How She Raised $20,000 on Kickstarter | Nonprofit Fundraising - Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding is a well-known strategy for  raising money for non-profit projects, social impact project,s and all sorts of projects!  And Kickstarter is arguably one of the most well-known crowdfunding platforms there are  out there. But some like entrepreneur.com say that less than 40 percent of crowdfunding  projects get funded on these sites. So if you are planning to use a crowdfunding site like  Kickstarter for your nonprofit fundraising or just raising money for any kind of project, how ca

n  you make it a success? That is what we're going to talk about in this video and we're going to do  it with the help of a friend of mine. But before we get to that, I just want to welcome or welcome  you back to my channel - thanks so much for stopping by! My name is Amber Melanie Smith, and  I am a non-profit founder and executive director of the nonprofit that I started, and I love making  these videos here on YouTube to help folks who are starting a social impact venture or a non-profit  or

ganization figure out how to get started, and fundraising is definitely a part of that. I hope  that you find this video helpful - don't forget to give it a like and subscribe to my channel for  more content like this. And as I've mentioned in some past videos if you're looking for a  little bit more help and guidance on starting a non-profit for example you can check out my  website, FounderToFullTime.com where I've got some great online trainings all about that. Without  further ado I'd like t

o introduce you to someone. Hello, Danae! Hi Amber, how are you doing today?  I'm so excited, how are you? I'm great, and I'm really excited to share your story with the  folks at YouTube. Yes, I'm excited too. Hopefully this is helpful for people. I think it will be  so. I'm very excited to introduce you to my friend Danae. Danae has a company, AspiringCo,  that recently completed a successful Kickstarter project, and it just blew my mind  watching, um, watching the money come in, and her succe

ss. So um I'm just really  excited to have her share her story and um tell you a little bit about how how this happened  and how how she made it work. So yes who are you lots of insights share more about yourself and  what was your project sure so my project is a coffee table book and it's filled with interviews  with women and non-binary folks just like sharing their experiences um and really just showcasing  different possibility bottles so that we don't get to see often yeah um and aspiring c

o is all  about just like inspiring people so that is kind of like my why and it's you know pretty important  to me i guess so yeah um the kickstarter project was to fund the book and um i was really excited  about it but printing a book is so expensive and there's so many things that people just don't  realize you have to pay for so it's just like i had to set my goal at something that i felt  like i could achieve and also something that um felt realistic given the fact that it was  not just me

it's like a project with like 75 other people so wow in my like keeping that in  mind when setting my goal that like you know this is going to be my network and then also all  of their networks hopefully so that was something i had to really be mindful of with goal setting so  danae the folks who are watching my channel i call them change makers oh i know and but it's true i  am always getting comments and hearing from people who are just out there trying to change the world  in some way and ma

ke a difference and i know that that is you too so can you share just a little bit  more about how you expect your successfully funded book to make an impact for people um i hope  that it inspires people to see like different options for like what they can do to be happy  in their lives and just like finding fulfillment and a lot of the books that i'm interviewing  are people that have like impact and purpose driven work so um i think just showcasing that  and then like hopefully inspiring other

people to find something that speaks to them in the  same way okay so when nonprofits or even you know social enterprise organizations or businesses  or startups or even solopreneurs are raising money for a project they have a lot of options a lot  of crowdfunding sites out there so talk to me a little bit about why you landed on kickstarter  um i think kicks are just um it just seems more like official to me than some of the other options  um not to i mean there are tons of other options that

people can go with um but i feel like  kickstarter um is just like more popular and like music crowdfunding you know people automatically  think of kickstarter at least for me so i was like that's the route i'm gonna take but  also um my publisher has had a relationship with the people at kickstarter in the publishing  department so i was like okay well we're gonna use that so i went with them for that reason mostly  yeah okay so a little bit about the logistics of using a crowdfunding site to r

aise money for  your project in this case specifically kickstarter how does it work how do you even get set up what  are the rules you have to follow oh so many rules okay so first off you have to um you have to apply  so you have to fill out all of the content like you basically build your project page and you  have to submit it um and i think they recommend you submit it between like maybe three to five  days before you plan to actually launch okay um but it doesn't launch until you get approv

