GRIT: A Crowdfunding Essential

It’s been a week and no one has backed my campaign, what do I do?

Giving up is not the right answer. You’ve put a lot of effort into setting up your campaign, you can’t give up yet!

This is where grit comes in. The American Psychologist, Angela Duckworth,  who is the leading authority on Grit describes the term as ‘perseverance and passion for long-term goals.

Crowdfunding success is having grit, following through with your campaign, not giving up after a bad first week.

So what can I do about my funding problems? How can I show my grit?

Well you can start by answering these questions:

  • Have you told everyone you know?
  • Have you reached out to people beyond Social Media?
  • Do you have a clear idea of who is going to back your campaign?
  • Do you have a group of people helping you spread the word
  • Have you asked people for their opinion on your campaign?

A great start to getting funding is to read our blog post on creating a Funding Strategy. Read it here.

If you feel you need to restrategise your campaign send us an email or give us call. We’re here to help you achieve the funding you need.

At the end of the day it’s important to realise that it’s up to you to get the funding you need. Having grit throughout the journey will help in achieving your funding goals

Your Thundafund Campaign is just the start of your project’s journey. Grit will play a serious role in the success or failure of your venture. To learn more about the power of Grit and how it can be learnt check out the Freakonomics podcast on Grit here. Angela Duckworth has a great TED talk, watch it here

#ThundaTip : Telling Your Story

Concept image with What is Your Story printed on an old typewriter

“Once upon a time, in a land not so far away, a brave crowdfunder set out to tell the world about her amazing idea.”

Writing out your campaign copy is not the same as creating a document for investors to analyse with business terms and big fancy words. The everyday Joe is going to be backing your campaign – speak to them.

People are moved to action by emotional story telling rather than by facts and figures. Think about the TV adverts that you will never forget, do you ever remember numbers and figures? Do you ever remember disingenuous sales tactics? No, you remember how it made you FEEL.

When writing about your crowdfunding campaign, you have got to make people feel. Make them inspired, make them relate to your mission, make them excited about how awesome your project is and that the world can’t go on without it!


The copy of your campaign on Thundafund.com is split into 3 different parts.

1. Matchbox Pitch

This match box pitch is exactly what the name suggests, a write up of your idea that is so short it can be written on the back of a matchbox.

You need to create a paragraph of no more than 140 characters (The same length as a tweet on Twitter) that you can fire off to a potential supporter, in order to gain their backing.

It also appears in your Project Widget on Thundafund.com:

Untitled

2. About the project

This section is an extension of your matchbox pitch and should be around 60-80 words long:

About the Project

Make sure that it ends off with a ‘Call-to-Action’ or a challenge. A ‘Call-to-Action’ tells people what you would ideally like them to do and a challenge sets out what you aim to achieve.

Also direct supporter to your rewards set like this:

 Call to Action

3. The Full Story

Now you’ve grabbed the attention of your potential supporters. They are interested in who you are and what you’re aiming to achieve through your crowdfunding campaign, but they need a little more convincing.

Like any educated consumer, people need information and emotional engagement in order to part with their hard earned cash and | or engage in supporting something.

A good structure to make sure you’re not missing out on anything:

  1. Who are you?

Whether you’re an individual or an organization, it’s always polite to introduce who you are. Make sure that readers understand what it is that you do, so that it makes sense in the scheme of the campaign.

  1. Past, Present, Future

Give brief highlights on what you have done in the past, where you are now and where you aim to be in the future.

Read to rise

  1. Why you’re crowdfunding?

Detail out to readers what you’re aiming to achieve through a successful crowdfunding campaign. This is the crux of the matter, if you can’t explain to people why you’re running a campaign it’s going to leave them very confused.

Im crowdfunding

  1. Milestone Details. 

Write out how much money you need at each Milestone, and what that money is going towards. Be as specific as you can be, people want to know exactly what their money is going towards.

Milestone

  1. The Ask

A lot of people, and organizations, struggle to ask for donations or to ask people to buy rewards…just be out with it! You will never gain anything from being quiet, you might as well give yourself a chance.

  1. You can follow us here.

Adding your online links at the bottom of the page is always a great option to allow readers to do further research on you, or to let them engage on your social media without actually buying a reward.

Spread the love


If you follow these tips, and add your own pizazz, you are surely on your way to writing a crowdfunding story that will inspire the most hardened money-saver to support your campaign!

#MakeItRain

Your Homework: Do At Least One Customer Interview

Thundafund Crowdfunding Customer ValidationSome solid advice from Dave Duarte on the importance of customer validation!

Customer interviews are essential as part of the marketing process, as they help us make sure that what we are offering actually has willing buyers, and that we’re presenting it in a way that is compelling for these potential buyers.

Here’s some suggestions for how you’ll structure your interview… Feel free to go off-script or create your own questions. (Plus, shiny gold star for anyone who does 5 or more interviews!) Continue reading

Your Crowdfunding Outline: A Checklist To Success!

Thundafund Crowdfunding Checklist Post

Preparing a detailed crowdfunding outline will not only help you organize your thoughts, but evaluate and fine tune them. It will help you keep track of your ideas, acting as your blueprint for a perfect crowdfunding campaign.

Without a proper outline for a crowdfunding project, one can become overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information that requires your attention. So with that said; can you write answers to the following questions?  Continue reading

The Crowdfunding Life Cycle

Crowdfunding LifeCycle

Successful crowdfunders realize that there is much more to crowdfunding than just creating a crowdfunding campaign and promoting it on social media. There are 3 distinct phases of a crowdfunding campaign. Each phase requires proper planning, execution, and management. To take advantage of your unique crowdfunding opportunity, you need to understand each phase, and develop an action plan for each one.  Continue reading