Key Crowdfunding Skills

Crowdfunding is a team sport

Mustering a team is easier if your art project is a community project that benefits many. But even if you’re simply funding your own art, you may well have family, friends and colleagues willing and able to be part of your crowdfunding campaign team.

Check out the list of skills below and make a list of people you can ask for help. 

Analytical skills and empathy

Figuring out who is most likely to support your creative project is central to your success. 
If you’ve got a mate who works in marketing, PR or communications ask them to spend an hour with you brainstorming all the potential groups of people who might want to support your crowdfunding campaign, what could motivate each group to give, and what you might say to persuade them to back your project.

Empathy helps you imagine yourself as a potential donor. Why might they support your art project? What’s in it for them? Understanding the emotional hot buttons for each group helps you ask more effectively.

You can validate your work on this by identifying a few people in each potential group of givers and asking if you can test your ask with them. This will give you invaluable insights into the most effective way to ask. 

Confidence to ask

It’s not easy to ask. Asking makes you vulnerable and if you don’t feel like you’re a natural people person, crowdfunding can feel daunting.

The reality is that crowdfunding uses a whole heap of skills you already have in spades:

• Self-knowledge.
• Preparation.
• Listening.
• Observation.
• Communicating well visually and in writing.

Having people skills is all about seeing people and understanding them.

Crowdfunding is an exchange. It’s not about you, it’s about the community around what you do. So, you don’t need to be a show pony to make crowdfunding work.

In her talk on "The Art of Asking", Amanda Palmer has some words of reassurance. 
Remember, you’re not making people give you money. You’re asking them. And when you ask them, you’re connecting with them. That’s when people want to help you.

Couch-surfing. Crowd-surfing and crowdfunding. They’re all basically the same thing. You’re falling into the crowd and you’re trusting each other.

So, don’t see asking as risk, see it as trust. Ask without shame. Give and receive fearlessly. When we really see each other, we want to help each other.

PRO TIP: Like anything else, the key to asking with confidence is practice. Test your ask with people you trust. Invite their frank feedback on how you can ask better. You may find that many of them agree to give there and then, which means that you’ve got yourself a seed donor.

Project management skills (aka being organised)

Lots to do. Limited time to do it. You’re going to need to project manage the snot out of your campaign.

Many of the artists we know are also kick arse project managers. But if getting lots done fast isn’t your forte, fear not. It’s time to phone your most ferociously organised friend and ask for help.

Keep reading for tools to help you plan and manage your campaign. 
 

Writing skills

A crowdfunding campaign is a content hungry beast. You’ll be writing emails, website copy (marketing speak for text), social media posts, speeches, thank you notes and more.

You’ll need to be able to create compelling content, that’s relevant, respectful of people’s time (i.e. you get to the point fast!) and fun to read, because humour = $$.

If you’re not a natural word wrangler, find a friend who has the gift of the gab and invite them to join your team. 

Digital communication skills

Most artists are digital marketing ninjas, running a website, a fistful of social accounts, and sending regular emails to their database. If this is you, this won’t phase you at all. If you’re more analog, find someone down with digital to help you produce digital content. 

Photographic skills

Most decision making isn’t rational.
People make decisions based on their gut feel, and post-rationalise with their head. This process feels seamless because we do it so fast, but the key thing for you to know is that decisions are driven by images, not words, so visual inspiration is vital.

If you can afford to get a decent photographer to take some high-quality images for you, then invest those dollars. If you have a mate with mad photo skills, you know what to do. 
Got no money, got no creative mates? If you can take a decent selfie and Insta is your friend, you can probably wing it.

However, you go about it, make sure you have a strong hero image and lots of images to share throughout your campaign to tell your story. 

An eye for good design

You’ll need visual tools to help you communicate with your potential donors.

Some of the assets that will help include:
 

• A visual identity for your campaign.
• A hero image for your campaign.
• Images and promotional assets for social media and email.
• Visual assets for video (more on this below).
• Posters and flyers.
• A presentation template to use when you do talks.

Video editing skills

Crowdfunding campaigns with videos earn 105% more than those without videos. 
We’d go so far as to say that your video is the (or almost the*) most important part of your crowdfunding campaign arsenal.

You’re going to need a shit hot video. In fact, you might find you need two shit hot videos:
Longer version for Boosted (aim for 60 seconds, but it can be up to three minutes if you have a really compelling script that needs it).
30 second version for social media with subtitles.

If you’re paying a videographer to make you a video for your Boosted campaign, try to find someone with experience in making successful crowdfunding videos. 
If you can’t find someone to do this – seriously learn how to shoot and edit on your phone – it ain’t that bad!

PRO TIP: Be sure to include your ask in the first 10-15 seconds of the video. Kickstarter stats show that 70% of people don’t watch to the end of a crowdfunding video. Include subtitles so that people can follow without turning on the sound. 
BONUS TIP: If you can make your video funny or moving, make it so. Emotion sells.
*Your campaign hero image is just as important. Why? Because visual inspiration drives giving.

Have a gathering (or crash someone else’s)
Events are a great way to add energy to crowdfunding campaigns. 
If you’re trying to raise over $10,000, we recommend a launch event, and at least one other event halfway through. If you host a gathering, set up a donation station with a QR code (ask us, we can help you generate one!) and engage people to pledge there and then.
And if you can get yourself to other events – ask if you can speak about your creative project. Better still, have someone endorse your project for you, then you don’t have to speak too much if you’re not so comfortable with public speaking.