Seeking information on crowd funding.... (a long read, but I used paragraphs! :D )

tirediron · Apr 27, 2019

As many of you may know, for some years, I've been working on my Veteran's Portrait Project . The goal of which is two-fold; one to provide Veterans with a professional portrait, as a 'Thank-you' for their service, and two, to eventually create a travelling show where select images will be printed in large format (20x30 - 30x40) and displayed for the public to view, the ultimate aim being to show Canadian citizens that Veterans are more than just old gentlemen with medals on their raincoats who come out on November 11th.

I've not got a fairly substantial body of work from which to choose, the Royal Candian Legion has agreed to work with my on the transport and display by providing venues and other assistance, and the lab which I use for all my work, Technicare Imaging, has offered a SUBSTANTIAL discount on work for the project.

That said, I'm still looking at about $10 - 12,000 initial investment to get the first batch of 50 prints done and in my hands, as well as printing up advertising material, etc. I will NOT be approaching The Legion, Wounded Warriors Canada, or other Veteran's charities for assistance as that would be counter-productive; if they did support me, that would take away money from real need. I will be approaching businesses and other organizations for sponsorship, but there are a lot of people asking and only so much money to go around....

A number of people have suggested crowd funding, and it does seem a good option, BUT... I know NOTHING about crowd funding. I know there are a number of different platforms but that's about it. Any information you can provide on best platforms, how to structure the "request", in short: How to squeeze the most money out of people for the project, would be greatly appreciated.

Derrel · Apr 27, 2019

I divided 11,000 by 50 and came up with $220 per print. Of course you mentioned advertising materials and I don't know how many dollars you have allocated for that. These costs seem rather high to me.
I do not know anything about crowd funding, except that it has become more popular in recent years.

tirediron · Apr 27, 2019

Don't forget, there's the "living in Canada" surcharge. The 30x40 2" gallery wrapped canvases will run about $150 each at my doorstep, inclusive of discounts. This includes shipping material, protective coatings and a few other 'extras'. So, prints are $7500, I'm hoping to have about $2500 for my initial advertising budget and if I can actually get the extra $2000 or so, it will purchase a mini shipping container (4x4x8) which will be fitted out to transport the images.

vintagesnaps · Apr 27, 2019

I went 'yowza' at $12,000! Then I started thinking, what's the exchange rate these days? (I was just browsing River City Sports website but nowadays it comes up in dollars so I don't have to look it up.)

So here it would be $8900 but still, that's a lot of money!! How soon are you doing this? I'm opening a can of worms here... but started thinking about our nonprofit and keeping track of the money and being accountable, etc. Which won't be a problem for you, I'm just not sure how it works for an individual compared to a nonprofit (even a small one like our with three board members).

Here you don't have to get nonprofit status to be able to get a tax exempt ID number (our school PTA had one, that's how I knew about it). For our group I think I needed two names and two social security numbers. If there's something comparable in Canada, that could save you paying tax on all those photography costs.

I don't know about crowd funding but apparently anybody can ask people to give them money for just about anything! The only one I've used for buying anything was Kickstarter. I've seen GoFundMe used locally for someone who's been in an accident to help with medical expenses, etc. Seems easy enough that anyone can do it.

Our group started getting followers coming out of the woodwork when our local historic arena was going thru the process of demolition, and I'm still rather astounded at all the people who follow us. But what gets shared on Facebook are photos/videos; a comment doesn't. So I usually post a photo/link etc. otherwise it's not worth even bothering to post. I'm not a fan of posting my photos much on there, but we have some that are old photos, old newspaper ads/stories, old hockey program covers, etc., or I'll share/link to other happenings in our local hockey community.

I've also found it hard to be a small nonprofit if/when you don't have a direct affiliation with a team, organization, etc. So probably it's a matter of figuring out how and where you can share your crowd funding to get it 'out there' for people to see it. I suppose any networking you can do or if you set up an FB page for it then any posts you can share for other related community events would be a help to get word out.

Overread · Apr 27, 2019

There are several big elements to crowd funding that I've observed as someone buying into them rather than someone running one:

1) Most crowdfunding websites will take a cut of what is generated, so you will have to generate more than you need to get going.

2) Most work best when the funding is product focused - ergo the person investing gets something for their investment. Typically this is products often sold (though the crowd funding campaign) at discounted cost. The idea being to tempt them in, sometimes there are limited products that are "crowdfunding only" to help sweeten the deal. Even with the products at discount from retail they are still at or above cost so you gain the money to invest.

