Founding partner of PledgeMe (aka Chief Bubble Blower). Loves how crowdfunding can change the world, and thinks that creative projects will make us all better people :) right?
Lives in Wellington, drinks too much coffee, and is currently completing a masters thesis on crowdfunding.
Give me an email - anna at pledgeme.co.nz, or a call (027 2543 185). I'd love to talk to you about PledgeMe!
Lucy and Luke are wildly creative, and are about to put their next show, Wild Beasts, on at Auckland Fringe. In a Tent. Outside the Basement. Interested? We were, and so were 31 pledgers who helped them hit 10% over their goal… Here’s what they had to say about their dabbling in crowdfunding:
What did you like about pledgeme?
How easy it was (as first timers) to go from the initial enquiry to a successful completion: the personalised and prompt customer service really helped us plan and launch an exciting campaign and also helped keep the momentum going. Any questions or concerns were promptly and politely attended to.
How did you find the experience?
Delightful and enlightening – a positive experience from which we have learnt a lot about the nature of crowdfunding and marketing.
Any tips for newbies?
Listen to the Pledgeme staffs’ tips! Exploiting any existing networks (friends/family/professional/online) is a great idea and using the video/update tools to keep in touch with them is a really effective tool.
Wig Wam Jam is part of Fringe Festival 2013. A public street theatre project in an open air gazebo filled with costumes and props. Passersby are invited in to don costumes and be filmed doing any small smidgeon of performance or an interview about theatre. We have a busy website which all clips will be uploaded onto. Different days are themed differently – one day is chinese New Year, one time we will go to Parliament, one day we work with visual artists from Pablos or Vincents.
Jo and Thomas are the folk behind Wig Wam Jam and Barbarian Productions, they create/tour theatre works and event, run childrens classes, teach and write. They’ve also created a project on PledgeMe to fund the Wig Wam, so we caught up with them to hear more about their project:
How did you hear about crowdfunding?
I think Taika Waititi was the first person I knew of who used crowdfunding. He’s got a big profile. I guess I can consider myself lucky to be his Facebook friend. Then soon after I saw Taika doing it, Duncan Sarkies hit me up about his ‘Bertie Bott’ project. But we were a bit poor at the time. I only pledged myself for the first time recently, for PSA to pay their cast.
What has been your favourite crowdfunding experience?
What I like best is seeing the names of really cool, talented people that we admire greatly popping up as pledgers to our project. It’s a really affirming feeling, it kind of formalises the support that’s out there for our company across the country.
How will the funding help your project?
Currently we have a good idea, a white kite and a few well-loved elvis wigs. With a bit more funding we can transform this into a strikingly decorated gazebo complete with red curtain and a gorgeous array of props and costumes available for all-comers to play around in.
And up, and up, and up. Stand Up for Charlie hit over 70% above their goal, showing that they really had a winning set of rewards and a keen crowd to back them. Their black comedy about people who make us laugh for a living – and how far they’ll go – is part of the 2013 Fringe Festival, so book your tickets! Here’s how Will and the team found this new fangled thing called crowdfunding:
What did you like about pledgeme?
The ease of use, and the constant updates from the Pledgeme staff was really helpful. Felt like we had some support behind us.
How did you find the experience?
Extremely humbling. As we got closer to our goal (and then beyond it) we realised just how generous people could really be. Also terrifying when we realised ‘shit, now we actually have to make this a good show for them.’
Any tips for newbies?
Spread the word as much as possible. It’s amazing how much something like Facebook can play a part. Even in the waning few hours, keep sharing, keep updating. Also make people feel like they’re a part of it by giving them cool prizes.
Anything you’d change about PledgeMe?
More free bacon.
Wow. 2012 was a massive year. Bigger than words really, so I’m going to start with a photo:
That’s some of the 175 projects YOU MADE HAPPEN last year. If I started trying to list them all – well, I’d probably lose you. So I won’t, yet.
