When I first started working for PledgeMe I had no freaking idea what a good minimum funding target was.
I remember saying to former PledgeMe team member Jody Connor,
“They know how much they need, what can I tell them that will change that?”
Turns out, a few things …
The thing with us – PledgeMe – is that you need to meet your funding target before you receive any funds at all.
So you need to set a funding goal you’re reasonably confident you’ll reach, by setting it at the absolute minimum you need to cover your basic budget. There’s no limit to how far above it you can go at the project crowdfunding level.
But how on earth do you do THAT?
There are a few things you can do to get it right.
Break down your project budget. How much do you need to crowdfund to get this show on the road, at the most basic level? Think: the minimum to make something happen, not the gold-plated all bells and whistles version. Folk like Ōtakaro Orchard even did three stages of crowdfunding – one per year to get to their final vision.
Then break down the cost of your rewards. Figure out how many rewards you’ll need people to pledge to before you reach your minimum funding target. Here’s our rewards calculator – you can download it and play with the figures yourself.
Take a good look at your crowd. Given that there’s no ‘crowd in the cloud’, and you need your very own community around you to support your crowdfund, are they there? Do you have a group of people around you (think: your dad, your friends, colleagues, customers, sports buddies, neighbours, your aunty who still sends you Christmas cards) who you’d feel comfortable asking to pledge to your crowdfund?
These questions all feed into setting your minimum funding target.
One person who did an amazing job of setting a low funding goal, but then soared far, far above it, was Dr Siouxsie Wiles, the flaming pink-haired microbiologist and science communicator who helped make the phrase ‘Flatten the curve‘ go viral back in 2020. Because of her pandemic-communication work, she ended up in a legal battle with her employer.
Siouxsie crowdfunded to offset some of her legal costs. She took on our feedback about setting a conservative minimum funding target – setting hers at just $10,000. And her crowd – which included people who knew of her via her extensive media coverage over the years and during her crowdfund – stepped up and pledged a whopping $188,493.
Check out her crowdfund here: https://pledgeme.co.nz/projects/8521-support-dr-siouxsie-after-she-supported-us
If you’re interested in diving a little deeper into this subject, crowdfunding expert Kat Jenkins wrote a really good blog called Figuring Out Your Project Goal. Read the blog here:
When you’re setting your minimum funding target, remember to consider three things:
- What’s the absolute minimum you need to raise?
- How many people would need to pledge to your rewards to hit your funding target?
- Do you come with a crowd?
I hope this helps.
Charlotte x
