my money journal: crowdfunding edition
This, my money journal, is a reflection on my successes & failures to make money doing what I actually love. I want to share it with you cuz… I bet you’re on this journey too. In the first series of my money journal, I’m sharing my first big success as an artist. At the end of 2016, I was listening to my boyfriend’s song Black Man in America when a vision for a dance film struck me. Five Black men seated at a white table with guns. Don’t worry. It is nuanced. By January 2017, I was storyboarding. By June, my boyfriend was on board, we determined we needed $16,000 to bring it to life, and we launched our film crowdfunding campaign. With no fan base and no real fundraising experience. On August 6th, we filmed. I was freaking out. I had opened a credit card just for this project, was $4,000 in debt and owed our cast and crew $7,000 more. I was all in. By August 20th, 400 backers had given a total of $18,000 for Black Man in America to come to life, exceeding our goal. Look how happy we were when we met our goal (photo to right)! In this first series of my money journal, I’m going to share how we did it, because – imagine what you could do with $5K ,$10K, $20K to bring your visions to life. It’s our tiiiiiiiiime. (Shine bright, shine far…)
https://www.instagram.com/p/BX_GNkYgWZK/?taken-by=justinagrayman.danceandfilm
THE FIVE PHASES OF OUR CROWDFUNDING (WITH NO FANBASE OR EXPERIENCE)
- I made myself cry with a community-oriented vision.
- I made a team and made them cry.
- I crafted a story that would make my audience cry.
- I handled logistics, created the project, and got feedback.
- We launched it and made everyone cry.
DON’T WANT TO READ? WATCH/LISTEN TO MY VIDEO COURSE ON UDEMY
PHASE ONE: MAKE YOURSELF CRY WITH A COMMUNITY-ORIENTED VISION
What is your vision for your life? Your family? For the world? What have you always imagined creating? What would it look like if you had all the resources to make your visions come to life? If I had all of them, I would create what some would call a hippie commi utopia, where people’s needs were met, where robots did all the work, and where I could wake up and play in a loving, intimate community. A paradise for conscious people who hate rules, find oppression um distasteful, and know they deserve freedom. What would you create? Too often people get mired in the details of online platforms and they miss the whole point of crowdfunding, which is just modern, insanely convenient fundraising to bring your visions for the world and your life into reality. The content of the fundraising campaign matters more than anything. Then comes how we describe the campaign, and lastly comes all the bells and whistles of which platforms, what rewards, how long it should last, etc. So phase one focuses only on the content of the project, the project vision. In this detailed entry, I’m going to walk you step by step through how we designed a successful crowdfunding campaign for Black Man in America.
1. I dreamed up a compelling vision that made me cry. An extremely clear vision for a project hit me. It ignited me, moved me, and that I thought it would resonate with other people. Now, how did I know that it moved me and might resonate with others? Well, it literally made me cry. The story behind the film – my relationship with my brothers – is so personal and such a lifelong roller coaster that it means everything to me. If I could say anything to anyone investing their time in creating, it is to choose what what ignites you, makes you bawl on the floor, what gives you pain and pleasure, what lights a fire in you, what forces you to confront your past, what makes you squirm, what makes you feel heavy as you express it and light afterwards. 
My advice is choose what makes you cry. We cry when we are in awe, when we are in pain, when we are astonished by pleasure, when we are vulnerable, when we are in love. If it makes you cry, it is personal, and common empathy tells me I would want to hear what you have to say. Don’t choose anything less, because it is likely that as a human being what makes you cry, makes another human cry. Like – these people, my amazing brothers, my family, make me cry.
2. I ensured the vision was community-oriented. The next most important, in my opinion, step of this process – is to ensure your vision is compelling, moving, and community-oriented. If you are asking others for money to create a project, it must must must be something that offers something desirable to the larger community. Otherwise, it will be hard for people to justify giving you money – why donate so you can put up a portrait of yourself in an alley no one will see? Why? Perhaps if homeless people see it that is a community project with a cause (but that’s a long shot; a community-oriented project is intentional about who benefits and how). Once you think about it, many projects can be community-oriented. A music album or a film can be community oriented if it’s purpose is to reflect the voices, concerns, or experiences of the community – or if events accompanying the album or film meet the needs/desires of a particular community. A documentary can clearly be made with and for a community. An activist retreat project can clearly be community-oriented. The point is that if a project and its vision are specifically designed to address the needs or desires of a particular community and the project intends to empower the community, it is community-oriented.
