StartSomeGood.com, the crowdfunding website, is very relevant to NFPs in particular as they are a social enterprise created purely for social initiatives – whether you are a for-profit, non-profit, individual or everything in between.

Like many of the other crowdfunding sites such as Pozible and Kickstarter, Start Some Good also has the all or nothing approach; if you don’t reach your goal you don’t receive any funds, and nor do Start Some Good.  However it is interesting to note that they use a tipping point model whereby you can set a tipping-point goal and an ultimate goal.  The tipping point is the amount that is needed to start doing some good and the ultimate goal is your dream goal, so to speak.  If you don’t reach the tipping point – no funds will exchange hands.

Reading through their website, Start Some Good really define crowdfunding in an easy-to-follow way and I thought I would share their process with you.

Building Your Campaign

Building a successful campaign is essentially what the whole process revolves around.  The steps include defining your project, setting your funding goals, choosing your rewards, creating a video and building the campaign page.

In terms of the rewards you offer – think of them as a thank you to your supporters.  They could be no-cost, low-cost or valuable goods or services provided pro-bono by sponsors or partner organisations; think t-shirts, stickers or invitations to events.

Promoting Your Campaign

Now that you have your campaign up and running you need to promote your campaign with a strong start right through to completion and beyond.  Start Some Good recommend that you fully understand your community, create a promotion plan, harness the press and promote both on and offline.

They fully stand behind the strong start method as they say that “campaigns that receive more pledges on the first day and first week of launching have an extremely high success rate”.

Grow Your Community

This part of the process will really allow you to build up your base of supporters in the long term provided that you have treated them with respect throughout the entire fundraising process.  You need to update your supporters, thank them for their support, give them opportunities for further involvement and finally share your success story with them.

Take some time to browse Start Some Good.   I would be very interested to hear whether you have used it or any other crowdfunding sites to reach any of your project goals.