ed  and then you physically go in and click launch so then it goes live they have to approve you yeah  they have to approve okay kickstarter things um so once you're approved um you go ahead and you click  launch and from that time well let's go back i guess so you set like during that stage you set  like whatever your goal is going to be and i think it will also like recommend like a goal so mine  i typed in like 20 000 and then i come back and it had changed it to like 16. i was like that's  n

ot what i said backpack yes that's not what i said um so i had to go back and fix that so um it  does try to like kind of help you along the way so when they accept your project you um you go  in and you can set the time frame that you want to raise it in so and once you set it you can't  and like once you set it and once you hit launch you can't change it so that's there's no editing  yeah after so there's certain things that you can like you can submit without having it like fully  like fleshe

d out like i think when it comes to like some of the description stuff you can still  edit that um and you can make like updates but you can't change i don't think you can change your  goal and you can't change the time frame that you want to raise it in so i pick 30 days because  it has a note on the site the best like the most successful amount of time um but also 30 days of  crowdfunding is a lot and people tell you that and you're like no it'll be fine it's it will  be fine but it's a lot mo

re than what you would anticipate what's the max amount you can choose  i think 60 days was the max okay there's no way i would do that because it's just it's so  taxing um and believe me like emotionally yes oh my gosh i can see that um yeah  we'll have you say more about that i can definitely so many times i  was like i can't do this i'm done um but yes right okay so that means that if  you've got like 30 days to make this happen we're talking in your case twenty thousand dollars  which to a l

ot of people is quite a lot of money uh okay so let's talk about like how you  prepared for that before you even launch like what did you put in place to have a high  level of confidence that this was gonna work out um okay so if we're being fully honest um  i feel like over the past year i've been doing a lot of just like mindset work just to  make sure that i can remove like any limiting limited beliefs that i have okay um so i  feel like that was really important because as i mentioned it was

very taxing literally  halfway through i was like i'm done i i'm tapping out i cannot do this um so yeah i think just  being really um just really telling yourself that there's the money is out there it's just a matter  of tapping into the right um source for it um so i think that was the kind of thing that just kept  me going i was like okay the money it exists out there in the world there's somebody who has this  and could be very easily like fundamental project um we talked about that did no

t happen but yes  in my mind i just had to keep reminding myself that hey that's a possibility yeah  with uh with non-profit fundraising it's a similar concept like you know if you know  your audience and i've talked about this in past videos it's just about knowing your audience  who's going to be the type of person attracted to your mission and your cause that reminds me  of what you were saying about knowing the money's out there it's just a matter of tapping into the  right networks and peop

le etc definitely and so i think knowing that my project was not just me it  was like you know 75 people were also a part of it i made graphics for everyone that we could share  and stuff like that so that was really helpful for me and just like knowing having a plan of like  okay i have well i guess before we get into the the actual plan for like once we launch i would  say before you're just spending time just like i spend so much time just like making sure  everything was like spell checked a

nd like laid out nicely in my project um details and then  after i finished that i was just like okay well i'm exhausted i don't i'm like over this thing so  now it's time for me to hit launch and i already i'm like okay i would like to put this away  and you can't do that like that's when the time really starts clicking so i think um really  the whole like just getting yourself prepared getting everything done and then having  like your project ready to launch and then having a plan for like wh

at you're going to  do as soon as you hit launch so for me i had like a video that i was going to share on instagram  and i was like i don't want to add for that so i was like okay that's that's a strategy but that  was not enough for a whole for like the first week but that was like the one thing that i knew  that i could do pretty easily and then it was a matter of just like reaching out and emailing  people um directly actually like sending personal emails to people because if you do them if

you  do like blind copy everyone it's not as effective um yeah so you can't just like blind copy everyone  you have to actually individually email people unless you have some kind of relationship with  like a small group where you can just kind of email them um so yeah that was really important  just like taking the time to do that and then sending out stuff to my mailing list and  then posting on um on all my social media channels so like posting on instagram posting in  stories twitter on twit

ter and then posting on facebook also um and i think the cool thing about  kickstarter is you get the data data after so you can see like where your funding was coming from  oh nice so you can see like how much came from like what platforms some of it comes directly from  kickstarter when you um you can land on like their discovery page from my experience and then talking  to other people that have done projects it's like in the beginning you get like people that are  really excited to pledge yo

u're like oh yeah finally cool this is awesome so you get like a  little bit then and then that goes away after like maybe day three right and then it gets very dry  and you're like okay i have like a cricket turtle you might get um like five dollars here or  there from like random for me it was like random print companies they were like hey we see  that you're you know we would like to support your book because they really want me to come and  print with them so like give me five dollars yeah t

hat that was a thing yes so you get  and you also get a ton of messages from a bunch of bots or just like printers or people  overseas and stuff um and then i also got a couple messages from people that were like hey it's  like the last day i i know you're not quite at your goal but keep your head up it's gonna happen  i'm like cool it was a lot oh man yes um so yeah back to the whole strategy things i think that  was like you just have to be mindful that like it's going to get pretty pretty lik

e slow yes and  i think also just like reminding people that hey you're making a pledge and the money doesn't like  you're not actually making like a charge until the project is funded at the end right and that's a  unique feature of kickstarter all or nothing thing um which is terrifying in itself but it is um what  you were saying about sort of like the excitement in the beginning and then the dry spell and then i  know you're going to talk about a push at the end but that is very similar to w

hat i see in  other types of non-profit fundraising like events like ticket sales if you've ever done a  fundraising event you get like that one group of people who's excited to buy the ticket first  thing and then silence and then like a week before the event after you've been very stressed out like  everyone buys their ticket and i think that's just kind of the psychology of how those things work  definitely probably why you were saying 30 days feels like a lot because it's 30 days of dealing 

with that roller coaster exactly so i feel like there's no way that i could do that for for two  months because i mean it's just it's so exhausting and i think literally right literally on like the  15th which was halfway through i had messaged a friend and i was like hey i can't do this anymore  i'm tired she was like she was like hey today's gonna be okay just because it's hard doesn't  mean you're doing it wrong i was like okay i can keep going um and i think also she then like  shared it an

d so that got me a couple more pledges and then i was like okay we're gonna keep  going um there were lots of times where i was i just wanted to give up because it just felt  really hard and i think it was nice for me having like the people that are featured in the  book knowing that like some of them in my mind i was like some of them are going to share it some  of them are just not and that's fine you know um of course i would prefer that everyone shared it  but realistically it's just like no

t gonna happen um but making it easy for people to  share content too so like i wrote up like a guide so it would have like sample social  media posts they would just copy and paste yeah um i had graphics they just copy and paste  um it had like places where they could just like i wrote actually an email that they could just  like copy and send out to their mailing list also um and i think just being really strategic about  that and using like language that would like capture people or make them

excited so like i  remember at one point i was like hey we're at 24 of the goal like can you pledge this amount and  then you'll be like our you'll help us get to 25 percent or you can be like number or backer number  like 101 or something like that oh i love that so just concrete yeah i found different ways that i  could like make people get excited about it and like hopefully make them want to share it and like  pledge um so i also anytime i would get anxious before launching the project i wo

uld just list  out all the different ways that i could market it so that helped me control my anxiety a little  bit so i had like a whole spreadsheet of like okay don't forget about this facebook group you're  and like this membership that you have don't forget about like all these different places that  you can post about it when it's feeling like maybe a little like during those dry spells and i mean  it's it's still it's going to be a dry spell but it helped me at least have a plan of like wh

at  i could do instead of getting like overwhelmed and defeated okay so you did all this planning  you've got your relationships you've prepared text and copy and all that stuff and then you  hit the launch button what happens next what do you do during that in your case 30 day period  to help make sure your campaign is a success there are so many different things that you  can do um i think first off um one thing to be mindful of is literally going to be 30 days  from the time of you so i hit l

unch at 903 a.m um on september 1st which meant on october 1st  at 9 or 3 a.m that it was over so i just knew that like that was something to be mindful of so like  if you did it at midnight then you wouldn't have like the extra couple hours or something right  okay so be strategic about even the minute you hit exactly 903 can i have a number that i will  never forget that's a great number exactly um so yeah so you hit launch and then it's a matter of  just like figuring out okay now what do i d

o like you could just sit there but you're also wasting  time so that's when i started my social media ads because i just felt like just like having  that was something i didn't have to think about i had like a friend design like a little like a  little promo video and then i just shared that and i promoted it so that way it was just like working  for me and i didn't have to do anything else um so i did that and then i think i also just  reached out to some people i think that the first day or s

