For This Giving Tuesday Lets Cancel Your Crowdfunding Campaign!
Crowdfunding is hard. Especially without a platform.
“Hey Kelley, I hope you are doing fantastic! You may have seen me posting on socials about Wish You Were Here ~ this is my first short film, and the beginning of my next chapter as a film director. Our campaign is ending in 6 days, and it would mean so much to have your support. Any contribution helps!!! Plus, for Giving Tuesday 50% of all funds we raise will go to a great cause! B2M ~ a mentoring program for young boys in California!”
SEND.
Aaaaaaaand thats 50! I’m done for the day. That was the 50th facebook message I sent on Giving Tuesday. “Don’t send more than 50 or they’ll block you.” It’s actually more like 35 or 40… I found that out the hard way. Apparently, it depends if you take breaks, or reword the message, or whatever, I don’t really know. But 50 was the coaching we got from Support our Story, our crowdfunding platform.
In addition to hosting our crowdfunding campaign, SOS provides daily coaching. That’s why we went with them over Seed & Spark (a close second) and the others, kickstarter, etc (they’re just not focused on film). SOS came highly recommended from a few people we really trusted in the industry, and sure their platform was a little clunky…but…for a crowdfunding novices (like us) the daily coaching was what clinched it. (and the coaching was great!) Without this coaching maybe we would not have raised $21,781 from 118 supporters in 3 weeks! We’re on a roll! Now with 6 days to go, we’re in the home stretch. We’re doing everything right, following the coaching, learning a lot, learning especially that Crowdfunding is NOT what I thought it was. That’s another story, you can read it here.(coming soon)
So, there I was; Hit Send. Done. 50. I’ve hit my activity goal for the day. Time to turn my focus back to my other work. I close my facebook tab and click over to my email. Another email from Support Our Story! More coaching? Nope. Subject line: “Avenida and Support Our Story ceasing operations” Wait, What? Hold up. I read on…
Wait? What? Ceased Operations?
I open a tab and go to our campaign page… its still up. Still taking contributions from supporters…
Wait… Insolvent? Legal Counsel? Creditors? No commitments about payouts?
Another message comes in. It’s an old friend:
“Hey Liam! OMG what an exciting project, we just contributed to your campaign, good luck!”
My heart is in my stomach.
Another message…
“This looks so cool! Contributing now”
Holy shit. Wait, wait? I just spent 3 hours telling everyone I’ve ever met to donate and… they are. and our platform is, insolvent? What do I even do?
Call Jess.
“Did you see the email”
“No babe, we just got back from the funeral”
That’s right, My wife and producer Jess, was at a funeral when she got the news that our crowdfunding platform was going out of business in the last week of our campaign.