How to Crowdfund Part 1
What's the Difference between Kickstarter, IndieGoGo, Seed & Spark and GoFundMe
Our crowdfunding campaign was one of the hardest months I’ve ever worked. It’s was like sprinting a marathon. Just like any marathon, you need the right equipment to succeed. Today I’m going to focus on which crowdfunding platform to choose.
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Why Crowdfund?
Crowdfunding doesn’t do exactly what you think it does. When it comes to movies and documentaries, it probably won’t be a big part of your budget. You’re probably not even going to raise most of your money. We’re not Zach Braff, who was able to raise more than three million dollars in a month from supporters. Most of us aren’t Alex Winter (doing a documentary about Frank Zappa, who has legions of fans willing to push our campaign over a million dollars.
So what is the purpose of crowdfunding, if it’s not for shoring up our budgets? It’s for social media and marketing. It’s for building an audience and growing an email list. It’s going to get your friends, family and hopefully, complete strangers, excited about your documentary. A successful campaign can be just as impactful if you raise a few thousand dollars as if you raise tens of thousands of dollars.
The first thing I learned from a successful campaign is to set your expectations low and overdeliver. On some platforms, you don’t get your money if you don’t hit your goal. It also doesn’t look good if you ask for $50,000 and only raise $10,000. Be realistic and your audience will respect you.
Platforms
There are several choices for sites to host your campaign and choosing one can be difficult. There’s no right answer, but there’s the right platform for the project. Here are your choices:
Kickstarter:
This is the big one. Kickstarter is the original crowdfunding campaign platform and it’s the most popular. People know Kickstarter and are probably going to be more willing to participate. Strangers browse Kickstarter just looking for projects to back. The flip side is, if you decide to go with Kickstarter, you’re going to be competing with video games, board games and meat soap among other things.
From talking to other filmmakers, Kickstarter customer service leaves a lot to be desired. It’s difficult to get in touch with anyone there, which is especially important when you’re in the throes of a campaign and something goes wrong.
With Kickstarter, you have to make your goal or you don’t get anything. Credit cards don’t get charged, no money changes hands and your dreams get crushed.
Kickstarter charges a 5% platform fee. That’s in addition to the credit card fees (about 3%).
IndieGoGo
Indiegogo ranks number two among the crowdfunding platforms. They have more of a reputation for technology (self-heating sandwich in a can?), but it’s also a platform for documentary filmmakers. It may not have the traffic that Kickstarter has, but I know several filmmakers who decided to run their campaign through IndieGoGo.
IndieGoGo allows you to collect money even if you don’t meet your goal (I still suggest you set an attainable or nearly attainable goal). Given the size of the traffic, you may still get walk-on contributors as you would on Kickstarter, but probably not as many.
One filmmaker who used IndieGoGo for his crowdfunding campaign told me he had a terrible time with IndieGoGo’s customer service. He wanted to run some money he already raised through their system (a donor gave him a check, he cashed it and put that money into the campaign as a supporter), they flagged it and held up his payment. As documentary filmmakers, we have to do that often. We had an opening party for Queen and collected cash at the door. I then added that cash to the campaign. People are more willing to donate when they see money in the campaign already.
IndieGoGo charges a 5% platform fee. That’s in addition to the credit card fees (about 3%).
GoFundMe
GoFundMe is different from the rest of the group, it’s not set up for products or projects but geared more towards charities and individuals.
Some filmmakers still use it, but it’s mainly people raising money to help through medical or family emergencies. You can’t set up rewards on the platform, there aren’t deadlines and not a lot of extra tools. GoFundMe does offer the opportunity for supporters to pay the credit card fees and doesn’t charge a platform fee.
It wouldn’t be my first choice because it’s not set up for films and doesn’t have the proper tools.
Seed & Spark
Seed and Spark is my favorite of the four platforms. It’s the platform I chose for my campaign, and I chose it for several reasons. Here are some reasons why I chose Seed and Spark and reasons you might not want to use it.
It’s film-focused. I read they recently were expanding to events, but it’s really a platform built by filmmakers for filmmakers. It has some great tools filmmakers can use to enhance the crowdfunding campaign.
In-kind donations are one of my favorite. With Seed and Spark, people can donate their time to help your project and that goes towards your fundraising goals. For instance, if you need an editor or composer, you can put that on your campaign page, and people can sign up to donate their time to your project.
Seed and Spark also has amazing customer service. Not only did they answer every email within hours, but they also have educational videos that will teach you everything you need to know to run a successful campaign. It was one of the sources I used to learn how to execute my campaign.
Before you start your Seed and Spark campaign, the company approves your campaign. I think it’s how they have the success rate that they have (they say 82%), they won’t approve a campaign that they don’t think will be successful.
They also have regular “rallies” where they’ll award more money to films that get more followers. Seed and Spark will let you follow a film without actually contributing, which helps you build an email list.
With Seed and Spark, you have to raise 80% of your goal to be “greenlit,” if you don’t hit that 80%, credit cards aren’t charged. Seed and Spark also only charges a 2% platform fee and gives your contributors the option of paying for that fee (don’t forget credit card fees, which are generally about 3%) .
The only problem I saw with Seed and Spark is that the platform doesn’t have a lot of walk-on traffic. My crew and I brought all of our funders to the campaign.
Random Parting tip:
Run your campaign at the beginning of the year and have the money you raised budgeted out for the year. the IRS generally counts it as income, so you’ll have to pay income taxes on it if you haven’t spent it. You should probably talk to an accountant.
What are your thoughts on the crowdfunding platforms?
What I’m Watching
The “Act of Killing” is one of the most powerful and innovative documentaries I’ve seen in a long time. Here’s the logline:
“Anwar Congo and his friends have been dancing their way through musical numbers, twisting arms in film noir gangster scenes, and galloping across prairies as yodelling cowboys. Their foray into filmmaking is being celebrated in the media and debated on television, even though Anwar Congo and his friends are mass murderers.”
It’s not an easy watch, but director Joshua Oppenheimer uses filmmaking as way to make his contributors reflect on the genocide they perpetrated. It is incredibly powerful on so many levels.