Engagement Leads to Crowdfunded Science

Jarrett Byrnes and Jai Ranganathan

University of Massachusetts Boston &National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis

Data from: http://dellweb.bfa.nsf.gov/awdfr3/default.asphttp://report.nih.gov/success_rates/Success_ByActivity.cfm

Science Funding Rates Declining stimulus

#SciQuester = 1000 NSF grants not funded this year

Public Science Literacy Needs Work

Ecklund et al. 2012 PLoS One

Scientist's Attitudes Towards Outreach Not So Good

In scientists’ own words, science outreach is a bleak prospect with limited room for improvement. Seventy-four percent of respondents list one or more significant impediments to their ability to do science outreach, yet less than half have concrete ideas for how science outreach could be improved.

Ecklund et al. 2012 PLoS One

Little Reward Structure for Outreach

Scientists also perceive that they are rewarded little for science outreach work, especially in the tenure process.

Science Communication Exploding Online

scienceseeker.org blogs.scientificamerican.com

Science Communication Exploding Online

sciencepond.com twitter.com/jebyrnes/eemb

135% of goal!!

#SciFund & Engagement•What is Crowdfunding?

•Engagement & Outreach: The Keys to the Crowdfunding Kingdom

•The #SciFund Challenge

•Lessons and Benefits of Engaging via Crowdfunding

What is Crowdfunding?

The solicitation of small donations from a large number of people for specific targeted projects.

Anatomy of a Crowdfunding Proposal1. Goal

• accomplishment

2. Time Limit• urgency

3. Proposal• clarity is key

4. Video• accessibility

5. Rewards• engagement

Huge Universe of Crowdfunding Site

A Few Dominant Platforms

>

Arts Crowdfunding Exceeds Government

Funding

Many Crowdfunding sites JUST for Science

#SciFund & Engagement•What is Crowdfunding?

•Engagement & Outreach: The Keys to the Crowdfunding Kingdom

•The #SciFund Challenge

•Lessons and Benefits of Engaging via Crowdfunding

The future?

doctorzen.net

How did Palmer Do it?

Wikipedia.org

twitter.com/amandaplamer

http://www.ted.com/talks/amanda_palmer_the_art_of_asking.html

It Takes Time to Crowdfund a

Discipline

Waananen 2012 NY Times

Millions of Dollars Are Possible…

Waananen 2012 NY Times

Built-in Audiences are Crucial

Waananen 2012 NY Times

The future?

doctorzen.net

NGOs can Crowdfund Science at High Levels

Organization with a long history of Outreach

Is it the Project or the Audience?

How can Science Make Crowdfunding

Work?

Engagement is key If you build it, they will come.

#SciFund & Engagement•What is Crowdfunding?

•Engagement & Outreach: The Keys to the Crowdfunding Kingdom

•The #SciFund Challenge

•Lessons and Benefits of Engaging via Crowdfunding

An experiment: can scientists use crowdfunding to communicate their science and to raise money for their

research?

The point is not just cash, but engagement.

How did #SciFund work?

Training via scifundchallenge.org

Community Helps Shape Proposals

Twitter: #SciFund

Facebook Page

SciFund Google group

Online Engagement & Community Building

Round Days Projects

Projects funded at

100%

Percent funded at

100%Total raised

1 45 49 10 20.40% $76,230 2 31 75 33 44.00% $100,345 3 33 35 16 45.70% $75,978

Overall   159 59 37.10% $252,811

Post-#SciFund Data

1.Rockethub server logs

2. Public web statistics (e.g. Youtube hits)

3. Survey of participants (80 questions)

• Covered by CNN, Forbes, Scientific American, New Scientist, MSNBC, and many other news outlets in US and internationally

• $76,230 raised

• ~1200 donors

• 10 projects fully funded

• average project yield: $1556

• max project yield: $10,171(170% of original goal)

#SciFund Round 1 by the Numbers

Round 1: $76,230 over 45 Days

Small Donations Drive #SciFund

The #SciFund Numbers Game: Contributors

R2=0.86

Two Roads to Success

1. Friends & Family

2. Eyeballs• Pre-goal (size)• Post-Goal (color)

R2=0.85

Your Scientific Fanbase and Project Views

R2=0.78

Creating Content Fanbase

R2=0.34

Onlinepresence

1 blog post / month ≈53 Twitter followers

Scientificfanbase1 Twitter

follower ≈1 project

view

Projectviews110

project views ≈

1 contributor

Money forresearchAverage raised ≈$1,600

Friends and

family50

Facebook friends ≈

1 contributor

Donorcontribution

sAverage

contribution ≈

$55

Funding target met20 project views ≈

1 contributor

The Secret to #SciFund: Engagement

You need to build a scientific fanbase!It is not possible to be an overnight success!

#SciFund & Engagement•What is Crowdfunding?

•Engagement & Outreach: The Keys to the Crowdfunding Kingdom

•The #SciFund Challenge

•Lessons and Benefits of Engaging via Crowdfunding

If you build it, they will come

If you build it, they will come

How Can I Crowdfund my Science?•Build an audience for your work

- Crowdfunding, Blog, Tweet, Science Cafes, etc.

•Get trained in outreach

- Media & social network training

•Work to change academic culture & policy

- Hiring & promotion practices

- Collaboration with media & arts departments

Number of fans

Inte

rest

in y

ou

r re

searc

h

Super-engaged fans that contribute $ to your research

Larger number of fans that don’t contribute, butare still impacted by your message

A version of the 1000 True Fans Model

Science Projects with Community Engagement

Bring in $$$

http://www.indiegogo.com/ubiome

Scientists Improving!

Larger Benefits to Crowdfunding•Build bridges between science &

society

•Build investment in an NGO's science program

•Enhanced science literacy

•Science incubator for new projects

•Look at it as funded outreach

ScientistsBroaderpublic

reaching out with sciencemessage for its own sake

research cashvia crowdfunding

Collaborators: Barbara Walker, Zen Faulkes

Participants in Round 1: Aditya Rao, Ali Swanson, Andi Wolfe, Andrea Lucky, Barbara Walker, Breanna Putman, Chip Cochran, Daniel Karp, Daniel Mietchen, Debi Kilb, Diane Kelly, Eric Abelson, Eric Basham, Holly Menninger, Jarrett Byrnes, Jeffrey Bodwin, Jennifer Schmitt, Jessica Carilli, John Gust, Jorge Mederos, Kalani Kirk Hausman, Katelyn Cavanaugh, Kelly Lyons, Kelly Weinersmith, Kevin Fomalont, Kristina Killgrove, Lee Worden, Levi Lewis, Lindsey Peavey, Luis Valledor, Luke Frishkoff, Marisa Alonso Nuñez, Marisa Tellez , Matthew Hutchins, Matthew S. Leslie, Melia Nafus, Rebecca Rashid Achterman, Robin Freeman, Ross Whippo, Scott Chamberlain, Shermin de Silva, Steve Herbert, Susan Tsang, Timothy Bonebrake, Walter Weare, Yoav Ram, Zen Faulkes

Round 2&3 now complete

Blog: scifundchallenge.org

Twitter: #SciFund

Wheat, R.E., Wang, Y., Byrnes, J.E.K. & Ranganathan, J. (2012). Raising money for scientific research through crowdfunding. Trends Ecol. Evol., 28, 71–72.