Top 10 Reasons to Crowdfund Your Next Project

Ten simple reasons to consider crowdfunding as a viable alternative for your next project:

1. Free Press Crowdfunding platforms promote high profile, interesting projects on their sites as well as through email and social media daily to generate interest and traffic from supporters and other creatives. Most platforms have a ‘project of the day’ announcement on their front pages, twitter, and facebook accounts. If you can get the attention of the staff, they’ll often do some of the work for you. Early free press helps you reach a critical mass of supporters and investors who can help spread the word about your project and ensure you reach your funding goals quickly.

Hint: Be different. Crowdfunding sites have more new projects every day. Find a way to catch the attention of staff and supporters by standing out from the crowd.

2. Running Lean No lawyers, no paperwork (well, at least a lot less). Crowdfunded projects are usually a labor of love. Producers often work for subsistence wages and on very limited budgets for the chance to work on their dreams. Knowing that funding arrived in $5 or $10 increments can help keep a lean spending mindset. It’s real, not Monopoly™ money, and it was difficult to come by. You need to be careful what you spend, or you might not get funded again when the time comes. Working within tighter constraints forces creativity and the utilization of available resources. It’s easier to behave like a scrappy insurgency when you are one already.

Hint: Reduce, Reuse, Think like a start-up.

3. Evangelists Your supporters contribute far more than capital. The social resource gained in this small army of motivated promoters is priceless. A contributor can also convert their friends and contacts online into future supporters. Once your fundraising goal has been met you will also have acquired a group of fans who will follow your project through to completion, sharing their excitement with others along the way. Viral marketing starts on day one.

Hint: Take advantage of the blogs, email, and video updates offered on sites like Kickstarter to keep supporters in the loop. Even the most motivated supporters are more likely to retweet or share a post than write one on their own.

4. Instant Focus Group A network of digitally connected supporters can provide nearly instant feedback on new ideas for your project. Character concept art, demo tracks, sample chapters, and business plans all benefit from crowdsourced feedback. The result is a free focus group composed only of hard-core supporters. Float an idea by your investors to get feedback. Someone who’s already given you their money will gladly give you a piece of their mind.

Hint: Start early. Include polls on your project page that lets users give feedback before contributing. Who knows, you might learn something new.

5. Update Your Business Plan Investors need to know your business plan and deliverables before they contribute. Both revenue sharing and donation-based projects both require full disclosure of the project timeline and products. Investors want to know if you’ve though things through. Through crowdfunding, you can take advantage of a crowdfunded business plan.

Hint: Get feedback on potential markets an cost savings.

6. Own Your Intellectual Property Creative professionals rarely retain the rights to their own intellectual property. Copyrights, trademarks, and patents are often held by employers or clients. However in most crowdfunded projects you retain full rights to your work. Crowdfunding gives you the option to prototype a new design before approaching VCs, studios, labels, or publishers. There might be a few dozen other people who would support your dream of bringing robotic snowshoes to life and can help cover development costs.

Hint: Be careful not to promise too much. Be clear what the project outcome will be and whether supporters are entitled to any future profits.

7. Early Money Crowdfunding is not always an end unto itself. Donation-based projects routinely fund recording time for an album, help support an author write full-time, and pay for development costs that supporters don’t intent to recoup. You’re then free to sign with a label, publisher, or sell the patent afterwards.

Hint: Don’t take supporters for granted. People contribute to projects because they care, not to make you rich. Offer tiered rewards for donation projects. $20 gets a dvd $1,000 a visit to the set or a prop to take home.

8. You Won’t Produce Vaporware Soliciting and spending other people’s money makes you accountable. Now that they’ve paid, they’re expecting something in return. You set a budget and got funded, now go do what you promised. Sometimes other people depending on you can give that extra push to make you come through with a finished product.

Hint: Status updates are your friends. They keep supporters engaged and help you chart your progress. Extra credit, use video: look your supporters in the eye for that extra touch.

9. Freedom From Control This might be what brought you to crowdfunding in the first place. No board of directors, no corporate overlords, no venture capitalists. Just people who love your project and are happy to help. In most crowdfunding systems the artist/developer/entrepreneur maintains complete control over their product and company. Even in systems with profit or revenue sharing, there are no board meetings. You don’t need to convince anyone else before making the decision that is best for you and your project.

Hint: Ask anyways. Even if you’re not obligated, your supporters love you and your work. Find a way to get them involved in at least advising you on big decisions. They might have ideas or approaches you haven’t thought of yet.

10. Your Next Next Project All the reasons above apply doubly the next time around. You already have an army of supporters, evangelists, focus group data, business plan ideas, process suggestions, and a content archive. All these resources make the next project even easier from day one. Spurred on by your past success and newfound crowdfunding street-cred, supporters from your last project can help you find even more investors and capital for an even better release this time.

Hint: Keep in touch with supporters between projects on Twitter and Facebook. Once they subscribe, it’s easy to announce your next project!