Sponsorcraft is a highly innovative tech venture that white-labels websites for universities allowing them to provide a space for students and alumni to present fundraising projects and challenges.

Today, UnLtd – the leading provider of support to social entrepreneurs in the UK – announced Sponsorcraft as a winner of the Big Venture Challenge 2013, an £8.5m investment accelerator programme which is set to revolutionise the way high-net worth individuals can support organisations dedicated to delivering benefits for society.

“Over 140 social ventures applied to the programme which provides match-funding, intensive investment readiness support and powerful connections. Ventures will be supported to raise external investment in either debt or equity. Those who do will be able to access up to a further £100,000 from the Big Venture Challenge as grants and soft loans. The winning social ventures span all sectors and regions, providing a real snapshot of ambitious early-stage social ventures seeking investment in the UK.” – http://unltd.org.uk/2013/05/15/big-venture-challenge-2013/

The news arrives just a week after the announcement of Wayra UnLtd – UnLtd’s exciting new joint venture with Wayra UK, part of the world’s largest startup accelerator. Sponsorcraft, already a member of Wayra UK, are understandably excited:

“We are delighted to be part of both Wayra and UnLtd, able to benefit from both of these prestigious accelerators, and look forward to helping students, educators, and their universities do more with transparent, social fundraising.” – Jonathan May, CEO of Sponsorcraft.

Charmaine Eggberry, Director of Wayra UK, added: “Sponsorcraft is a great example of the type of company Wayra and UnLtd are excited about accelerating – they have enormous growth potential”.

“Sponsorcraft’s platform looks set for rapid take up across the UK’s Universities” – http://unltd.org.uk/2013/05/14/jonathan-may-sponsorcraft/

This is a common piece of advice, but it isn’t quite right. If your project is relatively small, your success is entirely down to how you utilise your networks, so the platform is pretty irrelevant. Many platforms have had successful projects raising hundreds of thousands of dollars. Again, it’s down to you to spread your project and be successful.

So what’s the right advice?

“Think carefully about which crowdfunding MODEL to use.”

There are only a few, and they appear pretty similar, but the difference between models could be the difference between success and failure…

All-or-Nothing

Popularised by Kickstarter and used by many platforms, the “All-or-Nothing model” is the most common form of crowdfunding. It can provide sponsors both security and urgency to their pledges, but the drawback is clear: if you don’t achieve your funding target, you receive nada. Nevertheless, this is a great model for those who cannot afford to carry out their project unless they hit a certain goal. However, it can encourage you to set a lower target than you might ideally like due to the risk of not reaching it.

So what if your real funding target is larger than the amount you actually need to carry out the project?

Flexible Funding

Indiegogo developed “Flexible Funding” to try to tackle this problem. You can opt to collect any funds raised, but if you don’t achieve your target you will be charged a higher percentage platform commission. This has proved a good solution to the problem for many, but it can result in a lack of urgency for both sponsors and the project creators. Furthermore, you are committed to carrying out your project and delivering rewards even if you don’t raise enough to do so. Not a nice position to find yourself in!

So is there another, better way?

Milestones

At Sponsorcraft, we have developed “Milestones” – a model that involves setting a “minimum needed” (if you want to) which is less than your real funding target. This allows you to create the urgency that is so important in crowdfunding, but also to aim for your dream target without the risk of failure. Milestones also means that you can plan for the delivery of rewards comfortable in the knowledge that there are no “variable fees” and that you will only have to deliver the rewards if you reach your minimum needed to do so.

We believe that for many people, this is the most secure way to crowdfund, whilst also allowing people to strive for their dream target. Milestones is live on Sponsorcraft now! If you’d like to use this exciting new model, please get in touch – we’d love to help!

Duncan Knox – @duncanknox
Development Director, Sponsorcraft – @Sponsorcraft

Our free guide – The Crowdfunding Handbook – has some great advice to get you started!

By Myriam Raja, Film Production student at the Arts University College at Bournemouth.
Cine Pak Facebook Page

So there it was – my idea neatly written out on a blank piece of paper in front of me. It seemed simple enough at the time; to travel over to my native country Pakistan and run a series of free filmmaking workshops for schoolchildren. As I began to plan things out, look into the logistics and make session plans, I realized this was no easy feat and it definitely needed much more funding than I had previously envisaged. What should I do?

Sponsorcraft is what I did! As a filmmaker, it’s pretty normal to have to scavenge around for funding and write countless funding bids for film ideas and scripts, but as I knew this was a project that was for a community; for other people, I thought it deserved to have the support and involvement of people who would be as passionate as I am about it.

I had never fundraised or gone through any crowd funding before, and was a little scared about it to be honest. However, I found the website and layout of Sponsorcraft easy and appealing enough to sign up for an account and give it a go. I wrote out an action plan, made detailed plans of what it was that I wanted to do, achieve and what the donations would be used for. I felt it was extremely important to be clear about that – most people would want to know how they are contributing and what difference their contribution will make. In this case, every single penny was important and every person would be making a massive difference.

One of the most amusing parts was the rewards and perks section – it gave me a chance to be creative and I had a think about what kind of perks I would like myself. I knew for sure that I wanted it to be personal for the sponsor, and something that would also involve the children in a creative way. And that is where the idea of letters and postcards stems from. These proved to be a massive success as most sponsors emailed me to let me know they received the letters or postcards and were very pleased about them. Each girl wrote a letter or postcard, and some even insisted on making drawings. It was a wonderful experience for them, as they had never corresponded with anyone by letter before, and were very excited to be sending something ‘abroad’ through the post.

