Crowdfunding - mid campaign slump
If your donations have dried up - it’s not just you!
When you launch your project there’s an immediate flurry of interest in your campaign leading to donations. Then these donations stall or dry up. As the campaign nears its end the creator and backers promote the project like crazy to make sure it’s funded. They try to ensure that friends or people who have “lurked” watching (but meaning to pledge) finally do so before the end.
I wrote an earlier post on what to do in the mid campaign slump to keep momentum.
Here is a graph from Kickstarter that shows this process - for all campaign durations. It is clear that the initial spike and last-minute donations are very near the beginning and end of the campaign. Nerve wracking!
What can you do?
- Ask yourself whether you are ready to launch - are you connected, do you have the team and time?
- Find, connect with and continually engage your social networks - 30% or more of your donations are from close friends and allies
- Launch with 10-20% pledged
- Keep your marketing going - see this post on designing a marketing campaign