#ThundaTip : Action Learning (learning from your mistakes)

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Action Learning is basically learning from your mistakes and asking the important questions that will get you to the results you want to achieve.

The Action Learning Model can be applied to any aspect of your Thundafund crowdfunding campaign. Whether that’s your social media marketing, setting up your campaign on Thundafund or even your marketing strategy. Applying this model to your creative and collective processes will get you closer to your dreams and goals.

Applying the Action Learning model to your campaign:

1) Plan – decide on what you want to achieve and what the first step toward that goal will be.

2) Act – apply the first step/action.

3) Observe – after implementing the first step ask yourself if you have achieved the goal you set out to achieve.

4) Reflect – what have you learned from this exercise? What needs to change? What could you have done differently?

5) Start Again – Start the cycle again, and again and again until your objectives are achieved.

actionlearning1
So simple, yet so rewarding.

Good luck with the rest of your campaign. Let the FUNDing find you and remember the Thundafund Mantra:

#MakeItRain

#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

Opportunities for Crowdfunding in Africa – Vincent Matinde

Thundafund IDGConnect

Raising funds in any market is crucial to business survival. In developed markets, crowdfunding sites like Indiegogo and Kickstarter have seen projects funded by the public. This has been the envy of the African continent.

In Africa, entrepreneurs who fail to raise funds for their project through bank loans and investments have traditionally tended to find a listening ear from friends and mostly family. This is because online options to raise funds were previously quite limited.

Now Thundafund, a South Africa crowdfunding site, has had quite a success in helping businesses raise funds since its introduction in June 2013. And the need was real.  Continue reading