I just quickly wanted to share some of the things that we’ve learned this year – because really, we’re almost as new to this as you are. We learned a lot in 2012 – a hell of a lot. And if I could share 5 thoughts with you, they’d be:
1) People rock
Over 11,000 people pledged to projects in 2012. And 15% of those were overseas. So the WHOLE world is supporting kiwi creativity. Specifically on the PledgeMe journey our wranglers (Rachel and Jacqui), brand ambos (Amy, Prue, Karl, Kelly, Willy, Sam and Megan) and inspiring advisors make coming into work every day awesome (even more awesome than free coffee).
[Camilo, Jacqui, me and Yasmine at our Advisory Board meeting]
2) Rewards are rewarding
People like getting real, authentic things that show they’ve supported you. Things they couldn’t get anywhere else. Home-made cake? One of the quickest rewards we’ve seen pledged up. Your very own religion? Yup – that happened. Just down to the normal copy of your album, or DVD of your film. Here’s a few of our favourite rewards from ol’ 2012:
Clockwise from top left: Ashei covering their pledgers
favourite song; Mangle and Gruff's EP; Minuit's vinyl
reward; Anna with her Dregs DVDs (photo credit: Matt Evans);
Monster Calendar cards; Uncle Berties Postcards
3) Learn to take a deep breath every now and then
Turns out I can talk faster than most humans (true story). I even had someone write that about my TED talk. So – every now and then take a deep old breath and keep on telling those stories. And, give it to me straight – is it too fast?
4) The random ideas are sometimes often the best
Whether it’s raising funds to put on a synchronised swimming ballet, or to print a book to teach yoga in prisons – we’ve seen some quirky stuff come through. But, it’s what inspires us – every day, and that’s what inspires hundreds of you to give every week.
5) It’s not just about the money
Truly! Some of the best things to come out of the projects are the validation given to an idea, the offer of support from your friends and some of the random outcomes of the journey. One band offered to cover the favourite songs of their pledgers – and now some of those songs make up their normal acoustic set (a pop girl singing Rise Against = pure magic).
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So, what’s next in the PledgeMe world? Well – we’re about to hit $1million pledged, and *fingers / toes / everything crossed* we hope to hit double that again by the end of 2013. Pretty cool, huh?
Now – what did you learn in 2012?
Oh, and just in case you wanted the full list… Here’s all the projects we saw funded in 2012:
Project successes 2012:
Copper, BROKE BUT SEXY, Dregs – NZ Street Art Documentary, comRoid – community polaroid, we are immortal, Send King Homeboy to Berlin, Germany!, Tiny Toones NZ Debut, LARAMIE PROJECT:10YRS , The Knight and the Fool – A Short Film, Will Frost’s CD – Shelter, Broken Glass – Short Film, Fill Up The Silence, The Talent Munich 2012, Mangle and Gruff EP, Fracking Whatatutu, Keyboard Athletes, Stand UP! , A new take on the undead, The Trans-Pacific Partnership Promo CD, The F.E.U.C. – Short Film, Music video for I Love The Way You Shine, Beautiful Surrender Video, MAJ’ic Music n JAM’aica, Try This, Shine Lady Tours Europe, Winter Jam – Active Citizen Scholarships, Ralphi, A Man Runs into a Woman, Loomio, Uncle Bertie’s Botanarium, Motions and Memories, Stand Tall Music Video, PHANTOM EMPIRE – Help us finish our album! Cross Them Out EP, Zygote: A Kinetic Artwork, Fuyuko’s Fables, Penny Black Movie, The Big Sing-UK/Italy, MOKO – Soul in the Sea, My Special Friend, WJO USA Tour!, MUNTED, Airmail, Gone Curling…, Astro Empire EP funding, My Boyfriend got a Beatle Haircut, Burlesque Art Exhibition, Oracle Drive, Need to know Music Video, TNT TRIO MUSIC PROJECT, Speed Date an Author, Seasoner Table-Top Planter, anthesiac (reset the sun), Square Eye Pair, Day After Night – A New Musical, Fort Blaze, spoilers of utopia, Dance Challenge, The Road That Wasn’t There, The Free Store Container, Munfred Bernstein, Ghost