You say you’re afraid mostly because, “What if I don’t reach my goal?” “What if I put in my blood, sweat, tears – miss 12 episodes of GOT, forego the latest season of Insecure, and I don’t raise enough to do my project”? p.s. Who is watching This Is Us? I cry every other episode.
What you’re actually saying when you say this is: My project is not compelling enough to draw people’s interest in helping create it. My project might not get funded because people won’t see the relevance and importance of the project and they will ignore it. My project might not reach its goal because people won’t support what I’m creating.
So if your real concern is actually that people won’t see the relevance or importance of your work enough to support it, that’s actually great. Because we can fix that. It’s simple. Make sure 1) your project is relevant to the communities you’d like to create for/with and 2) you communicate with these communities effectively about how it is relevant.
Finding your community. Perhaps you are now thinking, “what community?” This is for everyone or no one. Well, here’s the thing, as I posted in another entry, people get real giddy when they think something has been made just for them. For example, no one can drag me away from Insecure because it is too real of a depiction of people like me that I’ve rarely seen before. Decide on what community you are speaking to with your project.
Making your project relevant. Start with this. Before you even start your campaign, talk to 15 friends, family members, community members, etc. who are in this community you are creating for/with. Do NOT talk to them about your crowdfunding campaign specifically but about the topic that you are pursuing. Find out their current thoughts about the issue and what they are actively seeking in that area. Sample question: What do you think about X? Is there anything you’ve been searching for regarding X? The point is to find out what resonates with them that they haven’t found yet. In my initial conversations with friends for Black Man in America, I found that a lot of people had given up on watching news and stories about these issues as an issue of self-care and that they were prioritizing feeling powerful. They wanted us to feel powerful and support each other. I learned that it was common that we no longer wanted to see such disturbing images of violence and wanted to engage in a conversation about power. Use what you find about people’s thoughts in whatever way you’d like to ensure the project is actually relevant to the people you want it to be relevant to.
Communicating the relevance of your project in ways that resonate. One of the best ways for people to see the relevance of something is to show them themselves. What do I mean? Well, for example, the reason why every other Walmart and McDonalds commercial has a Black family in it doing some type of foolishness is that they know that when we see people like us doing something we also do, we trust that whatever they are doing is also a choice we would make. The point is not about Walmart or McDonalds (ah!) but that when you describe your project in text and video, depicting stories and people that resonate with your community’s experiences makes a huge difference. When having conversations with community, ask for their stories. There might be an overlap between what you’ve experienced and what they share. You can share stories of yourself and others that are common experiences, and people will be more likely to keep listening. This is especially true when someone tells a story about themselves that is infrequently voiced by others.Now, get thee out of here fear! All we need is a powerful and relevant project.
what if your fear comes from not knowing how to create a successful campaign? read my step-by-step guide on how we raised $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…)
