Visualising crowdfunding - rewards or perks and successful fundraising

How do the number of rewards or perks relate to the success of campaigns?

IndieGoGo blog entry from November 3 2011 says that 88% of campaigns which exceed their funding goal offer at least three perks.

The chart below shows the number of rewards offered by successful campaigns on its platform. 70% of successful campaigns offered 3-8 rewards with 41% offering 5-6 rewards.

3-8 rewards is a manageable number to create and distribute and would therefore be the most popular.

Offering no rewards is risky so fewer projects would try this. Likewise 11+ rewards would be difficult to manage and not be a popular choice.

Look carefully at the chart and question what it does not show (as with any statistics**)

It does not show the percentage of projects that met their target which offered 3-8 rewards (or 0 or 1-2 rewards for that matter). Therefore do not assume cause and effect. In other words if your campaign offers 5 rewards this does not mean you have a 70% chance of successfully reaching your target.

Most sites have an overall success rate of c40-45%. Success is dependent on your campaign, your ideas and your hard work. Creative rewards are only part of the incentive for people to donate.

** though I am not suggesting that the simple chart above is deliberately misleading it is always worth looking closely at all statistics and graphs - preferably with a knowing twinkle in your eye!
For other (lighthearted but meaningful) examples of how to read statistics see:
and of course

“how to look a phoney statistic in the eye and face it down; and no less important, how to recognize sound and usable data in [the] wilderness of fraud”

Join me on an introduction to crowdfunding workshop

Middlesbrough 14 June  10.00 15.30

Workshop in partnership with Funding Information North East and Middlesbrough Voluntary Development Agency

Central Middlesbrough venue

Rochdale 26 June 09.30-13.00

Workshop in partnership with CVS Rochdale

Venue: CVS Rochdale, Partnership House, Sparrow Hill, Rochdale OL16 1QT

Crewe 3 July  10.00 - 15.30

Workshop in partnership with CVS Cheshire East

Venue:The Exercise Studio, Belong, Brookhouse Drive, Crewe

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