by Niraj Bohra | 01/12/2017
Create. Launch. Crowdfund.
WHEN CAN I LAUNCH?
The best time to launch your online crowdfunding post is when you are fully prepared and have everything ready to go before going live. It is recommended to have at least 30 days to prepare from when you decide to crowdfund and you decide to launch your venture.
Before launching your crowdfunding post, it is essential to gather support from your online communities. Teasers, coming soon pages, or even a soft launch are some methods to start generating online interest before you launch your crowdfunding post.Most successful crowdfunding posts receive 30% of their total target amount within the first few days of going live. This support is gained from the pre-existing community of supporters you gather before going live.
- Your Profile
- Actual Venture Plans
- Funding Target
- Timeline
Checklist for Launch:
- Your Pitch
- Info-graphics
- Target Audience
- Influencers List
- First 30%
- Your Contact Lists
- Marketing Plan
- Fulfillment Plan
Checklist for Launch:
- Your Profile
- Plans to implement your venture
- Funding target
- Timeline
- Your Pitch
- Info-graphics
- Target Audience
- Influencers List
- First 30%
- Your contacts list
- Marketing plan
- Fulfilment plan
NOW YOU'RE READY TO LAUNCH!
WHAT SHOULD I DO DURING THE LAUNCH?
Dedicated going live posts
The tease is over! Create specific communication material - posts, emails, pictures and even videos to let everyone know of your launch. Now is the time to get your pre-existing supporters to share your post with their communities as soon as you launch.Remember, your going live posts should aim to gather your first 30% of funds!
Talk to your Community
When you go live, keep the conversation going with your online community of supporters. You can send out regular updates regarding your fundraising progress and encourage them to share and spread the word. Respond to comments and questions as soon as possible.
Keep track of your post
As soon as you launch, keep track of your post, it's online reach and donations received. Google Analytics is a great program, where you can link your post and monitor it with statistical feedback for future sharing. Even if you are not tech savvy, excel sheets are a simple way to track and monitor your donations.
Share
Share your venture both online and offline through social media platforms, emails and face to face communication. You can re-post and share your venture regularly on social media platforms to gather as much support as possible.
Promote
Research different platforms such as seminars, talks, programs and other communities where you can participate, network and promote your venture.
Update
Regular updates to supporters at Fund Lifelong Learning and other marketing venues has to be undertaken to inform them of the progress and remaining targets.
REACHED YOUR GOALS?
Thank your donors, and now you're ready to start your venture!
Don't forget to:
- Keep updating your contributers and community of your progress
- Start your venture immediately
- Respond to queries and comments on your post and venture
REACHED YOUR GOALS?
Thank your donors, and now you're ready to start your venture!
Don't forget to:
- Keep updating your contributers and community of your progress
- Start your venture immediately
- Respond to queries and comments on your post and venture
by Niraj Bohra | 01/12/2017
WRITING YOUR POST
Crafting your venture is a critical step in captivating your audience and appealing for their support. Your online crowdfunding venture must pitch your idea to the community of supporters. It must have just enough information to persuade their support and not too much information to bore them.
Your dashboard is where you can craft, edit and manage your post. Remember once your venture is live, you cannot change the content of your post.
Don't worry! Below we take you through the anatomy of a post and give you some tips to help make your online crowdfunding post outstanding!
Your title must intrigue your audience. Your title is the gateway into your venture and must be simple, interesting and should not be too technical.
Create a tagline that describes in one sentence the objective or mission of the venture. Although the title and tagline can be similar, it should not be the same. You can either use your tagline or craft a short description to be displayed with your venture thumbnail on the Ventures page.
Once you have intrigued your audience with the image and title, your three lined description should give them a quick summary of the venture’s aim and the gap it is seeking to fill.
Your description should appeal to your audiences emotion and be inviting to read more on the venture. This description should strike the emotion of your audience as your venture is based on donation based crowdfunding.
Long Description
This section is where you craft your story and your pitch to potential donors and supporters. Your story must be engaging and muct demonstrate your passion for the venture.
Include reasons as to why you are undertaking this venture, who you will support, how much funds you need, how the funds will be spent and potential challenges in achieving your goal.
Background Context
Introduce your audience to your venture and set them in the right frame of mind by crafting the context within which your venture applies.
Identify the Issue
Once the scene has been set, point out the issues or problem you are trying to address and the impact it has on the environment and the economy.