TV, MasterChef’s Chris Turner, Oral History of Occupy Chch, Wide Awake and Highly Strung, Kiwi Moto3/GPMono Racebike, Faster Pussycat Kill Kill, Celebrating NZ Fashion, Inside Out Tairawhiti, Plethora, Kiwi design to go global, Dame Whina Cooper Documentary, Aruandê Capoeira Festival, Transference: A Novel, Pink Ribbon Calendar Girls, Dark Cloud : White Light, Our Green Roadie, Silver rides to Battle, Justice for Taame & Rangi, Big Mouths , TLP:10-Auckland Season, Holding On, Fragments, Get Loop Machine For Busking/Gigs, Imagine the Land project, The Common Unity Project, Helen Dennis Music, Teaching bespoke shoemaking in NZ, Indie Game needs $100!, Care Share + Wear – Wellington Region, Skate Of Origin, Eyes of the World, Little Town Liars, Road to Ruin, “Music Video: “”Hands Up”", The Keepers, I WISH I LEARNED, 350 Aotearoa for Auckland!!, NZIHL Grand Final, Educate me!, Jack Landy, ‘lost and found’, Y2K- a fresh new short film by Rina Patel, Nashville album recording, Black Inc. One nation’s identity, a global politic, DressCents, Open Plan: An Art Party, Island Bay Community Orchard, Freedom From Within, Art in the Dark, Help Me Draw Naked People, Get Runaways to AFI Fest, Kaipara Panorama, Ruth’s exhibit, GJP for NYC, Tatou Tatou E 3, Up The Punks 2012, Songs for Christchurch, The Kiwi Diary 2013, Win Children’s Book Award, Olie Bassweight – The Ghost in the machine , Free Billy Mckee, Broken Glass – Post Production, Killing Bears new album, Ginny & Paiges Exhibition, HELLS BELLS, Get Michelle to Chicago, Youth Voice to UNCCC, Third Person, Batterie 100, Food Forest funding, New Minuit album on vinyl??, Monster Calendar, Landing – Short Film, MUNTED: Auckland Season, California Dreaming!!! , Power Shift NZ-Pacific, Let’s Get Jojo to AGFW!!, Animal Sanctuary - A book of toes, Blood and Koka Kola, Onerahi! Sign makeover, Faction – comic anthology, The Body Lyre: new record, Relocation of Premises, DESSEPTION, The New Zealand Youth Delegation, NORTH feature film, Graduation Show, Light Sleepers’ Wake, Wake Up Downunder , The Actors’ Program: Anthea Freya Hill, Merry Christmas around the World, Help Creative Commons NZ , Swan Song, The Trip to Bountiful, Help Indian Ink’s Dreams Come True in New York City, Puppet Fiction, The Pineapple Jukebox Dance Show, Improsaurus, Unnatural History, Andy Richards Debut LP Album, Fringe at the Gryphon, The Uncertainty Principle, Extreme Makeover: Basement Edition!, The ImpoSTAR!, PSA – Xmas at the Beehive, In Need Of Better Felts, Running NZ Barefoot & Barechested, The Ultimate Short Film Sequel: Ninja! Part II
Anthea’s dream is to act, and in order to attend the Actor Program next year she needed a little help. There was no way her multitude of jobs or fundraising efforts alone would get her to the $13,000 mark by January – so she turned to crowdfunding and got 96 people to help her make it happen. And, not all of them were friends or family – during the course of her campaign she had people pledging that she had never met. In fact, the man that tipped her over the mark was a complete stranger. Beautiful madness, as Anthea puts it. What did you like about pledgeme?
The website is incredibly accessible, easy to use and respected by the NZ community. Was a very easy platform to communicate through.
How did you find the experience?
Nerve wracking at times, but exciting and enjoyable. You have to have a bit of a competitive spirit I think!
Any tips for newbies?
Have a plan. Ensure that you know who you will be contacting before you start. Be creative with rewards, the amount of thought that you put into your page/campaign is evident and people respond accordingly. Contact people personally. Communication is key, don’t just expect anyone to give – make sure you are constantly talking and communicating about your project without a presumptuous attitude. This transparency will invite people into being included in the party on their own accord! It’s kinda like cranking the music at your own party, cooking some delicious smelling food and leaving the front door open..