3. I specified the community that would benefit from the project. In my case, my initial vision was all about Black men and the experience of being a Black woman who cared for Black men. And what it felt like to watch them go through all that they go through and not be in control. So my audience basically was clear from the beginning – the Black community. For your project, you may already have a specific community in mind or you may not have one at all. By making the campaign for a particular group, you are making a message that to people in that group, will seem like it was sent from heaven specifically for them. They will thank you for finally making something for them. The group should be pretty specific and the more specific the better – for example, as a highly educated Black woman who has worked in many all-white settings, the show Insecure seems like it was sent from heaven to me.
4. I refined my vision based on conversations with community. The most essential part of a community-oriented project is that it must be created with the input or ownership of the community that is benefiting. Start having informal conversations with people about the the issue or desire your project focuses on. In the first step, I thought the original idea for Black Man in America would resonate with people. But I had no idea. I legitimately didn’t know how people were dealing with the news and hadn’t done much sharing with people I knew. So I sent out lots of emails to close friends and family entitled “worrying about my brothers.” In this email, I simply described that amidst all of the controversial news about shootings of Black males, I was worrying about my brothers and wanted to know how they were doing given the political climate. Get the exact e-mail here I sent to friends and family to start this conversation. The point of an e-mail like this is NOT to talk about your crowdfunding effort but actually to get a sense of how people are feeling and what might resonate with them. My original vision for Black Man in America started off aggressive to prove a point, but, after understanding what people were dealing with, thinking about what I wanted to see, and then talking to Black men in depth, that would have made no sense. That wasn’t what people needed. People needed to feel powerful, not depressed. So my thoughts: if you want your project to resonate with a particular community, talk to that community while you develop your project about what they are experiencing. You can incorporate patterns of how community members feel into the project vision. Click here to get the exact e-mail I sent to friends and family to start this conversation, along with all of my other crowdfunding materials!
5. I ensured the vision for my project was rare or underrepresented. Of course, it’s always okay to do something similar to what others are doing, but even better: shape your project around a perspective (of your community) that is rarely heard. Ensure that your vision is about creating something that doesn’t exist for/with a community that needs it. With a vision that makes you cry, is community-oriented, is based on community conversation, and is underrepresented, you are already on fire. If you are missing any of these elements, it’s like trying to fry chicken in water. I mean, I guess you can try…
PHASE TWO: MAKE A TEAM AND MAKE THEM CRY
1. I enlisted a partner to produce the project with me. Mine was my boyfriend. He is the songwriter for Black Man in America, and also I love him. The film would clearly promote his song in some way and he is a Black man with experiences I had no idea about so I thought he would be a great collaborator. I think I would have gone crazy if I didn’t have a partner to work with on this project. I presented a full storyboard to him, a full storyline, and a description of my vision, and from there he added some awesome elements that transformed the film and, importantly, as a Black man, he steered us in the direction of his own experience. What I want to say about this step is: DO NOT SKIP IT. If you are the type of person, like me, who habitually likes to go it alone, it could be the exact challenge you need in order to learn what is possible through collaboration. It could be a great lesson to learn that others want to collaborate with you. It is also critical to remember that I enlisted a collaborator for the entire project, not just to crowdfund. We want people to own the entire project, including the creative aspects (in whatever way you agree) and the financial aspects. This means for the project, NOT just for your crowdfunding campaign. You will be tempted to disregard this step. You’ll say, but I can do it alone. You’ll say, but who would want to collaborate with me? You’ll say, but I don’t trust anyone. All of that is completely fine. What huge vision could you accomplish if you became someone who everyone wanted to collaborate with, someone who brought others together to create huge visions you couldn’t do alone, and someone who created a trusting environment? So, enlist a partner or a team. Please.