What you can do
Demonstrate how you can fix, solve, simplify, better or develop these issues through your venture. Use simple language and state your deliverables, if any
What you need
Tell your audience what you need to make your venture a success. State your target amount and how you will spend the money to accomplish your venture.
The best way to grab viewers attention is through interactive info-graphics. Info-graphics or visual representation of information or data through pictures, videos, GIPHYs and more, is the best way to get your point across in the shortest period of time. As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words!
Crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo report that ventures with videos have a much greater chance of receiving support.
Your feature image, or the primary image identifies your venture.
It is often the first thing noticed by viewers and it competes with other feature images to grab attention and curiosity. Your feature image should not be too complicated, but should be detailed enough to depict what your venture is about.
If your picture is relevant to your cause, it gives viewers a better understanding of what they are clicking into. This image must be clearly visible as a thumbnail, and a large image.
A well known characteristic of a successful campaign if the inclusion of a video. Statistics from various crowdfunding platforms demonstrate that posts with a video are more likely to succeed, than those without.
Videos are a fantastic way to capture peoples attention. Today people want the maximum information within the shortest period of time. You can personalise your post and provide a summary of your venture within seconds. Your video can demonstrate you passion and commitment in ways simple text cannot.
Info-graphics can more readily attract attention. The more media you have in your post, the easier it is for donors to understand your message. It also makes the post more compelling.
Through different types of info-graphics such as pictures, videos, GIPHYS and more, you can tell a story that mere words cant demonstrate.
One way of incorporating media is by using portraits or plan designs. Posting pictures of your progress is another way to keep your community of supporters updated.
SET UP STRIPE
To launch your venture and receive funds, you must have a registered Stripe account, the payment gateway through which online payments are processed at Fund Lifelong Learning. If you do not have a Stripe account, one can be set up via the “Creator Account” tab on your dashboard. Click on “Connect with Stripe” to be redirected to the Stripe website and initiate the set-up process. Fill in the required details and your Stripe account will be set up.
Once you have your details, fill in your account details on the post submission forms and you will be ready to receive funds on the successful completion of your post.
SUBMISSION AND REVIEW PROCESS
Now that you have Created your venture, Make sure you Save it as a draft on your dashboard and then submit it to us for review.
The review process undertaken by the team at Fund Lifelong Learning and the Graduate House considers the creators purpose, fund allocation and the goals for the venture.
Our review process is not an indication or a guarantee of success, failure or authenticity of the venture.
We will then publish your venture in about 5 working days.
by Niraj Bohra | 01/12/2017
A goal without a plan is just a wish.
- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
At Fund Lifelong Learning you have complete control over your crowdfunding post. You can create your pitch and formulate your strategies the way you want, subject to our standards and guidelines. To reach your funding target, your post should be appealing to gain the support of your audience.
YOUR PROFILE
Register online for free to create your online profile and crowdfunding posts. Your profile tells us, and other backers who you are and your story, while your posts detail your venture.
After setting up your profile, you can use your dashboard to create, edit, submit, manage and market your post; set up bank details; keep supporters up to date on the progress of your post and view donations received.
SHAPE YOUR IDEA
Now that you have the next big idea that will change the world and you've decided to crowdfund it, it's time to shape and examine your idea to help develop your crowdfunding campaign.
In planning your crowdfunding post, examine the actual venture in itself. Develop it's outline, structure and resources needed to deduce your target. If you present a clear plan for what you are going to do with the funds raised in your post, it builds confidence in you and your venture. This making donors more readily supportive of your cause. Accordingly plan out the timeline for your post, your audience, networks, marketing and communication strategies for your online crowdfunding post.
Goals
- What are you are trying to build, improve, discover, achieve?
- Why is this important?
Schedule
- How long will the actual venture take?
- Do I have to segment the venture and the crowdfunding posts in segments?
Beneficiaries
- Who or what benefits from this?
- Am I helping one person, a group of people or developing a place?
Resources
- Do I have to receive, develop or buy additional resources such as gadgets and tools to help implement my venture?
- Do I have to rely on third parties (like contracted agents etc.) to help me establish my venture?
Plan Fulfillment
- Outline how you will carry out your venture and the potential dates for launch.
- Determine the activities to be undertaken after reaching your funding goal and prior to launch.
Audience
- Who will this venture impact or effect outside of my list of beneficiaries?
- Who can I receive support from?
