10 Crowdfunding Tips From The 2014 Nonprofit Technology Conference

(Photo from Shubhagata Sengupta)

The Nonprofit Technology Conference is one of my favorite nonprofit conferences. It always has a wide array of insightful sessions (that are more hits than misses) on everything from fundraising to big-data.

We’ve presented there a couple of times, including our session on the 10 Principles of Peer-to-Peer Fundraising as well as the Future of Nonprofit Storytelling. This year, we co-hosted a session on nonprofit crowdfunding.

Here are 10 curated tips from crowdfunding experts from the Nonprofit Technology Conference.

1. Use crowdfunding when you have a specific project, not for a general fund.

2. Studies have shown that gifts/rewards actually reduce charitable giving. Use impact-driven rewards instead.

3. Free resource: download a free ebook on how to plan your crowdfunding campaign.

4. Contrary to what you may assume, the majority of donations for crowdfunding first come from people that you know.

5. There are three types of crowdfunding goals: impact-units, dollar-goal, and time-based goals. Make sure crowdfunding goals are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely.

6. Videos get you 4x more donations. Use video to tell a compelling story because it’s highly shareable.

7. If your team is afraid to get started with crowdfunding, “Pilot Project” are the two magic words to get people involved.

8. If you want to share, make it square! Images that are not square get cut on Facebook, so don’t let the important parts get cropped off.

9. Share your campaign to the public once you have 30% of the funds secured. People don’t like to join an empty dance floor.

10. Getting donations is about inviting donors to join your journey.

Thank you Jason Shim and Ghazal Vaghedi for all the great crowdfunding insights and joining me at the Nonprofit Technology conference. Until next year!