2. I made my potential partner cry. Don’t kick them in the kneecaps. By make them cry, I mean to think back to the first step of this entire process: find a vision that makes you cry. Remember that vision? What about it makes you cry? Use these questions to craft what you will say: What personal story or experience makes you cry about that? How does your vision relate to that? Using your answers to these questions, share with your potential partner(s) your personal story, what is on the line for you if you don’t take action in this area, the project that has come out of that, and ask them what the project means to them. Talk through what they could get out of participating, with them leading the conversation and ask them to create the project with you. Once you have a partner or team, pat yourself on the back. Only move forward to the next phase once you have a community-oriented vision that is underrepresented and a partner or team inspired by the project. For real. For real. For real. Okay. No, for real!
PHASE THREE: CRAFT A STORY THAT WILL MAKE YOUR AUDIENCE CRY
1. Write your story. Before you go sign up for Kickstarter, GoFundMe, IndieGoGo or whatever platform you will use, write your story. This is the story that will be the core substance of your campaign page and will be the basis of your video, the most important element of the campaign page. What I’ve read is that people are lazy (and my life experience tells me this is correct) so they will watch the video first and if interested, scroll quickly through the photos and bolded text of your page. So it’s important that your story matters to you and your community. How to write the story: Start at an unconventional or tension-filled point of your vulnerable, concrete story. Then, go back and explain some context for your audience. Reveal an uncomfortable truth about yourself that you currently or previously found it difficult to acknowledge. Discuss how that truth affects/affected you emotionally and otherwise (family/friends, physically, etc.). Describe or ask the audience to imagine what the future would look like (for you, for others, for society) if you and your audience did nothing about that area and why change is urgent. Propose a new way of looking at this area: what haven’t you, others been doing that could make a difference? Implore people to imagine what things could be like if this new perspective/shift/solution were brought to life. Only once you’ve gone through all of those steps, do you discuss your project! The truth is your project is awesome but not because of its logistics. It’s awesome because of the impact it is going to make – so you have to set that up for your project description to matter. Describe the main activities and results of your project. No need to provide a lot of detail, but it must be enough for the audience to imagine your vision and for them to imagine how your project will make the impact you just set up in your story. Ensure you describe any partners or collaborators here. Click here to get the first story and second story we used for Black Man in America, along with all of my other crowdfunding materials!
2. Choose photos and create visuals that will tell your story without your audience having to read. Yeah, it sucks that nobody reads but what are we gonna do? Assume that no one will read your extremely vulnerable, sacred text you just poured your heart into. First bold and enlargen (sounds dirty) the text that your audience must must must read (for example, the uncomfortable truth, what will happen if no action is taken, and the key question that will cause the audience to imagine what is possible with a new perspective). Second, insert photos throughout your story that help tell your story. You can even write over the photos with a sentence, ensuring your audience sees it. Photos that might be useful to include: Mock ups of what the art, product, or program will look like; photos of the group/community you are working with, photos of yourself as the artist/creator, behind the scenes photos if the project is in progress, photos of the team, cast/characters, or creators.
3. Make your video. We made two different videos, one in the beginning of our campaign and a new one near the end when we had previews of our film. In both videos, we followed similar principles. Here are the important things I thought while making the videos.
First, your video must be vulnerable. Your story is a visual representation of the emotional story you’ve already shared with your teammate/team. That means your story must make you & your team cry. Your story must come from a vulnerable, authentic place – whether its funny, sad, enraging, etc. Um, so basically you tell the truth about something that has happened to you personally, and uncomfortable truths are the most desirable. If you are uncomfortable sharing the story, it means that others will watch the story and finally see someone expressing what they experience.
Second, your story must be concrete. That means we’re gonna go back to 3rd grade when we learned: who, what, when, where, why. Basically, instead of saying “When I was younger, I used to have breakfast with my mom and it was always unsettling,” you would say “I was 8. Still half asleep, I could feel in my gut something was wrong. I walked into the kitchen, where my mother was standing over the griddle flipping my favorite – chocolate chip pancakes. She was still wearing the dress she had on when she buried my father.” That last detail is so dramatic, right? Welcome to my life. Anywho, you don’t need a grieving mother in your story. It just needs to be so concrete that you are enabling your audience to visually imagine a movie playing in their head. That is your job!