Budget
- What resources are required and how much money needs to be raised?
- What will the funds I raise through crowdfunding and otherwise pay for?
Once you have identified all the resources needed for your venture, the first thing to do is to set your fundraising target amount.
Although there are many ways to determine your target amount, it can still be difficult to set as each venture is different. Your goal shouldn't be too high, making it difficult to achieve and shouldn't be too low that it is easily attainable. You should be able to justify how your target amount is going to be used and set your goal accordingly. The more you detail on how funds raised will be used, the more ready and willing donors will be to give.
Here are a few things to include while calculating your target amount:
Remember, the higher target amount, greater the work needed. Keep in mind our rules, funding model and the fees while developing your funding plan.
Create a detailed task calendar or a Gantt Chart based on the activities you need to do during your pre-launch, launch and post-launch phase. Schedule time for planning, crafting and developing content and info-graphics, gathering supporters and planning marketing activities.
It is very important to give yourself enough time to complete each of your activities. This will help you schedule everything in order and make online crowdfunding a smooth and easy fundraising process.
Be sure to leave at least one week or more between the start of your venture and the end of your fundraising campaign.
Now that you have a calendar for your activities, set a timeline for the duration of your online crowdfunding campaign. This timeline you set is just as important as your target amount.
The timeline should be long enough to reach your fundraising goal, but not too long wherein support could potentially be delayed or even forgotten. The generally recommended timeline is between 30-45 days to reach your target goal.
Check out how you can extend your timeline as a one-off if you do not meet your target amount.
DEVELOP YOUR PITCH
Your online post is your pitch to your community of supporters. This should include your story or the content, a feature image and other compelling info-graphics including videos or other forms of media.
Start developing your content early on the dashboard. Here you can save as draft and edit it as many times as you like before submitting your post for review. Read more on writing your post here.
Content
Crafting your content is a critical step in captivating your audience and appealing their support. Your online crowdfunding venture must pitch your idea to the community of supporters.
Even though your pitch can be long, it doesn’t mean it should be boring! Craft an engaging story with just enough information to persuade their support. Don’t leave questions unanswered in your content.
Feature Image
The feature image is often the first thing noticed by viewers and it competes with other feature images to grab attention and curiosity. It should not be too complicated, and should be relevant to the venture.
If your picture can depict what your venture is about, it gives viewers a better understanding of what they are clicking into. This image must be clearly visible as a thumbnail, and a large image.
Video
Videos are a fantastic way to capture peoples attention. They can provide the maximum information in the shortest period of time. You can make a short video (1-3 mins) explaining your venture and even provide video updates.
A clear and concise video with you personally acting or speaking in it can demonstrate your passion and commitment in ways simple text cannot.
THE AUDIENCE
By posting your crowdfunding venture online, your audience may include people you know and don't know. However, you can decide particular people to share your venture with. The bigger your audience, the better probability of success.
Put together a list of Influencers who have the potential to fund your venture and can support your idea otherwise. They can be groups or individuals who can share and validate your interest, or can act as an ambassador to your venture.
Every creator has at least three levels of target audience to reach out to.
Friends and Family
As the first level of audience, your family and friends form your first networking group. They are your closest group of connections and most often are, the strongest supporters and campaigners of your venture. In most cases, you receive support from this group not only based on your venture's merit, but based on personal support and encouragement.
Existing Community
Colleagues, Neighbours, Acquaintances, Professors, Mentors and others who constitute your professional network form your second level of audience. Support from this group of networks is essential and requires special attention in your marketing and communication strategies. They support your venture primarily based on it's merit.
New Networks
Your third level of audience has to be sought out through research and developing connections from your first and second level of audience. New networks can be groups or people you find online, in directories and professional platforms such as LinkedIn. This group will support your venture purely based on its merit.
FIRST 30%
It is recommended to gather enough support to obtain at least 30% of your total crowdfunding amount as soon as your venture goes live. Starting strong encourages other donors to support your venture from the very beginning.
This is arguably one of the hardest tasks of crowdfunding. However, a strong pre-launch marketing plan will help you garner the support easily. This is primarily from your first and second levels of audience.
YOUR MARKETING STRATEGY
A good marketing strategy appeals to the what an audience wants, needs or could benefit from. A venture that develops and implements its marketing plan in advance has a better possibility of realising the target goal. Craft your marketing plan for the pre-launch, launch and post-launch phases of crowdfunding.
