Kickstarter touts itself as the “world’s largest funding platform for creative projects.” While it hasn’t turned the world of raising funds on its head yet, its increasing popularity with users and funders might just do the trick before too long.

Kickstarter

Kickstarter (Photo credit: Laughing Squid)

The Scotsman

So far, I’ve donated to a couple of projects myself that I never would have heard about if it weren’t for the combination of Kickstarter and social media (namely Facebook and Twitter). Knowing somebody involved with the project or having a tangible connection to somebody involved seemed to make it a little easier for me to part with some of my money. Being of Scottish descent, this is pretty significant.

One Local Project

One project with local importance was for the Vermont State Snow Sculpting Team. State teams travel to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin every year to compete in the National Snow Sculpting Championship. Vermont has sent the same team (with some rotations in the lineup) for almost ten years straight. They had always relied on sponsors to help with the cost of traveling, but with the recent economy many sponsors had cut back or dropped their support all together. That, combined with baggage fees (Their equipment isn’t small or light), made the trip way more expensive than it used to be in the last few years. The situation was getting worse each year.

Interview Questions

With that intro, I begin my interview with Michale Nedell of Team Vermont, the Snow Sculpting National Champions.

Explain what your organization is and why you needed funding (in a paragraph)

Had you tried other ways of raising money in the past? What ways?

What made you think Kickstarter was a good fit for your organization? Did you see examples similar to yours before deciding?

Were there any unexpected barriers to starting your profile/account at Kickstarter? (For example, did you need an EIN, or proof of non-profit status, credit card, business checking account, etc.)

Once you started the campaign, how did you promote it? Facebook? Twitter? Other?

You reached your goal. Was it harder than you thought it was going to be?

Did you have preconceived notions of how this process was going to be?

Are there other questions you think I should ask? Michale awaits my list of questions, and I will share what I learn about this new online community in a future post.

 

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