3) MARKETING. I will say that again MARKETING is possibly one of the biggest elements. You don't start marketing once the campaign starts, you start months beforehand. You establish what market(s) you're going to aim for and you start marketing early and the closer you get to launch date for the crowdfunding to start the more you increase your marketing. The concept is that by the time the campaign comes you've already got a population of people wanting to throw their money at you to get it started.
Furthermore it means your marketing is then in its stride and you keep the pressure up the whole time until the end of the campaign. This is answering questions, filling in details etc.... Big crowdfunding projects can be a job in their own right to run.

4) Crowdfunding patrons are neither investors nor customers, they are both. This is an important element. They need to be kept in the loop, kept informed, given background details. They don't need all the info, but they do need to be kept in the loop and informed more so than a customer who might only get a delivery date. Treat them right and they'll work for you during the campaign to promote it, treat them wrong and they'll do nothing for you.

5) Pay attention and answer questions truthfully and with good speed. During the campaign you've got to keep things positive and answer things fully; if people get a hint that there's something not right the community can turn against you. Any major hiccup will often kill a campaign. It's like a ball rolling down a hill - you keep the ball rolling and it can snowball; you get it interrupted and it can bounce off to nowhere very fast.

6) There are many kinds of crowdfunding, but the two broad kinds are
a) Those that require a specific amount (funding goal) to function. Any excess over that limit is profit/additional investment for the company (many have stretch goals which are targets beyond the bare minimum to get going - designed to tempt people to invest more).
If they fail to meet their target though the funding website won't take the money and it won't work.

b) Those that can fund on very little to nothing. Ergo the target is good to reach, but if you don't reach it it will still all go ahead.

Type A is more focused at products and such, where they need specific values to start production and where stretch goals are often improvements to the product and/or new products unlocked. Which of course means increased chance to maximise revenue per-person.
Type B are often less product focused because there isn't a huge base cost to overcome in order to get things going.

7) If you go for either option remember the website hosting the funding will take some time to process the money; this as well as their own advice and percentage cut will all be communicated to you in advance as you set things up.

8) Kickstarter is the big daddy in this market; they started it and are about the biggest single company doing it, though they are focused on style A and products, but other things come up too.
Indiegogo is another that has options A and B, its not as big, but it is a solid platform. There might be others but I've not tried them out.

9) Delays will happen - expect them to be part of the process.

10) Consider your market. I noted this earlier, but it deserves another mention. There's no point advertising on the wrong websites or to the wrong community(ies). You've got to research and work out who is going to buy your product/invest in your vision. I know you said you'd not take money from those Vet groups, however you might well find that the people who follow them on Facebook and on their websites are exactly your target market. Ergo you might not take their money directly, but you will want to network with them and have them advertise your campaign - before and during (and more than once). Because those people who are already linked with them are likely going to be those who will best support your project and vision. So you need to tap into them. From there you might even tap into other vet groups and such or websites/facebook groups dedicated to vets in general the world over etc....

11) Note if you set a target be aware that most campaigns want to fund within their first few hours/days after launching. Yes that might mean you've got to raise $10K in a few days! Or if you set a goal of, say, $5K and you can get it running on that then you've got to reach that! If you fund early you've more chance of attracting more backers to join the campaign because it feels like its goingsomewhere. However if you fail to fund and you trickle money in and its all going slow as a sloth you might have to cut your losses and end early and reappraise.
In addition most campaigns do their most movement in the launch days (esp if you've marketed well beforehand) and on the last day as well as upon any day inbetween where you have a big marketing push to a new market or where you release a major product addition of interest. A lot of people sit on campaigns until the last few days, if you've not funded by then they won't join in, but if you have chances are they will - esp if you've been active in communicating etc...

12) This is more a general point and might not apply to you if you're not doing products; but if you offer products DO consider logistics and production. Some companies have fallen apart because they got all the money they needed and many times more; but then got so many orders that small issues ate up their money fast and they were left with huge backlogs of orders they could never fullfill in any sane period of time. Too much can be just as much a danger as too little; the only difference being that too little doesn't get you off the ground - too much does and when that fails you get all those people hating you.
I don't want to scare you with this one, but do be aware of it. If you offer products consider if there are any where if you produce over a certain number the costs will rise significantly; or if any are not good to scale up.

13) Most campaigns let you set pledge amounts that offer specific rewards; you are also able to limit these to a specific number if you wish. So you might set some higher discount items for limited availability; you might also limit every pledge level and then only fund the exact amount you need. Note you should always have a $1 option; that's the option people pick when they want to get involved, but maybe not commit more until the last day. It's like a bookmark, but a little more (since pledging also lets them ask you questions and post in the comments on the website.