Segment Communication
Segmenting your communication across marketing stages and audience types can help you develop a targeted communication strategy.
Create different templates for communication in different mediums (social media, emails, word of mouth etc.) and across the three fundraising stages. Plan ahead to avoid constantly spamming the same people with the same information. There are many ways to segment your audience and timeline.
One way of segmentation is identifying how your venture effects or benefits different groups of people either by demographics, psycographics, lifestyle, profession, beliefs and values etc. and crafting specific emails or communication to each group. You can reach your entire target audience with different messages and announcements, across your crowdfunding cycle.
Email Lists
Apart from generating a buzz on online platforms, collect and develop e-mail contacts of relevant influencers and even your general audience.
In the online word, e-mails are arguably the best form of personal communication. Sending out e-mails with information and updates on your venture, encourages people more readily to support you and your venture.
Social Media Campaign Chart
Create a social media marketing plan to raise awareness for your venture before you launch. By being active online and participating in relevant online groups, you can increase and develop your online presence, which can greatly impact you realising your goal.
Craft and develop posts and templates in advance and have everything ready to go. You can even create new pages or profiles for your post to reach out to many more people.
Be sure to include a call to action on your social media posts.
Tease the Release
Create teasers or 'coming soon' posts on social media to build a community of supporters before you start fundraising. By doing this, you are building excitement within your community of supporters prior to release. Your audience will also know what to expect from your venture and what they need to do as soon you launch your crowdfunding post.
by Niraj Bohra | 01/12/2017
LET'S START AT THE BEGINNING
SO, WHAT IS ONLINE CROWDFUNDING?
Crowdfunding is a method of fundraising for your venture by campaigning and receiving donations from a large number of people online. It is a streamlined process where you can describe your idea, share it directly to your networks and gather and receive support through donations, all in one place- your online crowdfunding post.
WHY DO I NEED TO CROWDFUND?
Crowdfunding allows you to directly take your idea and venture to the audience and online platforms you choose. This is not just a means to receive financial investments into your venture via donations, but a means to gather a community of support for your cause.
Planning, developing your target audience, generating the buzz and crafting your pitch are some of the major activities during the pre-launch period. This period, also known as the strategic phase, is the most important as it sets up your venture to receive interest, traffic and support as soon as it is launched.
This is the period where you actually start receiving funds for your venture online. There are three stages to raising funds - the opening stage, the stationary stage and the final stage. Here is when you will be communicating with your supporters on the crowdfunding portal.
This phase covers the stages just after you meet the target amount for your venture and before you start developing and implementing your venture. Here you keep your supporters up to date regarding the progress of your venture and keep them informed through its completion.
WHY USE FUND LIFE LONG LEARNING TO CROWDFUND YOUR VENTURE?
Responsible Fundraising
Our funding model minimizes the risk of losing money for both creators and donors. Funds are transferred to the creator only after the target amount has been met. This is a means of validating the venture for both the creator and the donor.
No Success, No Fee
You win, we win.
We don't make any money or ask for any fee from you, if you do not reach your target amount.
A 5% fee is collected from the creator only if you are successful in meeting your target amount within your specified time period.
Flexibility
As creator, you have control over your venture. You can manage and market it according to your plan and design. We provide you the flexibility to extend your timeline and maximize the possibility of reaching your amount.
Mobile Fundraising
This platform enables you to create posts, raise funds and give to ventures all on your tablet or mobile device.
Exclusivity
Our areas of support- Research and development is a blanket statement including education and research, professional development, sustainable development, social and economic good. This areas are chosen based on their pivotal role in generating change, development and sustainability in society for the future.
Life Long Learning
By hosting your fundraising activity on our website, it automatically carries an implication of advancing life long learning through education, research, professional development, social good or sustainable development.
CAN YOU PLEASE EXPLAIN THE FUNDING MODEL?
Ventures you create follows the "All or Nothing" funding model. With this, you will receive all pledged donations once you meet your target amount. If you do not meet your target amount, donors will receive their money back.
This funding model empowers creators like you to be involved in the fundraising process. By actively engaging with your venture through the crowdfunding timeline, it demonstrates to donors your commitment to see the target met. This increases a donors' confidence in you and increases the prospect of receiving support for your venture.
This responsible funding model also acts as a safety net as donors get their cash back if the target amount is not met.
Check out our math for our fee structure here.
