This step is entirely optional, but it’s a great way to raise some additional funds for your festival.
We’ve used both Kickstarter and Indie
gogo. They both work well, but Kickstarter changed their rules for new projects in a way that may make it difficult to use for events. In addition, Indiegogo offers better rates for nonprofits.
We’re not going to cover too much of the details on how to put together a good fundraising campaign. However, here are a few notes for campaigns on crowdfunding sites:
First, be careful with the rewards your promise. Don’t underestimate the cost of fulfilling rewards. In particular, t-shirts will probably cost you about $8-10 each, depending on how many you end up printing. Don’t offer a t-shirt for a $25 pledge! We recommend that your rewards not cost more than 10% of the pledged amount. This means that t-shirts should be reserved for pledges of $100 or more.
In order to make your life easier, focus on rewards that don’t make your life very difficult. If your organization already has some merchandise like stickers or buttons, use those as rewards. You can also offer various intangible rewards like acknowledgement on your website, in the program, etc.
Don’t make grand promises about what you’ll do with the money you raise. It’s tempting to promise 20 more exhibitors or something like that, but it’s really out of your control. We have always pitched our campaign as simply being part of the general funding needed for the event, and we’ve budgeted accordingly. If you announce stretch goals, don’t get too crazy there. We promised more advertising for our first stretch goal ($500 above goal) and that we’d explode some tofu (it’s a running joke for Twin Cities Veg Fest) if we raised $1,000 above our goal. Making a video of someone sticking firecrackers in a block of tofu was well within our capabilities.