Introduction to Crowdfunding Workshop #McrVSA Welcome, this will be a quick overview of crowdfunding and the channels you may use

What is Crowdfunding? Crowdfunding is a practice of funding a project by raising many small amounts of money from a large number of people They allow organisations or individuals to ask the general public or target donors to pledge funds for specific projects over a short space of time. Its not a long term solution to funding issues Project must have a start and end date Has anyone ran a crowdfunding campaign before? Has anyone donated to a crowdfunding page before?

What are the opportunities for charities and community groups? Crowdfunding offers the opportunity to: Build support for projects Publicise your work Reach new audiences Tap into new sources of funding-unrestricted in terms of monitoring

What do you need to run a successful campaign? Support from staff Creative and innovative approach Planning Marketing and social media skills Time Wide engaged social networks Engaging pitch- 30 second lift pitch! The personal touch

The Crowdfunding Process 1) Develop idea for project - Prove the need -Research -define your aims and objectives -define your timescale 2) Choose the right platform 3) Go Live! -donation window opens -marketing and social media campaign starts -keep audience engaged 4) Donors/public pledge money -if project doesn’t reach total at this stage, money might be returned to donors 5) Project development -communicate success with donors and keep audience engaged You need to be able to justify why there is a need for what you are doing, do your research define some aims and objectives. Aim is long term, and objectives are what are you going to do in order to achieve the aim. Draw up a timeline of this process- when each stage is going to happen and who needs to be involved Research different platforms, which will be most affective for your campaign and where does your audience sit the most? We’ll have a brief look at 3 platforms now You need to make a fuss about the launch, it helps to build the momentum – plan the marketing plan before hand When you have a full online presence, you should see donations coming through, or at least some sort of engagement and conversations- be sure to monitor what's working and what's not working throughout your campaign This is when your project takes shape, and also when you need to ensure your audience is kept up to date with how its going, especially the donors Activity -

Platform Features Crowdfunder Supports projects of all sizes All or nothing and keep what you raise They take 8% of what you raise (5% fee and 3% transaction fee) Up to 8 weeks campaign JustGiving Projects Get what you raise They take 5% of what you raise Chuffed.org Social causes only 100% free Keep what you raise Payment processing fee for donor