What Minnesota Nonprofits can learn from Travail's Kickstarter Success

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What Minnesota Nonprofits can learn from Travail's Kickstarter Success

description

Travail Kitchen, a hugely popular Minnesota restaurant, raised $75,000 on the crowdfunding website Kickstarter in less than six hours in 2013. The funding wasn’t for charity, instead to help the restaurant’s owners build a new, larger location. The campaign has raised $255,669 to date from 1,090 donors. So, what can Minnesota nonprofits and schools learn from this wildly successful fundraising campaign by a for-profit business? Join GiveMN Digital Strategist Jeff Achen and Travail’s Director of Business and Development Megan Leafblad to dissect this campaign and share some of the key takeaways.

Transcript of What Minnesota Nonprofits can learn from Travail's Kickstarter Success

Page 1: What Minnesota Nonprofits can learn from Travail's Kickstarter Success

What Minnesota Nonprofits can learn from Travail's Kickstarter Success

Page 2: What Minnesota Nonprofits can learn from Travail's Kickstarter Success

Presenters

Jeff AchenGiveMN Digital Strategist

Megan LeafbladDirector of Business & Development at Travail Kitchen & Amusements

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Agenda

• What is Kickstarter?• The Travail Kickstarter

campaign story• Why did it work?• Takeaways for

nonprofits (and cautionary tales)

• Q&A

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What kind of projects are taking place on Kickstarter?

Games | Film & Video | Design | Technology | Music |

Publishing | Food | Art | Fashion | Comics | Theater |

Photography | Dance

• All-or-nothing funding

• Only 44% of projects have reached their funding goal

• Kickstarter does not allow charity, cause, or "fund my life" projects.

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Q & A with Megan Leafblad

• We see our work/restaurant as a creative project

• We have an active support base who wanted to be engaged & involved in our success

• This would allow us to invite our fan base into the kitchen & do business with us

• It was a tangible project with a clear outcome

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Q & A with Megan Leafblad

• We had over 11,000 Facebook fans who were already interested and excited about Travail

• We used “rewards” to give people what they have always asked for from us: cooking classes, reservations, etc.

• This was NOT a donation, but a transaction

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Q & A with Megan Leafblad

• We worked with friends at Fallon, a well-known ad agency, who helped us clearly articulate our project and create a beautiful video to remind people who we are, why they love us, and invite them to be apart of the project

TIP: Use video and well-written text on your GiveMN page to

articulate your project, work or mission

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Q & A with Megan Leafblad

• We started telling everyone!

• We used our social media channels

• We held a launch party in the parking lot to generate excitement about the campaign

TIP: Utilize online as well as offline tactics for involving

people

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Q & A with Megan Leafblad

• We set our fundraising goal lower than what we wanted, but at a level that would have a big impact

• We wanted people to join in and be a part of something that was going to succeed or already had succeeded

TIP: Set project or fundraising page goals that are attainable and will allow you to celebrate

with your donors

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Q & A with Megan Leafblad

Ask a question:• Use the chat

feature to the left of your screen to type your question for Megan

• Or, raise your hand and we can call on you to unmute your line and ask your question

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Creating a Project on GiveMN

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Incentives/Rewards

Good use of video/photos

Well-written text

Read-a-thons are a tangible project with a clear outcome.

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Incentives/Rewards

Event Driven Campaign

Compelling story

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Takeaways

• Know your donors/fan base• Be clear about the project: identify a tangible need and a

clear outcome• Engage people in the process• Use the project as a marketing/community engagement

tool: tell your story well, tap the power of brand affinity• Think in terms of giving your donors a return on

investment. Why should people donate?

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Takeaways

• Get your board involved• Keep your campaign short and sweet: typically you see

the giving at the beginning and end of the project, so don't stretch that middle out too much

• Have a plan for engaging folks each day or every couple of days in a different way

• Start early to get all of the pieces approved and plan for how you will fulfill any commitments you make to donors

• Factor in fundraising costs: credit card fees, staff time & resources.

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Agenda

Questions?

Announcements

GiveMN.org will be down for website maintenance on Saturday, March 29

from 11 – 5 p.m.

Attending MCN Technology and Communication Conference April 10?

Check out our session titled“Smartphones for Dummies” at 7:30 a.m.

& stop by the GiveMN booth!