, you should start reaching out to the donors and letting them
know that you're about to send out the rewards. Keep yourself organized by keeping track of
who donated and how much. You can easily set up a document in google docs.
Once you have mailed your rewards, post pictures of yourself packing the boxes or
envelopes, have a "packing party", celebrate your success by posting pictures of the goods
being packed and dropped off. Celebrate for a job well done and go produce your project!