Executing a successful fundraiser

[pendell]

So my friend Gabriel Eiler has started a gofundme (https://www.gofundme.com/eiler-emergency-fund) campaign to help pay the bills resulting from, in this case, job layoffs plus medical emergency.

My other friend Megan has a similar (https://gogetfunding.com/i-am-stronger-than-ms/) campaign to get surgery for her MS.

Neither campaign is likely to be very successful.

But other people manage to raise thousands or tens of thousands from kickstarter.

So my question is: What makes a successful campaign? I'm not asking for money, but for advice. I'm a software engineer, not a salesperson or a marketeer.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[factotum]

If anyone knew the answer to that one they'd be rich, methinks. However, it does seem to me that a campaign which boils down to "Please give me money for medical bills/rent/etc" is not likely to succeed simply because people either don't want to send money to strangers just on their say-so, and/or contribute to charity to help people in that situation out. You need to either offer something in return for the donation, or else have a "hook"--like the guy who started a Kickstarter to learn how to make potato salad, in which case, he was obviously going for the comedy approach.

[Chen]

Kickstarter also provides a product or service in the end. Gofundme is targeted charity. The bigger the sob story the more people will likely contribute, especially if its due to a large scale problem outside your control (think disaster or any other story big enough to make the news). The "I lost my job and can't pay bills" is not something that resonates with people enough to generally get them to give money to a stranger for it. It's a bit ironic but lower amounts asked for probably end up hurting here. If you need some crazy $5 million dollar treatment to live, it's probably going to make the news and get the word of mouth about the funding campaign out there much better than needing say $5000. $5000 is possibly an insurmountable obstacle to people who need it, but in terms of news, its nothing.

[JeenLeen]

I think something like Gofundme, for small amounts, can work via word-of-mouth among a small circle of people.

Someone I knew had a family member break their femur, and insurance wasn't covering much of it (neither home owner's for where it happened, nor the medical insurance of the family), so someone set this up for them. The pros they had were: the father was fairly respected in a couple social circles and had a done a lot of good for several charitable groups and churches
So, basically, those who knew the father were willing to chip in a few bucks, and all-in-all it added up to the 10k or so they needed, or maybe like 80% of it, but still a big help. I think it was mostly friends, or friends of friends, who did the donating.

I've also seen it work well if you can get someone with connections (including just connections like good twitter following) to ask folk to support them and give some credibility that it's not a scam. A while ago, the author of Goblins (http://www.goblinscomic.org/) asked for folk to chip in on someone's Gofundme (or something similar), and it was done really quickly. I forget whether he knew the person or had just heard of her.

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In all of these, though, the difficulty is having the connections to get it going.
Maybe your friends could get a local church or newspaper to run an ad about it? Or where they work (or used to work), or where you work?
I can see them being embarrassed advertising it in the local community, but-well, if they need it, they need it.

[pendell]

Hrm... some interesting feedback. I will think on it, haven't got any other immediate reaction.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[S@tanicoaldo]

Make a really sad and sad story that makes people feel sorry about your situation.

[pendell]

I'm not sure that actually helps; sob stories are a dime a dozen no matter how sad they are.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[adamzeira]

We tend to hear about wildly viral campaigns that come out of nowhere, and think that's how it works

By far the best predictor of success in crowdfunding campaigns is how big of a group of people know about the campaign before it starts and can push it forward. You can find dozens of campaigns that are well put together, if they don't have a large established audience or people who are far reaching behind them, they won't be successful

[pendell]

We tend to hear about wildly viral campaigns that come out of nowhere, and think that's how it works

By far the best predictor of success in crowdfunding campaigns is how big of a group of people know about the campaign before it starts and can push it forward. You can find dozens of campaigns that are well put together, if they don't have a large established audience or people who are far reaching behind them, they won't be successful

Ah-ha! This, by far, is probably the best advice I've seen so far. Difficult to apply, of course, but accurate all the same. :smallamused:

Respectfully,

Brian P.