The project was an absolute success, and through Sponsorcraft, I garnered a lot of supporters for the project – especially through the facebook page which was getting almost 20 to 30 likes per day during the final days of fundraising. It was a great way of getting the word out about the project and having people follow its success and progress. Each sponsor was thanked through a status update when a donation was made, and many of my friends on facebook shared the Sponsorcraft link.

I also did a round of personal emails and messages to friends and family for donations, and was absolutely overjoyed when I received donations from strangers – people who were donating purely because they liked the project and what it was doing. That was definitely a plus point for me. It was a little scary at first, when the only donation was from my mother and nothing else seemed to be happening. But then came days when I would receive up to 5 donations in a single day! Each little email informing me of a new sponsor was followed by a mini celebration as I could see the project reach its goal closer and closer each day.

During the workshops, I made it a point to constantly update the facebook page by uploading photos and status updates to let the followers and sponsors know about the progress. It was a great way of letting them see exactly how they contributed to the project.

For me, having people’s support and encouragement was probably one of the biggest boosters. It made me want to work extra hard to make sure this was the best possible project it could be. I know I definitely could not have done it without the extra donations and Sponsorcraft has played a very big role in that. I will most definitely be returning to fundraise even more for further projects and would encourage anyone who has ever had any doubts to just go and try it. You won’t regret it!

And when I finally got hold of this swanky new piece of tech I thought to myself, as many of us do – “What do I do with it now?”

I was at a complete loss. I already had a computer, I already had a few other tinker devices (like the Arduino) to play with, so what makes this special? I set it aside for a few weeks and started an internship at Sponsorcraft, a Bristol-based crowd funding platform specialising in student projects.

It was there that I met Jon and Russ, two talented programmers who quickly became mentors (of a sort) to me. They helped to fuel my desire to program and eventually conversation led to the Raspberry Pi. “Oh, I’ve got one of those” I said.

Around that time, my yearly rental for my personal website was running out and as I had learned the wonders of Python and Django I wanted to build my new site with it. However as a poor student I wanted to find the cheapest way of doing this! Some options, such as Amazon Web Services or Heroku, looked great but a bit beyond my budget.

I mentioned this issue one day in passing and either Jon or Russ told me to “just use my Raspberry Pi then.”

Hang on a minute, that’s brilliant! It can run from my own house and I can have complete control over it! So I set about building it and figuring out the best way to do things on this new little device, which naturally got me more interested in Raspberry Pi things.

Then I discovered that real secret to Raspberry Pi – the thing that sets it apart: education.

I was figuring out how to do things that were new to me, and learning how to achieve things that other people might want to get taught how to do.

Somehow through conversation at Sponsorcraft (and I suspect some subtle pushing from the team!) I came up with an idea for a project that introduces the Raspberry Pi and practical computer usage in schools, with a website running on a Raspberry Pi filled with tutorials on programming.

The next month shot by at the speed of light – I was working at Sponsorcraft in the day, finalising and developing in the evening. I realised if I wanted to do this properly I’d need some cash: Raspberry Pi’s in large quantities aren’t cheap! I made a video describing my project one night at about 1am and posted the project online.

Within one day my project became the most viewed project the site had ever seen at that point. With the help of the Sponsorcraft team we contacted other Raspberry Pi enthusiasts and teachers, letting them know about the idea and getting their feedback.

Slowly the funding total climbed.

One week in August I was helping out at Young Rewired State, a project to get under 18′s to build a piece of software over the course of 5 days. It was there I shared my idea with Shirley Attkinson, one of my own Plymouth University Lecturers. She said to me “wait here a few minutes, I’ll be right back.” She never did come back, but about an hour later I got an email saying she could “help fund the project if Plymouth University can be directly involved”.

Amazing!

With Plymouth University donating a huge sum of the funding and directly supporting and helping me to run the project, I was well and truly on the way to getting the project started.

The first time I mentioned the project to the public was at the Bristol RaspberryJam. It was there that I finally announced the project had amassed over £1200 to help it and had become the first successfully-funded Raspberry Pi project.

I’d hit the target – now the fun part was about to begin.

It has been about 4 months since I finished getting the funding for the project and I’ve already done a heck of a lot – I’ve visited conferences and spoken in front of hundreds of people about what I’m planning to do, I’ve taken lessons in schools around Plymouth and special workshop days with 6th form students (they absolutely loved doing some ‘real’ IT with me). The website is up and running and I’m adding tutorials every few weeks on Python programming basics.

The project is still growing and constantly changing, and without the initial spark from the team at Sponsorcraft I’d have never started down this exhilarating and exciting path.

For more info, visit:

Paul’s Sponsorcraft Project

The DjangoPi Website

Carrie Anne Philbin talks about her campaign to get more girls into science-based subjects, and the experience of her Sponsorcraft project…

Rainbows, fluffy things, and unicorns is what it is like to have a project funded through Sponsorcraft.

As an East London ICT Teacher I’ve been working on a not-for-profit project this year to inspire teenage girls to take a second look at traditionally geeky subjects such as Science, Technology, Engineering, and Computing, called The Geek Gurl Diaries. As this project was not for profit, I had funded it myself, buying hardware, software, and anything else needed along the way to make video content for young people and uploading it to YouTube. I was finding it increasingly difficult to raise the funds I needed to take my project further and was becoming frustrated with applying for grants online.

Then one day I was speaking to Paul Hallett of the DjangoPi Project and he suggested that I created a crowd funded sponsor page through Sponsorcraft as he did. I had sponsored colleagues and friends running marathons for charity through websites but I had never thought about crowdfunding for my own project.

I was first struck by just how easy it was to create a project page on Sponsorcraft and how quickly I was contacted with support from the Sponsorcraft team. They gave me great advice not only at the start, but throughout the time my project was live.

I greatly enjoyed thinking up rewards for sponsors, watching the counter going up, and being contacted by people from around the world offering not only their cash, but their support for my work. By the time the deadline came my project was funded 110% giving me more than I had asked for.

This funding will allow me to purchase hardware and video-editing software to improve the quality of the videos that I am producing for the YouTube channel. The more professional the content is, the more it will draw in the intended target audience of teenagers.

I’ve since been busy creating ‘how to’ style videos on building computers, using a Raspberry Pi for the first time and creating vector graphics using open source software. I’ve continued to interview women working in tech and have an exciting opportunity to interview a Google Android Developer in the next few months. I have also begun a series of monthly ‘On Air’ discussions with female computer science graduates and friends. The Geek Gurl Diaries Facebook page is also up and running with members of the target demographic joining daily, which spurs me to create more great video content. Finally my work has been recognised by Talk Talk and nominated for a Digital Heroes Award 2012. Exciting stuff!

I would not hesitate to use Sponsorcraft again in the future, so if you need funding for a school, college or university project, what are you waiting for? Give it a go you may get exactly what you need, and more!

In that time, we have been asked countless times why the education-sector needs its own platform, and why our projects cannot just go and use Kickstarter. With Kickstarter’s launch in the UK today, that question becomes even more pertinent!

However, it’s also an extraordinarily short-sighted question, from the point of view of general UK platforms as well as niche sector platforms. Here’s why…

General Platforms

Let me start by answering the question for all the UK crowdfunding companies. Will Kickstarter destroy my market? The answer, emphatically, should be “no”. Kickstarter is about to educate 60 million people about crowdfunding in a way that none of us could afford to do, generating coverage and traction across the UK’s media, and spreading the idea to the far reaches of the country, into a vast number of exciting new sectors and areas. Every single UK crowdfunding website will see a surge of interest over the next year due to Kickstarter’s arrival. The most vulnerable are those which are literally clones, but even those will see a large number of new users and projects, primarily from people whose projects don’t fit the Kickstarter model.

So no, we’re not screwed. We’re for the most part absolutely thrilled that Kickstarter is doing free promotion for us. Our Google Analytics data is already showing what Kickstarter’s UK launch is going to do to our business…

Niche Platforms – the Education Sector

To extend the point a little – the “niche” platforms (those that don’t compete with Kickstarter, or compete in a very specific sector) are even better off. The reason is that they will receive increased traffic and benefit from increased awareness, but will not suffer from any loss in potential projects migrating to the Kickstarter platform. This is particularly true for us at Sponsorcraft.

Sponsorcraft makes education-sector crowdfunding platforms. Why should the education-sector have its own platform? It boils down to a simple thing: “community”. When you back a project on Kickstarter, you are backing a concept, idea or team because you want the reward or because you think the project itself is incredibly cool (or both). For the most part, you have no personal connection or interaction with the project’s creator. You aren’t going to fund their next project unless it is equally cool, and you aren’t going to check out projects that are done by other people in their company. What Kickstarter was – and to some extent still is – is a series of microfunding sites – one for each project – with a shared login system.

Sponsorcraft is very different. We have only been live for around 6 months, but we are building a real community of users – both project creators and project sponsors – whose use of the platform is centred around institutions. In the education sector, once someone has made their first donation, the chances of them donating again next year approach 70%. And the philanthropic donation market itself is enormous – around £15bn every year is given to education-sector institutions by individuals making sub-£30k donations. Sponsorcraft has already generated an active community of repeat project donors, giving multiple pledges to projects where there is a connection to the university, school or college of the project. This repeat donation process is immensely valuable.

Moreover, we have a network of project creators. Some of these have started to create a second project. Many have opted to become “helpers” on new projects on Sponsorcraft. Yet again, we have a community of repeat site users, each and every one adding value back to the network in terms of projects, pledges and help.

Sponsorcraft is building a network of platforms – and communities – centred around these institutions, and the people associated with them.

As a final point, 95% of the projects on our website would not be accepted by Kickstarter. This helps to demonstrate further that it is not a competitor – it is a similar tool for a different market.

So, what is Kickstarter’s UK launch doing for us? It is bringing the word crowdfunding to the lips of everyone. And when times are tough, anything that promises a silver bullet to assist with fundraising gets a huge amount of attention.

Summary

Kickstarter is a revolutionary company. It has almost single-handedly put crowdfunding in the dictionary. It is sure to have a significant impact on the UK creative industries, as it has done in the US. Its launch in the UK is educating the education sector to the power of crowdfunding.

We have been waiting for this moment for over a year. So, welcome Kickstarter, and thanks for all the projects.

Do you want to know how to raise £390 in 72 hours?

Our company, Rag and Bone Productions, did just that. This summer we are making our first appearance at the Edinburgh Fringe with a dark and innovative take on the classic Greek myth, Echo and Narcissus. With the festival starting in just a few weeks, this was our final push to raise money as much as possible to go towards set, costumes and lighting.

At first we relied upon social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, encouraging the cast and crew to post updates and statuses. This however, did not prove successful since we were stuck on only £15 up until three days before our deadline.

Our change of strategy involved composing a list of all our close friends and family; anyone who we thought would get excited to hear about the project we were involved in. From this list we sent emails, finding that if people had personally been asked, they would feel more of a duty to donate. Whilst keeping the number of people we emailed large so they didn’t feel too much pressure, we also spread it over a few emails to ensure it still felt personal to those who received it. We kept the email friendly, whilst also conveying a sense of urgency; the deadline was in three days and we stressed that if the target was not reached, no funds would be received.

In just 72 hours we went from £15 to £390; £90 over our target! A few days before the deadline we were prepared to accept we would not meet the target. Now we cannot believe we were going to give up so easily. We aren’t suggesting you leave it so last minute to send out personal pleas – if anything you can learn from the mistake we made of leaving it until only a few days before! However, simply posting it on Facebook will not work. We realise now anyone who clicked on the link and saw we weren’t doing well wouldn’t be encouraged to sponsor; seeing others have donated is attractive to potential pledgers. It was the personal touch of private messages that seemed to work for us and remember even when you are prepared to give up, keep on pushing the page everyday as much as you can!

–
What can you learn from Sarah’s experience?
1. It’s never too late!
2. Contacting friends and family first is a great way to get the ball rolling and make your project look more credible to other sponsors.
3. Social media is great for finding contacts, but you need to contact them directly and personally to get donations!

Ed Tolkien used Sponsorcraft to finance his latest social project, Undergarments for Everyone. Having smashed his funding target in just under two weeks, Ed is recommending the website to other creative students with a vision. Here are a couple of the reasons why:

(1) Effectiveness. Having tried collection boxes, Ed found crowdfunding particularly useful for engaging a wide range of people who his campaign had been previously unable to reach.

“Sponsorcraft has been by far the most effective way of raising funds for the campaign. There is such a massive bank of potential sponsors online, and Sponsorcraft makes it a walk in the park to donate. I collected about £15 with all the donation boxes combined over three weeks, but £113 via Sponsorcraft in two weeks, with 1120 views to the project! About half of the Sponsorcraft donations have come from friends and family who are outside of Bristol so couldn’t have made it to a donation box. The other half are from people I have never met and who probably would never have found out about the project if it hadn’t been on Sponsorcraft.”

Moving his fundraising efforts onto the internet helped Ed tap into an online community which he had been previously unable to connect with. Crowdfunding therefore helped him to massively extend his reach.

(2) Relationship and trust building. Sponsorcraft has simple mechanisms for conversation and engagement between sponsors and student ‘crafters’ through questions, comments and updates. This communication with sponsors helps create trust and confidence in the ‘crafter’ and his or her project which, in turn, can lead to more interest and donations.

“The updates feature of the website has been really useful too as it meant that I could fill sponsors in on what I was doing with their money, and let them know it wasn’t going on a nice fish pie for my dinner.”

—

James Bogie, who set up a student-run tour group Walking Bristol, also turned to Sponsorcraft to cover the costs of printing and promoting his new creation. The group offer free cultural tours and survive only on tips and general goodwill.

(3) A small boost to kick-start your business. James saw Sponsorcraft as a source of money when others have dried up.

“Sponsorcraft has really helped us out because it’s just given us that boost. We didn’t need a lot of money. It was just a little bit we needed for printing and things. We needed it just to get things started and I couldn’t get it from anywhere.”

(4) Speed and simplicity. From email to project in 15 minutes.

“I got an email, went on Sponsorcraft and it took me about 15 minutes to set everything up. It was fast.”

(5) Help generating attention in the media.

“We were also pleased to have a radio interview with Ali Vowles on BBC Bristol, and an article was written about our start up which made it onto the BBC homepage, which you can read here.”

Walking Bristol was funded through Sponsorcraft in April and is currently rated the 3rd best Bristol tour by the public on Trip Advisor – just behind two ballooning companies. He’s now looking to spread the word to hotels, hostels and tourism offices in order to help Walking Bristol tours become a fixture of the Bristol cultural scene.

(6) James sees Sponsorcraft as a great option for creatives.

“Students are always looking for money. And not for themselves – for projects. Like plays! People are always wanting to put on plays. I know so many people who want to go to the Edinburgh Fringe. And they’ve got their play, and they just need a bit of funding to get there. That’s Sponsorcraft, right there!”

—

Emily Cawse turned to Sponsorcraft to organise a trip to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this summer without any funding. She explains in this blogpost how crowdfunding helped her achieve her goals as President of her society this year.

(7) Reach.

Like Ed, Emily was able to connect with people she had never expected to before.

“I was struck by its potential to reach people outside our normal student audience.”

(8) Engagement.

“It is more than just a sponsorship site – crowdfunding encourages people to really get involved with a project and rewards them for their support. Our sponsors have pledged money for everything from VIP tickets to our shows, recordings of our performances and Executive Producer credits. (So far, nobody has chosen a dinner party or even romantic date with the cast…)”

*This actually changed shortly after she wrote this. Here’s a picture of the Bristol Improv team having dinner with one of their sponsors.

(9) A human touch.

Emily appreciated project-specific advice from Sponsorcraft’s moderation team.

“There’s a human on the end of it giving you advice. For example, I got an email from ‘Duncan’ suggesting we put a video on our project page and I did that and got a lot more donations.”

(10) Money for nothing?

Rather than having to splash out on printing t-shirts or merchandise, Emily and her team were able to design a series of rewards that utilised their talents to create fun and friendly experiences.

“One of the reasons we chose Sponsorcraft was because of the rewards system and the good thing about the rewards we chose was that a lot of them didn’t cost us any money.”

(11) Speed and effectiveness. But also the unexpected generosity of people online.

“When I started Bristol Improv’s Sponsorcraft project, I really wasn’t sure what to expect. I hoped our parents, family and friends would support us, but I didn’t know how much money we could raise. Our target was a fairly modest £300, which would pay for our early-bird entry into the Fringe Programme (essential for advertising our show to the public and getting reviewed). We were blown away by the support, and the speed with which donations came in. A fair amount of gentle pestering helped us reach completion only a few weeks after the project launched!”

(12) Offers an end to more time-consuming and frustrating methods of fundraising. Tom, a fellow cast member from Bristol Improv, had this to add:

“The days of having to hand around a sponsorship form and having to chase people up for money are over, I think, with things like Sponsorcraft.”

—

From comedy clubs aiming for the Fringe to cheerleaders targeting a national competition… Every year, thousands of students converge on Telford in Shropshire for a colourful celebration of cheerleading in the UK – the BCA University Nationals. It’s the goal and highlight of any club’s year to put their high-flying stunts and routines into practice. But, for a while, the UWE Comets thought they weren’t going to be able to afford to compete there this year. Faced with hefty budget cuts to their Students’ Union, they turned to crowdfunding and ran a successful campaign, raising over £500 in a little over 2 weeks.

And it’s a good job that they did. Not only did they have a fantastic time performing at the University Nationals but they came home with a heap of silverware to boot.

(13) The opportunity to put your skills into action. Alexandra Atherton saw Sponsorcraft as a way to beat the cuts and stay competitive.

“We performed really well. We came 3rd in both the highly competitive level 1 and 3 categories and won 1st place in level 4. Also, our group stunt performances gained two 2nd’s. Thanks to Sponsorcraft, we came home with 7 trophies!”

Not bad for a club who were contemplating withdrawal from the competition only a month before.

While the club is not alien to different types of fundraising, it was their first experience of web-based campaigns. And the positive experience seems to have turned Alex into a keen advocate for crowdfunding.

(14) Reach.

“Crowdfunding is a great way to fundraise as it not only promotes your project or club online but allows sponsors from anywhere to donate to your project!”

(15) Incentives for sponsors.

Unlike charity sites like JustGiving, crowdfunding allows you to reward people for donations. Small mementos can be really attractive to people donating.

“Additionally, Sponsorcraft’s reward scheme sets it apart from its competitors as it incentivises the whole process!”

Alexandra is now recommending more students and their societies make the most of Sponsorcraft’s website and support.

(16) Help, promotion and advice.

“Using the Sponsorcraft website was easy and we received a lot of support from their team. I would highly recommend using Sponsorcraft if your club needs to raise money for a project as the process was seamless and can really make a difference!”

—

In February 2012, Emily Diamond registered with Sponsorcraft hoping to raise some of the money she needed to fulfil her Olympic ambitions. She wanted to compete in a long list of events in the run-up to the Games and each of these cost money.

(17) Like Alexandra, Emily saw Sponsorcraft as a way to stay competitive.

“I needed to find sponsorship to help me improve my chances of qualifying for the Olympics. I needed help to pay for flights, hotel accommodation and expenses for overseas competitions and also competitions in this country. If you are in the elite, you get all that paid for. But lower down you often have to cover the costs yourself.”

She was extremely grateful to all those people who shared and sponsored her project on Sponsorcraft and, in doing so, played some small part in her realising her Olympic dream.

—

Rob Griffiths is the Marketing & Business Manager at Bristol University’s Burst Radio station. Burst raised over £1000 which has allowed them to buy outside broadcasting equipment. This means that they are now able to get out of the studio and broadcast live from events all over the city.

(18) The chance to pay off debts and be more ambitious.

“The reality was that Burst could only go so far on the shoestring budget we were operating on, so we needed to pull together to get the station up to the level it deserves to be at.”

(19) Rob was also grateful for a space where he could bring everything together and make their fundraising drive look a bit more professional.

“I found Sponsorcraft immensely helpful in providing us with a platform to crowdfund our project.”

(20) He found the website a doddle.

“The Sponsorcraft website is really easy and really well designed.”

—

Paul Hallett, who also raised over £1000 for his educational project DjangoPi, found that the support he gained through Sponsorcraft allowed him to be far more ambitious than he previously thought possible.

(21) Provides you with the tools and profile to achieve more.

“The best thing about Sponsorcraft is that it’s enabled me to do far more than I originally intended.”

He’s been able to speak at a whole host of events and schools and is building up a large network of followers, sponsors and enthusiasts.

(22) Makes you feel more optimistic about your ideas and potential.

“It wasn’t just the funding. It was also great for the confidence that I was getting from other people supporting me.”

—

Imogen Beech and theatre group Rag & Bone Productions managed to fund their entry into the Edinburgh Fringe programme this year.

(23) She was amazed at the speed and effectiveness of online fundraising.

“In just 72 hours we went from £15 to £390; £90 over our target!”

—

Michael Sides used Sponsorcraft to raise money for Joke’s Over, an interactive film/theatre production.

(24) More freedom, more followers and more of an outside profile.

“You’re just going to have a bit more freedom and a whole bunch of supporters who’ve found you through it, backing you to succeed.”

(25) Simplicity of promotion.

“Putting it on Facebook and Twitter worked really well for us. The people who saw it were really interested in it and straight away started sending it out to loads more people.”

(26) Plentiful advice and an archive of other projects to learn from.

“There’s loads of advice on the website and there are loads of other projects you can look at.”

(27) Easiness of fashioning rewards.

“There are lots of things you can quite easily make during the production process like DVDs and ‘behind the scenes’ photos.”

(28) Michael was also excited by the correlation between good rewards and donations.

“The more thought you put into the stuff you give to people, the more money you can ask for. The more of a real gift it is, the more they’re prepared to spend.”

(29) Rewards leading to stronger relationships and positive feedback from sponsors.

“When we posted out all the photos and DVDs and gave away these two pieces of artwork, some people even called us up to say thank you and to tell us how great a time they’d had. When they got a reminder and a small memento of the event, they were really grateful and really happy and it was really quite a good moment.”

(30) The opportunity to aim higher.

“Without it, there would be ideas that you just can’t do, things that you just can’t make, things you can’t afford and that can really put a downer on a project. You could sell yourself short.”

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Sponsorcraft was built to help students with ideas and ambitions find money. It’s been up and running for about 8 months. For those interested in starting a project or checking out some of those already there, get off the blog and onto the website – www.sponsorcraft.com.

We know some of you will want to get busy fundraising as soon as possible. Maybe there’s a big event on the horizon and you don’t have long to hit your target and get organised for that. Fair enough. In general, though, when putting your project together, we strongly advise that you take your time and get things looking and sounding just right. According to Kickstarter, “the average successfully funded creator spends nearly two weeks tweaking their project before launching.” This fits with our experience too. You can often feel when a project has been rushed through. It doesn’t give off a great impression.

There are things a crowdfunding platform’s editing team can fix (e.g. spelling, grammar, punctuation) and things that we really can’t (such as the content and positivity of your project) – we won’t write your project description for you. We can offer advice but ultimately the project is yours.

Remember: It’s not a race. Time spent preparing can really pay off. Think of hares and tortoises here. We see it with projects all the time. Some take off like an express train but hit a brick wall once they run out of appeal to anyone outside of a narrow pool of close friends and family.

So what do you need to “craft” exactly…?

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Project Title.

Your project title should be simple, specific, and memorable. Crucially, aim to make it searchable! Yes, plenty of people will come to your project through a link you share on Facebook or Twitter… but there will be those who won’t! So avoid stuff like ‘Help us fund our new show’. Aside from being bland, anyone who knows the name of your theatre group or new show is likely to search for these terms and will struggle to find you. This is less than ideal. Try something more like ‘Gone Rogue Productions produce their debut musical’.

Note: Kickstarter also suggests you “avoid words like ‘help’, ‘support’, or ‘fund’ as they imply that you’re asking someone to do you a favour rather than offering an experience they’re going to love.” We agree that these are unnecessary for the project title. However, we have no big issue with you using them in the project description. The reality for crowdfunding platforms like Sponsorcraft is that you’re probably not producing the next blockbuster, must-have watch, super cool iPhone dock or best-selling video game (as people are on Kickstarter). You are not selling cheap copies of something people might want to buy in a shop. Your project may be awesome. But you are asking a favour. It’s OK to ask for people’s ‘help’ or ‘support’.

As a principle though, aim to accentuate the positives of what you’re hoping to do rather than the negatives of your financial predicament.

If your project title was going to be beamed all over the web, what would you want it to say? How could you excite people?

Here are 5 examples of good titles on Sponsorcraft so far:

1. The Oxford Belles performing at Edinburgh Fringe
2. Bullets Cycle Around The World for Kit
3. Oxford Women’s Blues Varsity Ice Hockey Match
4. Send Straight Line to the Edinburgh Fringe
5. FOURH4ND Does Freshers’ Week

All of these titles a) sound exciting b) simply and accurately sum up the project and c) are stuffed full of keywords to help people searching for them.

Here are 7 examples of titles that could be improved:

1. Blood, Sweat & Gears (I like this one. It’s clever and catchy. But it’s not very searchable. Perhaps it could be used somewhere else in the project description. A more accurate and searchable title for their project might be ‘Glasgow Caledonian University Cycle Club look for New Bikes’)
2. Burst Radio – Outside Broadcasting Capability (This has the keywords. It just doesn’t read very nicely. With 60 characters to play with, they could’ve gone with ‘Bristol’s Burst Radio Station look for Outside Broadcasting’)
3. Amazon River Dolphins – Operation Wallacea (Again, all the keywords are there. But how about ‘Student Saving Amazon River Dolphins with Operation Wallacea’? It sounds more exciting and says what you intend to DO with the dolphins. As opposed to simply drawing attention to the fact that they exist.)
4. Emily Diamond – Athletics 2012 Sponsorship (Keywords, yep. But how about ‘Olympic Hopeful Emily Diamond looks to reach London 2012′ – we’re introduced to an aim here and it sounds a lot more exciting as a result.)
5. Nouse – 13th March Edition (A better title might be ‘York University’s no.1 Student Paper Nouse fund New Edition’. No?)
6. Engineering World Health Summer Institute (This tells us very little about who the student is and what they aim to achieve. Try something a bit more like ‘Oxford Student Repairs Medical Equipment in Tanzania with EWH’)
7. Empower Kenya (This is a nice title but is not particularly searchable. Try ‘SIFE UWE install Biodigester at Nguu Tatu Village in Kenya’)

Some groups use the name of their club, society, company or latest film, play or show as their title. This is absolutely fine! …as long as the project ‘tagline’ is good. By “good,” I mean “explains what you intend to do.” A ‘tagline’ is the bit of text that will appear below your project title and picture. To the right, you can see a beautiful shining example of a project card. If you don’t explain what you’re setting out to do anywhere on your project card, you may struggle to find people willing to investigate further. This means they’ll miss out on your video, description and rewards.

The choice is yours. But we recommend you include a little more than just your group or latest album/play/film’s name in your title as people don’t want to just know that your group exists… and has a cool name… -they want to know what you want to DO! This goes back to my earlier blog about converting funding needs into ‘projects’ – ‘Walking Bristol’ and ‘EUAFC’ are not projects. On the surface, they are simply groups that want sponsorship. If possible, aim to set out the vague concept of your project in the title.

Here are 5 examples:

1. Walking Bristol (This is the name of the tour group but offers little description of the project. How about ‘Walking Bristol look for funding to provide Free City Tours’)
2. EUAFC (A more useful description might be ‘Edinburgh University Football Club look for Kit & Sponsorship’
3. Shining Eyes (This is the name of the film. Always a good thing to include. However, it could be more descriptive: ‘UWE Film-makers look to produce their new film – Shining Eyes’)
4. Disposable? (‘Bristol’s One Giant Arm look to fund Global Camera Exchange’ or ‘One Giant Arm look to fund Global Camera Exchange – Disposable?’ This is a choice of keywords.)
5. Joke’s Over (‘UWE Film Student hosts Interactive Theatre Show – Joke’s Over’)

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Writing your description.

Your project description is where you give a bit more information about you and your project. This is the area where you earn your sponsors’ trust. Or lose it. So make sure you include the things they want to hear.

Having drawn people to your project page with a great project title, image and tagline, you want to make a good first impression.

A few bits of advice. 8, to be precise.

1. Firstly, what makes your project different from the next one? Given there might (read: almost certainly will!) be other people producing other films or plays or albums on the crowdfunding site you choose (as well as people pitching for alumni donations from the same university as you), explain why sponsors should pledge their pennies to yours. Are you the first ever Oxford Shakespeare Festival? Are you the only band to include a kazoo in every track on their album? Think about the unique selling points of what you’re trying to do. And make sure you include them.

Note: Don’t write “the best this or that” unless these words come from respectable third parties. You risk sounding a little arrogant and annoying to people if you do. “Best” is not descriptive. What are you “best” at?! Find the unique points. These will sell better than overconfidence. If you really want to wow people with your ability as an artist, musician or sprinter, include a video of you demonstrating how good you are. Uniqueness, friendliness, enthusiasm… and transparency are all more important qualities than raw ability.

2. Secondly, make sure you have a story to tell. Who are you? What’s your background? What have you done so far? Where did the idea for your project come from? Everyone has a story to tell and, believe it or not, people actually want to learn about your stories. Stories sell. They make you unique and interesting. People need to connect with you and this is one of the most important ways to do this.

If you don’t think you have a story, see if you can create one. Think of events that have happened to you that could conceivably have contributed to what you’ve become today. People will want to engage with your story as much as (and, in some cases, far more than) they will with your project.

3. Include a plan for spending the money you raise. Make room for a cost breakdown towards the end of your project description to let people know (and, more importantly, see) where the money is going to be used. This doesn’t have to be completely accurate. But the more accurate it is, the more credible your project will appear.

Charitable donations are one thing but most people will expect to see some sign of solid accounting when it comes to crowdfunding. Increasingly, even with charitable donations, people want to know where their money’s going – as evidenced by the proliferation of ‘goats’ and things linking your donations to solid tangible outcomes.

No matter how exciting your idea is, sponsors want to know that you’ve got a plan that will get you there. Just like the goat, sponsors want to see what they’ll get (/will happen) for their money.

While we’re on the topic of accounting…

4. Break up your larger projects! This is important. Your project has a better chance of reaching its funding goal if you break the project into smaller, bite-sized components. Rather than trying to raise enough to start a business and pay your buddies for the next year, start by raising enough to promote yourselves a little further… maybe by printing promotional materials, putting on a show or building a prototype of that talking coffee mug or skateboarding robot you’ve been dreaming about. Don’t pitch for everything. Think of something you just can’t afford which is holding you back. This is the smallest amount you need.

e.g. enough to showcase your work in an exhibition (as opposed to buying all your materials, tools, paints etc.), cover your transport for a gig (as opposed to the costs of your instruments, debut album, venue hire etc.) or host your film premiere (as opposed to the production costs of the film itself).

It is usually assumed that you can afford to pay at least some of the costs. A DJ asking for money to buy music might put some people off. Whereas a DJ asking for money to fund a new piece of equipment, a show or series of shows, will be better received. This is the difference between a project and what Kickstarter calls ‘fund my life’.

People like to feel that their contribution is going to make a difference. A £50 donation is a much bigger deal when you’re raising £500 (10%) than it is when you’re raising £5000 (1%).

Smaller funding targets appear more attainable and will seem to have more momentum if the total is shooting up by another 10% each day. Just like backing the right horse, people want to feel like they’re onto a winner. Make them feel like they’re a bigger part of a successful project rather than a smaller part of something that is stagnant and whose target is seemingly insurmountable.

Note: Psychologically speaking, it looks better if you break up your projects anyway. In terms of showing sponsors you’ve got things sussed out and, just as importantly, showing them where their money is going, breaking up your costs from a larger lump sum into smaller chunks which refer to all of the various processes involved is likely to win trust. You might, for instance, break up your magazine into printing (the thing itself, poster and flyers), promotion (advertisements, presentations, workshops) and distribution costs. You might break your athletics project into travel (transport and accommodation), competition (entry fees) and conditioning (sports massages). You might break up your film into filming (camera, equipment, location, costumes, props, actors etc.), editing (software) and distribution. The more transparent about where the money you raise is going, the better. Unless, of course, you intend to spend a sizeable chunk of it on booze…

5. Why are YOU the one to take on this project? Do you have any previous achievements that make you suitable? Are you rather good at designing things like Mr. Brunel here? Or are you just crazy passionate about your project area? Why should people trust you to carry the project through?

Don’t be put off – if there’s nothing that springs to mind immediately, have a longer think. Ask your friends. There must be ways for you to blow your own trumpet a little.

6. What prior work can you share via links? Links to your website, blog (if you have one), Flickr account, Youtube channel, Soundcloud files etc. will give sponsors more evidence of your good work. The more evidence they have, the more likely they are to trust you. Without things like this, they have very little to go on.

7. Get the tone right. Be sure that you sound positive and enthusiastic about what you aim to achieve. Don’t concentrate excessively on how terrible the problem is (like charities sometimes do) but instead, concentrate on how exciting the solution is. The problem could be homelessness. Or a chronic lack of funding. Or even a having your funding pulled at the last minute. Sure, you can mention it. People will sympathise. But unless what you’re DOING excites or inspires people, you’re not going to get any more than their sympathy. Your sponsors want to support you do something great, not to appease their consciences. There are plenty of good causes out there, after all.

8. When discussing an appropriate tone for your project description, it’s important to think about who might be reading it. Who is your project aimed at? You might need to spend a little time identifying your crowd. Who are they?! Sponsorcraft (in focusing on the academic sector), gives you an obvious group of people to target – alumni! People who might care about your project because it originated from their school, college, university, society etc.

As well as alumni, it might be an idea to position your project to a target audience who you expect to be most passionate about your cause. Who else might care? If you’re aiming to protect rare Amazonian river dolphins, what kinds of people or groups might be interested. Climate activists, Greenpeace, Sea Watch Foundation, Blue Voice? If you’re redecorating a community centre, what kinds of people or groups might be interested? Anti-cuts groups, community groups, the local council, politicians? How do you encourage these people to care about your project sufficiently to become an advocate and broadcast to others that they should care as well?

Think about what your core sponsors might care about. And aim to include the kinds of buzzwords and concepts that might turn them on.

Any more thoughts or queries, let us know below.

1. FOURH4ND.
https://sponsorcraft.com/p/FOURH4ND/
A little on the longer side but has a really nice friendly feel to it. It begins with an introduction to some quiet Cambridge scenery accompanied by choral singing which they then mix gradually into something a lot more clubby. Perfect for a project aiming to raise money for two aspiring young DJs who want to transform the town for freshers this year. Given they’re DJs, they could’ve recorded their video down in the depths of a dingy club. Notice how they don’t. There’s plenty of light, warmth and pretty scenery throughout. Also notice how they cut between the music and clubbing scenes and themselves talking. It’s very clear, personal and the sections are divided up neatly. The out-takes at the end are a nice way to round things off, making them seem a bit less slick and a bit more human. All in all, a great project video.

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2. PAPERpotential.
https://sponsorcraft.com/p/PAPERpotential/
This is a beautifully simple piece of stop-motion animation showing the process of somebody creating something cool out of blank paper. The music is boppy and stop-start, making it well suited to the animation it accompanies. We see all of the elements added together gradually to produce the final product – PAPERpotential magazine. While I like the fact you only see hands (which gives us a sense that literally anybody could be creative – those could be YOUR hands!), it would’ve been nice to see the project creator at some point and hear her introduce the project. Still, a really nice piece of work.

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3. Undergarments For Everyone.
https://sponsorcraft.com/p/undergarmentsforeveryone/
This one makes you feel warm and happy. The bright colours, the jazzy old-fashioned music, the flickering backgrounds… The message is also simple and powerful. The project creator asked his Facebook friends to come up with feelings they linked with new, clean underwear.* It doesn’t concentrate on homeless people and make you feel guilty. It concentrates on the positive things you feel and explains how you can make other people feel them too. It doesn’t dwell on the problem. It offers a small-scale, simple solution. Again, it would’ve been nice to see the project creator at some stage but I loved it all the same.

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4. UWE Comets.
https://sponsorcraft.com/p/UWEComets/
Here’s an example for all you performers out there. You can build clips of you performing into your videos. This is a nice opportunity for you to show people what you might be able to achieve if you get funding. People jumping and wheeling and flipping is really quite impressive to watch. Ideally, this stuff would form only a part of your video with a project creator or two talking on top. But it’s good material to use if you have any footage of you performing lying around on a camera somewhere. If not, why not take some?

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* Note: This was a really nice idea. One of the main goals in crowdfunding is collaboration – engaging with other people (sometimes over long distances) to get things done. When your friends see their own words on your project video, they’re already engaged with the project and are more likely to donate and share it with their own friends. Think about ways in which your video might appeal to people and cause them to want to spread it further. You could mention a group here, or a city there… Even if you only manage to excite your own friends, that’s a good place to start! Who knows where it might lead?

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For more examples of good videos, head over to Sponsorcraft College or the Kickstarter website. The project videos there are usually excellent.

Note: Don’t be put off by the quality of the videos on the bigger crowdfunding platforms. Often the people pitching their ideas there are professionals and are looking to raise a LOT of money. For most crowdfunding platforms, something a little simpler and less ‘produced’ is OK.

Any questions or comments? Let us know below.