Today it’s the first week anniversary of MSG crowd funding campaign and I want to take the opportunity to reflect on how the campaign is going.
To put things into perspective perhaps I should start by noting that on the very first day of the campaign I did not just sit down looking at the screen and praying for some miracles to happen.
I went to a Conference organised by Feminist in London with my 10 years old son and my partner, which turned out to be an incredibly inspiring event: on the day, we managed to distribute around 250 cards and explained our venture to many sympathetic activists who expressed vivid interest in our cause.
On the online front, despite a huge amount of tweeting and re-tweetting regarding the initiative and many organisations’ emailing me personally their support, the donors are very slow to materialise and – call me a dreamer- I struggle to understand why!
Not to take anything away from the 43 committed donors actually turning up, I was expecting to see at least double in terms of donations and I am wondering what make people interested and supportive of the cause (at least through their re-tweeting and emailing activity) waiting a day further to actually reach their pocket and press the “contribute now” on the page.
With my surprise, I have been congratulated on the results as the outcome so far seems to be perfectly in line with the nature of crowd funding campaigns, or so I’ve been told by an expert in the field: “Be patient, it takes time to build up public interest and as soon as you’ll have a few sponsors in, then you’ll see things actually start to move much more quickly”.
With a massive number of people actively following the campaign on Indiegogo, I am gathering that there is a lot of “lets’ way and see” going on at the moment!
Of course, in my dreams the campaign would have reached £1000 by the end of the first week: I dreamed that all the fervent activists, concerned parents and passionate educators I personally engaged with would eagerly log into the campaign page and make their contribution.
Judging from the current trend and the limited resources I can invest in it, I need to re-focus and think of more creative ways to convince MSG’s supporters of the urgency and necessity of their donations: something to really awaken their sense of power to act on things! (On this regard, I welcome your advice and suggestions: please don’t ask me to take my bra off in sign of protest to attract potential donors…yes I have been suggested to do that too!)
I need the people and organisations which so brilliantly supported me with their words, emails and re-tweets actually reaching their wallet if I want to regain my confidence in the power of collective action.
Call me a dreamer again, but I remain convinced that nothing will change unless we truly act collectively on this urgent issue.
In any case – success or failure of this campaign – you can be sure that I won’t shut up!
😉
You could sign up with a crowd source volunteering website such as http://www.sparked.com/home and ask volunteers for ways to increase donations from current and new supporters of your cause.
Thanks for the suggestion Matthew, I never heard of them, I will see what they can do. 😉
Crowd sourcing has become big the last couple of years. It surprises me how many people are willing to donate for causes both good and bad. Do you have a link to yours? I didn’t see it above. 🙂
Love this idea! Crowd funding is really opening up new doors for social change. There is so much potential that was never there before. Best of luck to you with these types of projects in the future. I will definitely stay in touch with my wallet handy!
Crowd sourcing appears to present itself like blogging. The most successful campaigns are the ones that have the most supporters behind them. Though it appears obvious that you would need a following in order to obtain funds, the real question is how to you reach the proper audience that are sympathetic to your cause.
I as well went on a crowd sourcing blitz and was met with mixed reviews. First, accessibility. How do you properly market your venture to a larger audience that would open their wallet for your cause? Second, lack of regulation. By this I mean there are so many concepts that are similar that it is difficult to really truly distinguish who would best serve with your donation. Third, quality of pitch. Like many, I was intrigued by companies and ventures that created mini motion picture pitches and highly glossed images. Was it fair when comparing them to a group that did not have the same funding? Probably not!
As Annie Marie said, crowd sourcing has provided many projects the needed funding in order to reach those who really need their assistance. I am interested to see how your projects and crowd sourcing develops and grows.
I would be honored to have you on my blog to discuss some type of guest post. I think all mother’s need to see what you are doing and how you are reaching out. Contact me as you may. I am honored to have gotten to ‘know’ you and what you are standing for.
How did your effort turn out? Were you able to reach your goal? If you weren’t able to reach your goal, have you assessed what areas you could improve upon to reach your goal. I have to say that I am very impressed by the depth of the content on your blog. Have you joined feminist groups on Facebook to draw a connection between academia and main street? You might be able to find some eager young feminists who want to work on your project with you.
I look forward to watching your blog grow more.