Third, to start your video, begin in the middle of your concrete, vulnerable story. Start your story at an unconventional point so that people have to engage their brains to enter the story. For example, “There I was standing at the edge of the cliff, with 5 seconds to decide whether or not I would jump.” Do you see how a sentence like that would have your audience thinking, maybe I should see what happens next and how she got here? I hope so! You don’t literally have to start at a cliffhanger (I’m killin em with these jokes!) but start at an unconventional or tension-filled point.
Fourth, decide on the story for your video and order it effectively. The best thing about this is that we already know a great order! Follow the same format for writing your story text (above). You can tell the same story or you can switch it up. Of course, it’s easier to use the same material but if you’d like to get creative, why not? I decided to focus on myself for the Kickstarter text and then in our final video focus on the cast of Black Men in America since they are the true “subjects” of the project. Whatever you do, make sure you have all of the elements in the sequence (and that they make you cry!).
Fifth, choose visuals that are effective at conveying the emotions you want your audience to feel. Though we definitely did not do this, open the video with a captivating, beautiful, awe-inspiring, unexpected, unsettling, or confusing image. I was being a bad psychologist (bad psychologist! bad psychologist!) when I left that element out. For the most part, according to psychology, things grab our attention when they induce pleasure, surprise, or fear. People have the attention spans of wild beasts these days (not even sure what that means) so the first 2-3 seconds of your video need to be ridiculously interesting. Then, based on what you are saying throughout your video, you may not want to have your face on camera the entire time. If you want the focus on you literally pouring your heart out the entire time, you don’t need many extra images. You can also alternate between your face and visual representations of what you are saying; .
Once you get to describe what your project is and what you are creating, having images or video of what you will be creating is very helpful. Remember, people need to be able to imagine what you are creating and its impact in order to want to give. So having a draft of what you will create, a drawing – or if that isn’t possible, an example at least of prior work is critical. Give the audience enough to imagine your vision as you see it.
To help my audience imagine Black Man in America, I had a illustrator from Fiverr draw up five storyboard images of key shots from Black Man in America. It cost $20 for a few revisions with the guy I used and it took 1-2 days of back and forth.On Fiverr you can find tons of illustrators to draw mockups, storyboards, drafts of cover art, etc. so that you can help your audience visualize what you’re creating. Get an illustrator through Fiverr here (full disclosure: if you use my link, I get some pennies from referring you! yay, pennies!).
Sixth, your video must be short. If you’re a rebel like I know you are, perhaps you’ll be like “Well, there arrrrrre 5-minute videos.” Well, sure there are. But you have to be a G to make a 5-minute video that people will watch all the way through. We know! Our video was played 1,617 on Kickstarter and finished only 23% of the time; it was 3 minutes long. Better to make a 1.5- 2-minute video that people will watch than waste time on a 5-minute video that only 25% of your audience will watch all the way through (and those are all your cousins). If you are not skilled at video production and editing, ask a friend to shoot and edit, use a quality iphone or android and edit using iMovie (it’s free, but only for macs), or *gasp do a one-take unedited video.
Extra Note on Videos: Below, watch our second crowdfunding video and how we used these principles with no budget. It was a DIY video made with iMovie (it’s free, but only for macs) using behind the scenes footage and interviews. I think you can be DIY and still make a video that is emotionally compelling!
PHASE FOUR: HANDLE LOGISTICS, CREATE YOUR PROJECT & GET FEEDBACK
OK. Whereas most people would register for their crowdfunding platform (Kickstarter, GoFundMe or whatever) as their first step, I prefer to come in with all of the critical elements so you don’t get overwhelmed by all the crap you have to decide. You’ve done the hardest work, which is coming up with the vision and the story you will use to communicate with your community about that vision. Now it’s time to get into those logistics.
1. Decide what platform to use and register your account. Some options: Kickstarter, GoFundMe, Indiegogo, Hatchfund, etc. I personally used Kickstarter and you can read why I chose it over other platforms here if you’d like (I get zero money for saying I like Kickstarter; I just say it cuz it’s true!).
