Ever wonder what it takes to run a successful crowdfunding campaign? Are you thinking about launching a campaign with StartSomeGood, but need some advice about how to get started? Well, you’re certainly in luck! Over the past year and a half, I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing a ton of really special social entrepreneurs who have successfully funded their projects using StartSomeGood. Hoping to inspire all you would-be social entrepreneurs out there to get your projects up and running, I’ve compiled some really useful crowdfunding advice for you to follow, straight from the entrepreneurs themselves. Here’s what they had to say:

Grace Landrieu, Dash4Teachers

Raised $3,330 to officially launch the Dash4Teachers App

We believe the following three things most attributed to our success on our StartSomeGood campaign:

• A video and demo that showed the value-add of the product and the passion of the team
• Well-thought out rewards including an award to gift an app to a friend
• Emails and reminder emails to family, friends, and coworkers

We suggest that crowdfunders adapt similar practices, but most of all, that they create an inspiring product or service that people want and need in addition to media that showcases their product or service. Check out our new video here!

Mikey Leung, Crowdsourced Travel

Raised $15,025 to improve Bangladesh’s tourism potential

Before I started the campaign, I did a lot of homework. Crowdfunding is really new and when you start looking at how to be successful in crowdfunding campaigns, the first thing people tell you is that 80% of campaigns fail, they don’t reach their goal. You learn the great majority of crowdfunding campaigns don’t work. People think, “Oh wow if I can just convince people that this is a good idea and put it on the Internet and tell people I’m looking for supporters then I’ll make it”. There’s a lot of blogs out there that have been written about crowdfunding campaigns and there’s a lot of people who have been successful who have written down their knowledge and advice. The first thing I can say is before you start your campaign, look at other successful projects in the same field and look at their strategies, look at what kind of rewards they offered, and so on. I would say I was strategizing my campaign for maybe three months before I actually launched it.

Ben Cokelet, PODER Mexico

Raised $9,350 to drive corporate transparency in Latin America

There’s no substitute for social networks, but I found Twitter to be very unhelpful for raising money. I don’t think we raised more than $5 or $10 off of Twitter. I would say we raised a couple hundred off of Facebook. However, we received thousands of dollars by reaching out to people in our immediate one or two degrees of separation networks and sending them multiple personalized emails that were relatively tailored to their interests. That was what really did it for us. We were promoting ourselves and marketing our brand on a regular basis via these personalized emails and as a result about 6 or 7 percent of them were donating. In the end, that 6 or 7 percent was enough for us to meet our goal. Also, if you give your campaign enough time to build a narrative through email, people start to feel like they are part of something and are then more likely to contribute. 

Nikki Lewis, Partnered 4 Success
Raised $1,500 to help foster children and orphans in the Phoenix Valley

Success will come with creativity and innovation. Highlight what sets your venture apart from its competitors and be genuine, yet concise, with how you get your words across. Also, give thought to the donor gifts you provide.

Ehon Chan, Spur Projects

Raised $3,175 to challenge the stereotype of real men in Australia

The majority of this money will come from people that you have already connected with so reach out to your peers, families and friends and also don’t be ashamed to put it out there through other means like social media and networking sites. You will also find a few new supporters along the way and these people can be key to the success of your campaign. More importantly, be transparent with what you are going to do with the money. 

Lizzie LaCroix, Hesperian

Raised $6,116 to create mobile apps to save lives

StartSomeGood tells you to have a good video, and I can’t stress the importance of that enough. Our video was the facet of our campaign that seems to have been the most talked about, most shared, and most liked. Although we couldn’t count how many times it was viewed on the StartSomeGood website, we know that its views on YouTube skyrocketed once we started marketing our StartSomeGood campaign.

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Now…what good do you want to create?  Visit our site today to learn more about how to start your own campaign.