Comments on: Kickstarter as a successful fundraising tool

By: phil fried

phil fried — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 17:01:21 +0000

“It’s being quickly proven that, in the 21st century, great art is sustainable art. This is our green movement…”

Chris this implies musical predestination. If it succeeds with kickstarter its good?

Kickstarter does not keep records or give statistics of those projects who fail, even if you want to learn from those mistakes.

By: Christopher Rountree

Christopher Rountree — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 14:10:58 +0000

Maura,

Great article. Really enjoyed it.
This is the kind of discussion we all need to be engaged in right now.
It’s being quickly proven that, in the 21st century, great art is sustainable art.
This is our green movement.

Chris

By: Armando Bayolo

Armando Bayolo — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 02:48:29 +0000

Great Noise Ensemble just funded our first CD (which we’ll be recording in March) through a Kickstarter campaign. All grass roots. All more or less using the techniques Maura lists, but without the aid of a publicist. We did have just about everyone in the group hustling and by the last three weeks of the campaign updates were going out to mailing lists, Facebook and Twitter on a daily basis (sometimes more than once a day). The tip about making those updates unique is right on, too. We had a series of profiles for each of the composers to be featured on the disc as an updated during the last week or two of the campaign. In the end, we raised over $12,000.

Of course, we can’t do that again for at least two or three years or our supporters will kill us, but that’s a part to keep in mind as well: too many Kickstarter campaigns on top of each other can alienate your support base.

By: Meerenai Shim

Meerenai Shim — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 08:58:06 +0000

Phil, sorry about calling you Fred! I guess I shouldn’t be writing things after midnight!

By: Meerenai Shim

Meerenai Shim — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 08:04:29 +0000

I think Maura gave some excellent tips on using Kickstarter. I just wanted to add that my project wasn’t completely dependent on social media, Twitter, or Maura’s PR skills. Of the 130 supporters of my project, I had prior (face-to-face) professional or personal relationships with 78. I sent out personal, individual emails to over 200 people I already knew. (I didn’t use fancy mailing list programs so I have a feeling that many of them were tagged as spam.)

@Fred, the New York Times piece and all other press about my project was published after my kickstarter project was already successfully funded. Believe me, I invested many hours of DIY time on this fundraiser.

One major contribution that Maura made for my project was to write an excellent press release. She also really helped me articulate what I was trying to accomplish with the project and get the message out to people in a clear manner. Before I worked with Maura, I did not know that a good press release could make such a bug difference. Actually, I had never written a press release before and never thought that an individual would need a press release.

All of this was a really great learning experience.

By: Phil Fried

Phil Fried — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 21:59:04 +0000

Chris I trust you period. I don’t begrudge the success of others. At least I try not too. The more the merrier. Nor do I think that promotion or self promotion is immoral. The problem I have is the constant framing of advice and “opportunities” for artists without transparency. I was happy to see it here, crankiness aside.

By: Chris Becker

Chris Becker — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 20:46:55 +0000

Phil, I know of one ensemble here in Houston – Two Star Symphony – who used IndieGoGo to successfully fund a full CD recording project. They do not have a staff of hired hands – they all jumped in all hands on deck to hustle the project and make it a success.

Also, smaller arts organizations like the one I work for http://www.musiqahouston.org usually just have ONE person on staff to handle PR, marketing and communications and maybe one other person to handle fundraising. And again, I know more and more smaller groups are in fact looking to crowd sourcing for the very reasons you bring up – small or no staff.

I’m not trying to sell kickstarter or indiegogo to anyone, but I have seen both platforms work for a variety of ensembles, organizations and individuals. With or without the help of a hired publicist.

By: Phil Fried

Phil Fried — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 19:22:27 +0000

Pointedly the NY times and others have made a big deal that kick starter is all about “do it yourself.” Evidently something has been left out of this picture as there was no mention of any hired hands to help. No disrespect but doesn’t hiring a “savvy social media publicist” defeat the purpose of kick starter? Or what it claims to be? At least it skews the outlook. If I were cynical I might even consider that the funding in some cases wasn’t even needed.

I want to thank SQ21 for letting us in on the inside information before I try again.

By: Chris Becker

Chris Becker — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 19:14:39 +0000

Excellent article! The only thing I can add is that there are a variety of crowd sourcing applications out there – so shop around. And IndieGoGo and Fractured Atlas are partnered so that those looking for fiscal sponsorship can create a campaign using both sites’ resources. There’s more details on the Fractured Atlas site.

Oh, and fiscal sponsorship isn’t always necessary for any arts organization or music ensemble looking to fund a project. Weigh all of the pros and cons before you jump in. I think Maura makes all of this pretty clear.