I say crowdfunding, you say:
Hells yes! Such a beautiful way to create projects – not only is an amount of cash raised, but it creates followers, audience members, fans etc. Amazing.
Damon from the Faction team says this is a celebratory photo of Amie in a Spidey costume – we’re not so sure…. but we wouldn’t be surprised if it was! They managed to raise over $4,700 for their comic anthology, and here are some of their crowdfunding thoughts:
What did you like about pledgeme?
It has a tidy, crisp design, is easy to use and provides a platform to achieve funding that wouldn’t otherwise exist in NZ! Great stuff!
How did you find the experience?
It was pretty smooth sailing mostly. I did notice that pledging on the iPad was problematic.
Any tips for newbies?
Make sure you have a good size social network. Success is very dependent on your personal connections. Also be prepared to nag people! J
Anything you’d change about PledgeMe?
I’d make it a little clearer how important your own networks are and that you must be prepared to do quite a bit of work. Perhaps a well maintained link page to resources?
I was out in the twitter-sphere, and saw a comment about PledgeMe and film, which was linked to an AWESOME blog post. So being my normal content hungry self, I asked if I could re-blog it, and thankfully @lewisbostock said yes. Here it is for your reading pleasure.
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I’ve been helping my friends at Candlelit Pictures raise money (via Pledge Me) to turn their 35mm film into a digital format so it can play at the prestigious AFI fest.
How I Got Involved
I met with producer (and friend) Alix Whittaker for coffee and catch up.
“How’s the Pledge Me campaign going?” I asked.
“Good” replied Alix. “We’ve raised $600!” ”That’s great” I said. “How much more do you need to raise?” “$1725” Alix said. My heart sank with the possiblity that the filmmakers wouldn’t raise the amount.
As per Pledge Me’s Terms & Conditions, if the filmmakers didn’t raise their asking amount within the timeframe, the pledges are refunded and the filmmakers get nothing.
“Why the hell are you wasting time having coffee with me?” I said
The filmmakers needed to raise another $1125 in just 6 days if they were to get the film to AFI fest in the digital format the festival demands.
“OK. Here’s what we need to do” I said trying hard to appear like I know exactly what I’m doing. In my head, I’m trying to convince myself that I can do this, I can raise $1725 online.
Challenge accepted.
We then devised a plan of attack to ensure the Pledge Me campaign would be a success. I’m proud to report that our strategy paid off.
We raised a total of $2065 or $330 above our asking amount exactly 48 hours after I committed to the film.
Sent highly targeted press releases, trailers and behind-the-scenes footage to TV3 who ran a news story on their nightly bulletin.
Reshot the filmmakers’ pitch video. We improved it by including: clips from the trailer, behind-the-scenes footage and really sold the film.
Prepped the filmmakers with likely interview questions for all the publications (mentioned above) and in case anybody asked.
Listed all the people in their networks who could support the film. We first phoned each person to get them excited about the film. We then emailed each person immediately after with instructions on how they could support us e.g. donate, share on Facebook etc.
Created a Facebook-friendly post with a high quality still and a lengthy, but passionate explanation of why my friends should support it.
Timed the Facebook post for when people were most active online. The post received several shares from film bloggers with large networks.
Asked film bloggers to write a post about the film with the film’s trailer.
A journalist commented on the Facebook post showing interest in writing a news story on the film. We followed up.
All links to news articles were posted on Twitter, and retweeted.
Of course we couldn’t do it without the generous help and support of our 45 pledgers. Some giving $5. Some giving over $100. Every little bit helped. We thank you for your support.
What I hope to do with this hands-on, practical experience is take it into the classroom, and teach a whole Crowdfunding unit next year hopefully.
Two days. 3 key notes, 12 young innovators, and more social entrepreneurs than I knew even existed in New Zealand. And, most of them were under 30 years old.
You can imagine how excited I was about Festival for the Future. Having focused on creating a “for benefit” business model for PledgeMe in my masters thesis, scoring this conference in Wellington was like getting Christmas a month early. Being invited to speak was that humbling realisation that what we’re doing in the PledgeMe office is actually making a difference.