To raise $10K is no small thing and crowdfunding is not a magical solution to the issue. You'll have to put some work into it to make it work for you. Also dont' forget, with any project, over-estimate the budget you need because chances are something will go wrong and you'll need some excess to make it work.

smoke665 · Apr 27, 2019

I know little on the online money solicitations, I assume they work, as people keep using them. One of the biggest money raisers here for those seeking funds for things like this are soliciting businesses as sponsors. Sponsors get their name on the advertising and promotional material as sponsors. Sometimes you can get a little competition going by using Gold Level, Silver Level, and Bronze Level sponsorships (based on the amount of money given). Business A doesn't want to look cheap being a Bronze sponsor when his competitor Business B is a Gold, type thing. Especially with a Vet program, I wouldn't think it would be hard to get some $1k sponsorships, with a business of any size.

Footnote: have you looked into the possibility of a grant. Here in the US there's an abundance of private and government agencies that fund worthwhile projects for Vets,

tirediron · Apr 28, 2019

Thanks all! A lot to think about.

Appreciate the detailed synopsis Over... definitely some things in there that I hadn't even considered. At this stage, I don't know what I don't know....

Smoke... there are grants, but I don't want to apply for anything that could otherwise go to support real needs. I'm going to try chasing some sponsorship from local businesses and retailers. too.

smoke665 · Apr 28, 2019

tirediron said:
Smoke... there are grants, but I don't want to apply for anything that could otherwise go to support real needs. I'm going to try chasing some sponsorship from local businesses and retailers. too

Just a quick search turned up numerous private and public grants in this country specifically for honoring the service of veterans, of which I would think your project falls within the guidelines. However, that's US, so not sure what may be available in your part of the world. Typically though grants are not fast money, it takes time to apply for and wait for awards, but it's something to consider for future projects. Sponsorships, are faster, and once you sell a company on sponsoring, it's generally easier in the years to follow. Good Luck.

MidnightUK · Jun 9, 2019

If you have some kind of public or government arts council or department, or artists association maybe try them to find fine Art grants, rather than veteran or military grants. Get an estimated date for you project to run, say a couple of years but start the publicity now, talk/write about your travels and your subjects. Talk about what happens when the project is finished (where it will be lodged for posterity) what your next project is or will be. Perhaps do a joint site with your animal care project so they can cross polinate readers to increase support.

Consider asking for project money to enable you to travel to veterans in distant locations or other nationalities in other countries who fought on the same side as Canada.

Look for free publicity - Its not the moment to by shy, they can only say no and might say yes!
Some possible options are:

Send to art magazines / military interest magazines / high end mags that do art or social pieces / national papers that do magazine supplements - ask if they would be interested in running a feature or series of features you have written about your project and its subjects. If you work it well, they may pay you or your project for the features.

Do the same approach for local radio, national radio, TV stations.

Also try companies / publishers based in other relevant countries involved in the conflicts.

Approach web sites relating to your subject

YouTube channels that cover military or social history. See if they will interview you on their channel. Some of the history channels are very respectible and high quality. They can have thousands of subscribers. Push the value of your project rather than a hunt for money, that can come later when you have them interested.

Try getting onto Art/Photography/Social accumulation sites such as
https://petapixel.com
DIYPhotography
Fstoppers - Photography News and Community for Creative Professionals

Start getting notes together so you can do a book or catalogue people can buy when they view your event, like an exhibition catalogue that has an image per page of a vet and a bit about him or her (do you cover non combat staff in the wars? My mother was in the British womens army on an anti aircraft guns, moved to military police and was involved in war trials in Belgium so no front face to face combat but a lot of vital activity) and a bit about your own motivation and enthusiasm.

Start a travel blog about who you are photographing and where. Pad it out with stories of the vets and also of your own efforts to find accommodation, get transport etc. People like a touch of personal. Get them rooting for your success.

Consider videoing a shoot or 2 and stick it up on your blog or on Youtube. You can also post or link to such things on Instagram,Twitter, facebook. Ask people to pass it on to friends. If you can double the number of viewers each week you will soon have a big audience.

With all of it, include links to
- project donation page
- your site that is dedicated to advertising your project and / or to your related blog
- your photo business page (hey, they might want to employ you)
- how to buy your book
- an expression of your willingness to give interviews or articles and how to contact you about this.