2. Decide on these key logistical things:
Choose your title. The original title for our Kickstarter campaign was “Spread Power, Not Fear, for Black Men in America.” The new title was “We are the solution. Create power for Black men nationwide.” For both of the titles, the emphasis was on what we were abstractly creating. Yes, people were supporting a film and community project, but what emotionally matters to the audience is what intangible emotion or idea is being created: for our project it was power. So step 1, specify the intangible emotion or idea being created in your project. Step 2, we made sure we mentioned Black men in the title because Black men are the subject of the film and we needed to immediately get the attention of Black men and people who want to support Black men. So try out a title that mentions the community your project will benefit. Step 3, for our first title we chose to specify how our project differed from common efforts by saying “spread power not fear”. We also did this in the second title in the first sentence “we are the solution” which is not a common way of thinking about problems in the Black community. For your title, try out indicating how your project’s approach differs from the usual. Step 4, try out emphasizing the impact your project will make. For our second title, we added “create power for Black men nationwide” to emphasize the impact of our project, which is critical to get people legit excited about your project.
Create a budget. I’m not going to go into details about creating budgets cuz like i’m not an accountant or anything (I would take my life if I were) but what I will do is list some sample items (that may be completely irrelevant if you’re not in dance or film): cast & crew payment – director of photography, editor, colorist, music composer, community classes, rehearsal and film studio/location rentals, costumes, props, miscellaneous costs, rewards, food for film shoot.Click here to get our initial budget for Black Man in America, along with all of my other crowdfunding materials! But who knows how helpful that will be. The only sage advice I’ll say is to do your research and send your budget to several people who have done similar projects so they can warn you about all the things you are overlooking. You can also google budgets in your area. Add a row for miscellaneous costs because all projects almost inevitably have unexpected expenses.
Specify your goal. Your goal is just whatever your budget says. All the blogs I read before doing crowdfunding basically said, make your budget/goal the minimum you need to complete your project. Why? Because if you’re using an all-or-nothing platform and you go all crazy with your budget and miss your goal, you get nothing. My advice is to make your goal the minimum you need to fulfill on that community-oriented vision. Don’t make it so low that you are settling for a below-par project but also don’t choose the fanciest version of everything in your budget for no reason. Choose a goal that is just enough to fulfill that community vision. And be sure about it. If you’re using Kickstarter, you CANNOT change your goal or deadline after you launch so be 100% sure about your goal/deadline.
Create a timeline. People like to know that you’re gonna actually do your project. The least they could ask for, right? So make a timeline from crowdfunding to project completion and share it with them. No need for too much detail but 5-10 key events with dates is helpful for people.
3. Now that you have all of those details, create your project. I’m assuming you are relatively young and can easily navigate through the steps to complete the profile/account with Kickstarter or other platform. If you do need guidance on setting up your account and project, there’s a million guides on technical details you can find online. 
4. Create visuals to easily communicate the boring logistical junk you just decided (optional). Create a visual representation of your timeline, budget, and rewards. I read that projects that look more organized, professional, and aesthetically pleasing tend to do better on Kickstarter and you can attract (*gasp) people who don’t know you by putting effort into your project’s appearance! So put in a little extra time to make it look good!Click here to download editable templates of visual representations of our budget, timeline, and rewards, along with all of my other crowdfunding materials! I simply designed these in Powerpoint, which requires zero designing skills, just an ability to move around shapes and change fonts. You can just open my templates up and edit them by inserting your own images/text. You’re welcome 🙂
5. Get feedback on your page. Get a friend, family member, and a couple community members to skim/view your project page and give their impressions. The most important questions to ask them: What did you think of the project? Were you moved by the video/story? What could I add, take away, or remove to make a stronger video/story. Here’s a little video showing how we put together our page, in terms of combining photos, visuals, story, etc.
PHASE FIVE: LAUNCH IT AND MAKE EVERYONE Y’ALL KNOW CRY
1. I made a contact list. I brainstormed all of the people I regularly speak to or who support me generally. I made lists of: friends, family, people from college, people from work, people from high school, etc. In this document, create a place to mark whether they have been contacted, whether they responded, whether you’ve followed up with them, etc.