Want to see what I had to say on the day about PledgeMe, crowdfunding, and general thoughts for social entrepreneurs? Check out this video, about 16:45min in:
Festival for the Future was inspiration overload. It revitalised me, and got me excited about the places we are going. Here were my personal highlights:
“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone”Sasha McMeeking, Ministry of Awesome
“Change happens faster with collaboration” Guy Ryan, Inspiring Stories Trust
“We need to remain connected to our land, who we are, and our communities. Start with a focus” Shay Wright, Icehouse
“Make friends with reporters” and “watchBrown Brother” Andrew Patterson, RadioLive
Everything that Malcolm Cameron, Senior Citizen of the Year, said was gold, including – trust your guts; deliver; value the opinions of people; surround yourself with expectations; encourage and support everyone that wants to make a difference; be non judgemental; send a thank you card out a day; be empathetic; “When a child sees a tree they think climb, when an adult sees a tree they think fall” (anon); be courageous; don’t be afraid to fail; think on your feet; no is a question; opportunities not problems; just believe; young people and communities have the answers they need; always share the credit; don’t be a workaholic; being busy is a great avoidance strategy;
“Youth are our greatest renewable resource” Shruthi Vijayakumar from P3 Foundation
“Enjoy the Malaga, the journey, as it can be more important than the outcomes” Grace Taylor, Action Education
‘Wish I had always been taught that the world is far more malleable than we realise; BE the agency of change” Will Watterson, GPP
Youth are able to come up with innovative solutions, but you need intergenerational learning to really “be unreasonable”.
Many of the sentiments voiced at Festival for the Future align with the ethos of crowdfunding – things aren’t working so we need solutions, technology can help but it shouldn’t replace community, authenticity is important, and communication is key. What’s next? Moving from introspection to collaboration – thinking to doing.
We also had two bits of great news on Saturday (almost simultaneously). One, we hit 150 projects funded and two, we were in the Herald. Did we celebrate? Of course.
I’ll leave you with one of my favourite quotes (did you see it in the presentation?):
Nigel is a bit of a force to be reckoned with – he’s a multi talented musician, DJ, producer, tour organiser/booker, and general all-around awesome guy. And now, he’s turned his hand to balkan / gypsy music. We’re big fans here in the PledgeMe office, so we decided to have a chat to Nigel about his experience so far, what motivated to crowdfund, and how the first pledgers off the blocks were.
Why did you decide to crowdfund?
I figured a Gypsy Fever CD would have a good chance on Pledge Me as over the last 5 years the Gypsy Fever shows have built up quite a fanbase around New Zealand and reached many people. I have quite a few contacts from running Monkey Records over the years plus there are over 60 musicians featured across the 12 bands on the album who can push it out to their networks. Also, pressing CDs these days is a bit of a risky business so being able to pre-sell them is definitely a good way of gauging demand.
How you’ve found the experience so far?
So far the experience has been great but it’s been a bit harder than I thought to squeeze money out of people. It’s not really a matter of putting the project up, posting about it on Facebook and kicking back – you have to work quite hard to reach as many people as possible. At the moment I’m still quite optimistic about reaching the goal but I can see it possibly getting a bit tense towards the end. Apologies in advance to all my friends for the pestering they are about to receive.
Who was the first person to pledge?
The first four pledges on day one were all from people I didn’t know who had also pledged on other projects so it’s great to know that there are people out there actively seeking stuff to support. Ann Smith was the first off the mark – thank you to Ann and the other pledgers to date and thanks to the future pledgers for having the wisdom and foresight to support this cool project and make it happen. Thanks also due to Pledge Me for providing a great service!
His project runs through til 19 November, so pledge on it here.
Lucy and Luke are wildly creative, and are about to put their next show, Wild Beasts, on at Auckland Fringe. In a Tent. Outside the Basement. Interested? We were, and so were 31 pledgers who helped them hit 10% over their goal… Here’s what they had to say about their dabbling in crowdfunding:
