The world of crowdfunding can sometimes be difficult to navigate. Christopher Quyen reveals what makes a campaign succeed, and just how to set and achieve project funding goals.
Photography has always been a costly endeavour, especially if you’re particular about the tools you use and places you need to visit to complete your projects. For professional photographers, crowdfunding is now a popular means to finance their project whether for a product, cause, exhibition, photo book, prints or even living and travel expenses. One campaign, for example, set up by Brandon Stanton of Humans of New York fame, met its $7,000 goal within 15 minutes of its start. But not everyone is lucky enough to be granted automatic attention. So how does one successfully crowdfund a project? It may seem that a successful campaign all boils down to luck like Zack (Danger) Brown’s outlandish potato salad project, where he stated: “basically I’m just making a potato salad. I haven’t decided what kind yet,” raised $55,492. However, for many professional photography projects, luck is often disguised behind the veil of hard work and dedication and, like any story of success, it all begins with an idea.
A public personal idea
If there is one thing that can be concluded from crowdfunding, it is the belief that if you have a personal idea or product with public appeal, people will be willing to contribute money to see its fruition. This phenomenon can be traced back to 1713 when Alexander Pope’s translation and printing of Homer’s Iliad in English was supported by 750 individuals who each pledged two guineas in exchange for a shout-out in the acknowledgments. In an act of history repeating itself, the Internet has spawned a number of crowdfunding platforms such as Kickstarter, Pozible and Indiegogo, to name a few. These websites offer people a platform to start campaigns to fund their dream projects. The public can then offer their financial support, usually in return for a reward that the backer receives from the campaign creator. While this does sound like an easy get-rich-quick scheme, the reality is the exact opposite. First off, here is the catch: You must set yourself a monetary goal. If you fail to reach this goal, then your project will not be funded. It is also important to note that crowdfunding platforms often charge a 4-5% fee on the funds you receive, so you’ll need to factor this in. Chris Capozziello, creator of The Distance Between Us, a photo book about hismrelationship with his brother who has cerebral palsy, says:
Fixed funding is common on most crowdfunding platforms with the exception of Indiegogo, which offers flexible funding so your project can still be funded, at the premium of a 9% fee, if it does not reach its goal. Indiegogo recommends Fixed Funding for campaign owners who can only proceed on their project with a minimum amount of money. Furthermore, when you’re deciding on a goal, it is important to be realistic and take into consideration every cost involved with the project including the often-forgotten cost of packaging and shipping for tangible rewards. Shelly Mosman ran a campaign to fund a photo exhibition, Mercury.
“To build the show, Inaccounted for $20,000. However, Kickstarter says is that you should only ask for the minimum amount needed. After taking this into consideration, I brought my goal down to $17,000.” Second of all, running a crowdfunding campaign is a long process and takes hard work and adequate planning and preparation. This could be anything from spreading the word or constantly working on the project before, during and after the campaign.
In an example of hard work, Tanner Wendall Stewart’s campaign for his book, Shoot The Skies 365, raised US$74,000 – 64% over his initial goal of US$45,000. “I travelled 13,000 miles across twenty national parks, five countries and nine states in 2013 taking photos for a photo book to raise money for the A21 Campaign to abolish human trafficking,” he says. According to Catherine Karnow, “it’s basically a full-time job!” She crowdfunded her documentation of families with children affected by Agent Orange. Therefore, it is important to have a consistent work ethic throughout your campaign. Data from Indiegogo shows that, on average, campaigns raise the most money at the beginning and the end. These two stages are considered important because raising funds at the beginning builds confidence and excitement in your project among potential contributors while the end of the campaign commands a sense of urgency that gives the public more incentive to contribute.
Taking these two factors into consideration, one can see how pivotal a big idea and the message it communicates can be towards a successful campaign. Take for example, LUMU’s Light Meter for Smartphones, which raised US$244,085 on Kickstarter. However, ideas must also be powered by people to inspire others to be a part of a common goal. This creates a public personal idea – a harmony between the personal and the public. Advice from Indiegogo states that it is crucial to make a campaign personal: “People want to fund people and their ideas, not just ideas, so it’s important for campaign owners to tell people why their project is important and about the impact it will make on the world.” Philip Werner, creator of the 101 Vagina photo book says: “One great thing about crowdfunding is that it can be a good indicator of public appeal. If you’re going to crowdfund, you need an idea that people want to get behind, but personal and public don’t need to be mutually exclusive.” In order to create a public-personal idea, Werner took an issue he personally felt strongly about, the taboos and shame cast upon vaginas and body image, and found a community that his project would resonate with. He was also able to gather support through the subjects he photographed and their networks.
Community chest
Before you spread the word about your campaign, it is important to have a video to pitch your idea. Videos prove to be the fastest way to communicate your project’s message and introduce yourself. “Having a video makes a difference to your campaign’s success rate. There is a 61.23% success rate for campaigns with a video and a 45.8% rate for those without one,” says Pozible’s Natasha Duckett. Ami Vitale, has launched two campaigns. One on commercial poaching in Kenya and one as a part of “Danube Revisited”, a group of eight female photographers who are following the path of Inge Morath, an Austrian photographer who was the second women to join Magnum Photos, in 1955. Travelling along the Danube for five weeks to capture contemporary life in the region, they are visiting villages and towns that Inge Morath photographed along with a mobile photo gallery in the back of a truck that exhibits her work. “Part of the reason the campaign was successful was because of the video and a much more developed website. I think the Kenya project was funded because of the issue that the project addressed,” she says.
Rewards also play an important role in giving people incentive to support your project.There are three types of rewards: Physical rewards, experiences and recommendations or acknowledgements. Physical rewards are useful because they can be used as pre-sales. “Crowdfunding allowed me to get the story out in advance of the exhibition, which let me to essentially make some pre-sales (under the guise of rewards) of the exhibition photos that funded the printing and mounting of the exhibition,” says Chris Peken, creator of a feature exhibition, The Lost Boys of Sudan. Combining physical products with experiences can also increase backer incentive. Michelle Grace Hunder is creator of Pozible’s highest funded photography project of $20,639 for Rise, a photo book on Australian hip-hop artists. “I think the rewards are really important and should be of equal or more ‘value’ than the dollar amount pledged,” she says. “I offered tickets to a fundraising gig that I put on, limited edition prints and a photo shoot with me.” David Gallagher from Kickstarter says that it’s important to offer rewards at a range of pledge levels. “If you offer a smaller print in return for a smaller pledge, you let a wider range of people participate in your project.”
But beyond the realm of these rewards lies an unspoken reward: the reward of contributing towards something that could change lives. Stephanie and Francis Lane of Silent Tapes used Kickstarter for their project “50 Kids. 50 Cameras.” as a means of raising money for charity. “We wanted to give the opportunity to the children living in the favela of Fortaleza, Brazil [renowned for its reputation as the country’s capital of sex tourism and the sexual exploitation of children] to be able to communicate their feelings, amidst the violence and social-spatial displacement influenced by the 2014 World Cup. with cameras, as there is so much the heart can feel that the eyes don’t see. We will create a book and exhibition where proceeds will go back directly to the children and families involved. Doing good inspires others to do good,” they say. IndieVoices is a new crowdfunding site that specialises in independent journalism that also gives people a voice. According to Ed Kashi, who documented chronic kidney disease in Nicaragua, “there is definitely a growing community for this type of crowdfunding, and Kickstarter has just inaugurated a section devoted to journalism.” Ami Vitale was also involved with IndieVoices. “I was surprised that most of my backers did not want any kind of reward, not even a card,” she says. “Nearly everyone asked me to use all the funds for the project itself. I think the issue is something they all care about and that is what drove this campaign.”
The amount of money raised can also depend on the amount of traffic you are able to direct to your campaign. In terms of marketing, the media still proves useful to place your project into the public eye. “I reached out to online publications and blogs prior to launching our campaign to see if they would partner in getting the word out,” Capozziello says. “What I offered them was our story in words and pictures as long as they linked to our Kickstarter campaign. The New York Times blog, Lens, came on board first and other websites soon followed.” Crowdfunding websites also have e-newsletters or front pages that share compelling projects to their networks, however Duckett says that the biggest mistake most people make is expecting others to spread the word about their campaign for them. “They need to be actively engaging their supporters and creating newsworthy and sharable items to keep the conversation up in social media.” However, actively engaging people to support your campaign is not a means of spamming your connections, but choosing key contacts and leveraging them. Paula Bronstein, who produced the book Afghanistan: Between Life and War, says that sometimes your key contacts are not always the obvious choice, like publishers or businesses. “Publishers don’t want to take the financial risk of publishing a photo book anymore unless you give them money up front. My plan was to raise as close to $20,000 as possible then get the
publisher, but a realistic goal for funding a photo book is closer to $25,000 – 35,000.
With that amount, any publisher would take you,” she says. This means you must target your project at suitable people or communities, but it is also important to introduce your ideas to networks beyond your own. “When I was searching for backers, I had to keep in mind that some friends, editors and photographers, even close friends, are rather sick of yet another crowdfunding project,” says Bronstein. Also worth considering is avoiding blanket coverage of your campaign, and instead actually find individuals who will endorse the campaign for you. Catherine Karnow took a rather measured approach. “I spread the word by sending 60 personalised letters to influential people and got them to spread the word. I didn’t send thousands of e-mails. I also enlisted a big name in journalism, Peter Arnett, to partner with me and support the project. Along the way I realised that if I changed the message of my photographs from one that was sad and sombre to a positive image, then people started to feel really good about the project.
That’s when contributions started to come in”. Revealing the statistics behind her campaign, Shelly Mosman says that she found that in the end, 68% came from Facebook, 21% from direct traffic, 2% from Google, and Kickstarter e-mails were 4%. 93% of traffic was external to Kickstarter. “So if your project is not on the front page of Kickstarter, you have to get out there and work it yourself,” she says. “I recommend showcasing your work at least one year ahead of time, not under the guise of a potential Kickstarter project, but simply as your work. Get a following and work for it.”
Contacts
Paula Bronstein: www.paulaphoto.com
Christopher Capozziello: www.chriscappy.com
Michelle Grace Hunder: www.michellegracehunder.com; www.risemgh.com
Catherine Karnow: www.catherinekarnowphotoworkshop.com
Ed Kashi: www.edkashi.com
Gerd Ludwig: www.gerdludwig.com
Shelly Mosman: www.shellymosman.com
Brian Nice: www.briannice.com
Chris Peken: www.chrispeken.com
Tanner Wendall Stewart: www.shootheskies.com
Silent Tapes: www.silenttapes.com
Ami Vitale: www.amivitale.com
Philip Werner: www.philipwernerfoto.com
Indiegogo: www.indiegogo.com
Kickstarter: www.kickstarter.com