2. I crafted engaging personal messages for different platforms. I reached out to my network via text, e-mail, Facebook message, annnd – that’s it. It was mostly via Facebook message that people gave. Honestly, I don’t have a lot of people’s phone numbers / I am an introvert so I don’t have people’s contact info like that. Facebook saved my life! Messaging is really important, like really important, but I say that as a PhD that is really interested in organizing, persuasion, etc. (I did my dissertation on communication used by organizers to get people to events). For example, I would never recommend to send a Facebook message to someone and ask them to pledge on your first message. It is also extremely important that you explain briefly why this cause is urgent or important (for example, you’re gonna lose all of the money in 2 days if you don’t get the remainder of the money). Lastly and, of course, if you’ve taken nothing away from this – you need to write something that will make them cry (i.e., be vulnerable! be honest!) Some notes: Messages must be personal. Personal means that it is a message that was directly sent to a friend WITH their name and some detail specific and genuine to them. I highly discourage anyone from sending group messages – for example, an email where people are cc’d or bcc’d because it’s lazy and people will ignore the email if they think it was sent to a group. Click here to download all the messages we used to contact people by e-mail, text, and Facebook, along with all of my other crowdfunding materials!
3. I confirmed my “day 1” donors. That’s a lie. I actually didn’t do this and it was a huge mistake. I actually ran one other campaign last year (for $4K) and DID do this and it worked great. I recommend ensuring you have at least 5-10 donors confirmed to donate on your launch day. You want this because on day 1, you will likely get the most visits to your campaign. You want the first impression to be: this campaign is going to be successful – because people tend to give to campaigns they think are going to be successful (stupid, right? yeah, but it’s good to know!).
4. I launched my project. Yeah, pressed “published” or whatever 🙂 The easiest part.
5. I personally contacted everyone I possibly knew once. I contacted everyone on my contact list made above.This is an important note: if you try to message your 1,896 followers in one day (which is probably impossible unless you have robotic thumbs or an AI slave) Facebook will block you for hours and possibly a day at a time. So you will have to take breaks from Facebook messaging. So ration your Facebook messaging from launch day through the first week.
6. I personally followed up with those who didn’t respond after two weeks. This is so so so critical. People ask me to give to stuff all the time and then never ask me again. The person being asked doesn’t have much of an incentive to remember to give money to you or to respond, even if they are the Dalai Lama. Anyhow, most of the people who I know that gave had to be followed up with. So do it! Follow up! You’re not being annoying! You’re not being annoying! Once people say no, thank them and then don’t message them, but it is okay to contact nonresponders.
7. I followed up with those who said they’d donate to confirm that they had. Follow up with people say that they will donate. If they haven’t messaged you a smiley face and said “I just donated! Good luck!” they might have forgotten like a normal human being. I marked all of the people who said they would donate and then followed up with them about a week later to thank them for choosing to donate and ask them if they had done so. The key is to couch it in gratitude!
8. I thanked people once they donated. Uh, yeah, did that privately, sometimes publicly.
9. I posted daily in the final five days on social media. In the final five days, I posted many many announcements on social media. It actually was pretty effective at getting people who knew about the campaign (and I had messaged them) but hadn’t given yet a gentle nudge. I messaged everyone who did not respond with a last chance reminder in the final two days. Self-explanatory, I think.
10. Rejoice; your vision will be manifested soon. p.s. I hate the word manifest but I love manifesting (what’s that about?). Once your project is fully funded, take a bath, watch Netflix, order pizza, and recover your broken and shattered immune system. Get ready to bring to life a project that never would have happened had you waited for someone to give you the opportunity to make it. Personally, we were ecstatic when we found out we were fully funded. We were fully funded two days before our deadline. After our actual deadline, I almost collapsed from exhaustion. No i didn’t, but I was exceptionally tired. But it was so worth it. Below, watch how excited we were when we finished our campaign.
so what action are you going to take?
- I’m gonna do this. I’ll save this link: justinagrayman.com/crowdfunding101
- I’ll watch the video version of this guide.
- I have a friend this would help. Scroll down to share this guide.
- Comment below if you have anything to share with Justina👇🏾.
i will publish a beastly resource for my conscious artists & revolutionary friends each time i have a major money success.To get notified of the next one, drop your email here.
