Event:2014/10/13 Community and Fundraising

Facilitator: Laura Turiano 7pm in the ballroom

Notes

• nature of build-out costs

Ideas

• Grants

Needs

• ADA

Resources

• Owner will pay for 1/2 of capital improvements up to $50,000

Fundraising Basics

• Start with:

   ** One clear goal 
   ** Specific needs and $ requirements
   ** Deadline

• Strategies:
  • Inner circle - direct, personal asks - people you trust and have intimate relationships with
  • Wider audience - people who catch wind of it, you don't have direct access to them for this goal
  • Events and stunts - bumper stickers, fliers, bake sales, ways to reach strangers and get press

• 30%-60% of what you need for your goal you should already have direct access to.
  • i.e. you should already have tested the waters
  • Visibility of support - early support generates more faith in success

• Notes on Kickstarters (in general):
  • Products are usually more successful than causes
  • In other examples of collectives using Kickstarters, private investors were largely the people "donating"
  • Great marketing tool
  • Kickstarter itself doesn't allow real estate projects - other crowdfunding platforms do
  • What do we need to tell the audience, what do they want to know?
  • Apparently Amazon Payments takes another 8% on top of Kickstarter's cut of your campaign revenue :(

• Conversations with private donors:
  • Elicit rather than solicit interest
  • Meet them where they're at
  • Demonstrate pride and knowledge
  • Find out if they have any advice and their opinions on the projects

Examples of other makerspace crowdfunding campaigns:

BioCurious pledged: 35,319 goal: 30,000 backers: 239 https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/openscience/biocurious-a-hackerspace-for-biotech-the-community

Hub Oakland pledged: 142,719 goal: 100,000 backers: 1294 https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/konda/what-makes-you-come-alive-bring-it-to-the-hub-0

Hacker Dojo pledged: 53,655 goal: 30,000 backers: 762 https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/384590180/an-events-space-and-a-design-studio-for-hacker-doj

LA Makerspace pledged: 34,204 goal: 15,000 backers: 465 https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tara/los-angeles-makerspace-a-family-friendly-innovatio

Baghdad Community Hackerspace pledged: 29,471 goal: 27,500 backers: 671 https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bilal/baghdad-community-hackerspace-workshops

Konbit Communitere pledged: 14,507 goal: 12,000 backers: 97 https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/konbit-communitere

FFL Fab Lab pledged: 13,670 goal: 20,000 backers: 16 https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ffl-fab-lab

Benicia pledged: 13,228 goal: 30,000 backers: 57 https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1053606583/build-a-makerspace-in-benicia

Hackermoms pledged: 12,564 goal: 10,000 backers: 288 https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1569887044/mothership-hackermoms-the-first-womens-hackerspace

Ladies Learning Code pledged: 10,772 goal: 10,000 backers: 188 https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/help-make-ladies-learning-code-s-new-space-into-a-cool-resource-for-toronto

Tampa Hackerspace pledged: 16,185 goal: 10,000 backers: 157 https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/123218300/build-tampas-first-hackerspace

Danger!Awesome pledged: 36,737 goal: 35000 backers: 636 https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nadeemtron/dangerawesome-a-high-tech-hands-on-community-maker

Houston Makerspace pledged: 10,045 goal: 10000 backers: 119 http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/houston-makerspace

PreFAB pledged: 15,821 goal: 15000 backers: 135 https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/894500964/lets-build-prefab-san-diegos-home-for-creatives-an