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!
CONTENT WRITING
Title and Tagline
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.
Short Description
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.
INFO-GRAPHICS
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.
Feature Image
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.
Video
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.
Other Media
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.