One of my favourite projects to date was one of our most unassuming. Andrew, a Tauranga based artist, needed help to get his ‘Safe Little World’ exhibition framed. He only needed $350, and managed to raise it in four days. How did he do it? A combination of avenues and by really selling himself to his network, and we particularly liked his succinct blog shout out:
We have chatted to Andrew after he was funded, and he gave us the following feedback:
What did you like about pledgeme? Money makes things happen, and that’s true for creative projects too of course. Sourcing funding through something like pledgeme enables the project to take place… it allows for projects that aren’t necessarily commercial to take place – which is how it should be. The crowdfunding model has proved itself overseas, but it’s great to have a New Zealand-based service. New Zealanders supporting New Zealanders – it’s all good.
How did you find the experience? It probably doesn’t come naturally to a lot of people to stick their hand out and ask for support, but I found it an interesting experience – viewing the project from the point of view of potential supporters is useful, and the sense of moral support / encouragement that I got from people being prepared to stump-up any amount of money (large or small) was priceless. The usefulness of the money was one thing (and this enabled me to see the project through without massive stress), but I found the fact of people being willing to get behind what I was doing provided me with motivational fuel.
Any tips for newbies? I still feel like a newbie myself! I guess I’d say give it a go, and don’t be afraid to ‘market’ your pledge drive to friends and family.
Anything you’d change about PledgeMe? I guess it still needs to be better-known. It would be cool if people were browsing the site looking for things to support, rather than being drawn there specifically for a particular project. It seems like on Kickstarter (for example) there are a lot more pledges from strangers. Virtually all my pledges came from people who are close friends and family.
[Ed. We agree! While projects do need to be validated by friends/family before you can expect strangers to fund you, we want PledgeMe to be bigger and better than Ben Hur. So, spread the word puhlease.]
I say crowdfunding, you say: Community.
Check out his PledgeMe project here.
