Firstly, it goes without saying that I am so grateful for the $600 that we made in our fundraising party. I was so happy the we raised any money because I have never thrown a live fundraiser before! $600 is enough to fund many projects and was very valuable. But of course I am a nit picky perfectionist sometimes so let me share why I think we did not get to say, $2K in one night. I also want to shout out Samir Hall & Black Flamingo for helping us find a venue and hold down the door. Thank you to Kristin Sudeikis for connecting me to Samir.
We did it ourselves. Only two of us led this effort and did not form a committee of say, 10 people who were each in charge of bringing 10 people. That was what Samir suggested. We did not have the energy to think through why 10 people would bring 10 people with such short notice. So we did it ourselves.
We gave 2-3 days notice. What really held us back from creating this committee was that we did the party very last minute. We needed more time to plan why people would want to host this party and why people would come.
We did it on a Wednesday night. Um, must I explain? Work-sleep cycle in full effect. I mean, this is only a guess but if we were to take advantage of people who already would be going out but would also get to go out and support a great project, that may have been more successful. Who knows.
We offered few incentives for people who didn’t know us. The party was people who knew us plus their friends. If we would have given incentives for our friends and family to bring people to experience something new or interesting to them, we could have gotten more people I believe.
Of course, all of this is conjecture after the fact but I think it all makes sense 🙂
want to hear more about my fundraising success? read my step-by-step guide on how we crowdfunded $18K
To read my beastly step-by-step guide explaining how we crowdfunded $18K with no following or fanbase, click to view this awesomely detailed post I wrote 🙂
a little backstory
It was a chilly January 2018 day in the current dimension when 30-year-old unnecessarily educated Justina, queer artist child of black Panamanian immigrants, learned she had three months until her cushy job would let her go. Stunned that her comfortable safety net had broken, she stared at the email for 60 seconds before she resumed binge-watching Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee. Two weeks later, she had a nervous break down. BUT. Finally, she will play. She will create. And hopefully never work again. Oh, and now she has a journal. More on her/me here.
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 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. In this crowdfunding 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…)
