Kickstarter Experience/Advice

Hello prospective Kickstarters! 

Below I will share some of the things I've learned along the way during the course of my first Kickstarter project. If you have any additional questions, please feel free to ask, but I will not be able to respond until July. Please be patient or feel free to peruse Kickstarter's FAQs or ask their friendly, prompt personnel. Most of the information I gleaned was from their website alone. 

Start! First off, go to kickstarter.com and start your project! Submit a project proposal, wait for acceptance, and then begin focusing on the details. Read their project information and guidelines at http://www.kickstarter.com/start before you submit and be clear that your project matches their criteria. This is the initial step to explore your project. Go do it now!

Goal: You will determine the timeline and the fundraising goal. Make it reasonable! This is all or nothing, so you need to be clear on what you'll need and in what period of time. We were able to raise, on average, $1000/week through Kickstarter, largely because of the ability to fundraise from several locations over a broad period of time. My goal was $4000 in one month and we surpassed that. There were surges when we reached the end, but don't count on it. You will not be able to donate to your project at all. If you do, Kickstarter will cancel it. 

Aesthetic: Your page is the main conduit for the project you're aiming towards - make it shine! Use engaging pictures and clear, concise (well-edited!) text, create tantalizing incentives that you know you can deliver on, make a short (under 2 minute) video to illustrate your concept. I used iMovie for the first time to create my movie and was very happy with the results. Ask a friend to help if you are unfamiliar. Have some people look over your page before you submit it in order to get some feedback - is it easily readable? Does your goal translate? Pause & reflect. Be proud of what you're presenting & polish it up! Submit with confidence!

Rewards: Choose rewards that are reasonable for the donation levels. Be forewarned that as soon as you launch your rewards categories and people donate, you will not be able to edit any of the verbiage or prizes. Plan accordingly and triple-edit before launching your categories! Be considerate of delivering the rewards - will donors have to be present? Is it an object, an idea, or an experience? Recognition? Make juicy incentives that are hard to pass up - draw them in!

PR: Broadcast your project to as many people as possible! Email your entire address book, post to announce-lists, chat-lists, Facebook pages, ask the Jack Rabbit Speaks to post an announcement (bman-announce@burningman.com), talk to your friends and family - spread the word! People won't know your project exists if you don't tell them! Represent everywhere!

Surveys: At the culmination of your project, you will be able to ask your donors for information including, but not limited to, their address, which types of rewards they would prefer, etc. All of this information is stored on Kickstarter, so you will be able to monitor their replies from your dashboard. I tried making separate spreadsheets and just got more confused in the process. I had a bit of difficulty gathering information, but this was my inceptive effort in using their format. Be wary of submitting the surveys and do *not* press return/enter unless you ready to submit - you will *not* be able to edit the surveys! Be clear on your questions. I also asked where people had heard of my project to get a better idea - Facebook, announce-lists, and personal conversations were the top 3. 

$: Take into account that Kickstarter will peel 5% off your funds raised and then Amazon will shave off another 3.5-5%, so expect at most 10% off from the start. Furthermore, consider the cost of rewards (printing/handling/shipping/envelopes/etc.) into your initial budget. Always err on the side of caution and round up for your initial prospects, but don't be too greedy - I've seen a few projects fail because they were overzealous with how much they could raise in time. 

Time: There will be some lag time between when the funds are raised and when they are allocated to your account. Account for at least two weeks before you will be able to access funds, potentially three weeks considering the time it takes to deposit into your account. Create a reasonable timeline and guesstimate how much you'll be able to raise in what time. Once again, err on the side of caution and give yourself an extra week because the only constant is change - count on it!

Buffer: Often projects demand about 10% more than you expect. It might help to create a "buffer" category that allows for incongruences in budgeting. While I had initially expected to pay out $1500 to each artists, there were other fees that were necessary to cover. The visiting artist budgets were relatively concrete, while I had some malleability with the Austin artist outreach. Ultimately, I created the Austin artist fund as a buffer to those potential impacts - whatever was left over becomes the seed for our next adventure. This project's rewards were furnished by the artists that benefited from the project; however, if you are the main creator of the project, you need to consider those allowances as well. 

Here is the break-down of the Collaboration & Cross-pollination budget: 

Art of Such n’ Such

Transportation  $1500

Fuel: Firewood $    80

                       $1580

Flaming Lotus Girls

Transportation   $  960

Fuel: Methanol  $  300

         Nitrogen   $  165

         Propane   $  150

                         $1575

Rewards 

T-shirt screen   $    80

Photo printing   $    20

Packaging        $    25  (got envelopes dicsounted before going to PO)

Shipping           $  125  (hand-delivered as many rewards as possible)   

                      $    250

Fundraising fees

Kickstarter (5%)  $  235

Amazon (3.5%)   $  169

                          $  404

Outreach Artist Funds

Kickstarter total  $4305

Total expenses - $3809

                         $  496

While I had originally hoped to retain about $1000 for our artist outreach, half of this amount is still a good seed to be able to germinate. We might host another fundraising effort to increase our support of local artists sharing their work in different regions. 

All-in-all, my experience with Kickstarter was a really healthy, positive start to what's possible through these fundraising vehicles. I wish you the absolute best in your quest for support from the community to help realize your visions! Don't be afraid to ask for help! Thanks for reading! 

A*