o like you want your first backers  to be people that know you because this project is gonna it has the potential to be seen by people  who don't know you and they need to have some kind of like social proof of concept social proof yes  so you have to like you reach out to your friends and family and you're like hey guys um launching  this thing it would really mean a lot to me if you could support it and it's really frustrating  because a lot of people were like oh i'll just go your cash app an

d you're like that doesn't  help me at all i need you to go to the link you have to kind of like walk people through it  so i think just really like explaining like hey um this is what's happening i need if you can  support me i really appreciate if you cannot support me please share it you know because  i'm sure you know someone who probably can um and just like being very specific about how  people can pledge and really just telling them okay you're gonna go there you'll put it  in your amount

you have to make an account and sometimes that's a barrier for people they're  like okay i'm done just you do that in individual outreach for like the first couple  days um some people will just like not respond and that's fine you can also individually like dm  people i was i felt so annoying but i just kept doing it because i had no choice it felt like  i had to do it so you do all of that and then um towards the i was saying maybe like within  the last like week things start to pick up a lit

tle bit but even still people are still not  really no one feels like a sense of urgency so i would say the last like maybe 24 hours is  when i got the most pledges which and you're like why why do we have to wait until the last minute  i want to go back to one thing you said earlier that i think is a really interesting and helpful  insight about having your uncle ask um it doesn't have to be your uncle of course but you know  i found that in fundraising if it's just me asking all the time they'

re like you know  how you were saying like okay amber we get it but if you have someone else be a champion  for your cause and ask somehow that makes it more powerful and you reach more people definitely  and i mean my uncle had asked people that i had already asked to pledge right they didn't do and  i asked them but when he asked they they're like okay yeah let's do this um because it just takes  like several at like multiple people are asking that triggers something in our brain  like oh this

must be really important yeah it's something i have to keep reminding  myself also that people have to see things a million times before they like really understand  it i still wanted people to know that it was like a real project that did have other people  involved um i did like these instagram stories well these ig's lives they were called with  dream chasers and so it would be like people that are in the book and i would try to do it  with like three other people still it would be like the

four of us on instagram live because  instagram is going to ping all of their audiences be like oh this is going live so and so so i use  that as like a marketing strategy um and also as a way to create content that was relevant to the  book and the project so then i have those videos that i can like cut up and like use for other  things if i need to um so i feel like that was really helpful just like finding other ways that  you can like market your content without or market your project withou

t like just like asking people  for money or just like being like oh hey i'm doing these things like telling them more about it and  getting them curious about it on their own yeah and storytelling is such an important marketing  strategy definitely so final words of wisdom if there's one most important thing that you would  tell someone who's thinking of doing crowdfunding for their non-profit fundraising campaign or other  type of fundraising campaign what would that be um i would say keep goi

ng so like it it's gonna  get hard and you're gonna feel like you just like is gonna feel useless and just like why am  i doing this but you have to keep going because people are watching and and not just like in  a vain way people are watching but like for me i wanted to show that like it's possible that  like you could just like if you just try really hard and like network and try to like um connect  with the right people you could do it you know so it was really important to me to just like 

showcase that um on behalf of everyone that was in the book and i wanted it to just be something  that they could feel like inspired by like oh well if janae could do it then i could do it too  because i don't there was nothing special about like what i did you know i feel like anyone could  have done it well thank you so much for your time and your insights and your wisdom today danae and  i'm going to leave a link to her website in the description below if you want to check out her  amazing pr

oject and maybe order a book for your book it's up to you but check it out definitely  and and go support because showcasing people who are inspiring and making an impact is definitely  near and dear to my heart too i love it yes i'd love to hear from you now have you ever done a  crowdfunding campaign what were some of the tips and strategies you learned if so or what would you  recommend people not do if you learned that too or if you were thinking about starting a crowdfunding  campaign on ki

ckstarter or another platform what other questions do you have maybe maybe denae  will surprise us and show up in the comments or something so uh feel free to ask those questions  in the comments below and i hope that you found this video helpful and useful don't forget to  give it a like and subscribe to my channel for more content all about starting a non-profit  fundraising social impact projects and other stuff like that finally if you are on facebook  don't forget to check out my group chan

ge the world or bust where we have like 2 000 plus  people from around the world now who all are out there making a difference in different ways and  are building community together and encouraging each other along the way once again i'm amber  melanie smith and i hope to see you next time you