Strategies for Crowdfunding

Funding for non-profits and institutions of learning is becoming harder to obtain than ever. Fundraisers need to be increasingly innovative. Crowdfunding is working well for many organisations. Interestingly, it did not originate as a means of funding NPOs. It started (and is currently thriving) as a way of seeking a number – usually a large number – of ‘angel investors’ for new books, movies, computer games and many more for-profit concepts. Erica Schofield, CEO of Thundafund, Africa’s largest rewards-based crowdfunding platform, spent 17 years within the tech industry, implementing digital transformation and collaborating on projects with thousands of users. Having successfully crowdfunded to start her first business, Erica has consulted on crowdfunding for many years and has run over 25 crowdfunding campaigns (donation, rewards and equity-based) and has provided crowdfunding support in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Gambia, America and the UK.

She is co-author, with Jill Ritchie, of the new crowdfunding book Crowdfunding for Non-profits – a guide to activating support networks.

Topics covered include:

• Crowdfunding vs crowdsourcing
• Planning a crowdfunding campaign
• Marketing a crowdfunding campaign
• How much to ask for
• Maintaining momentum
• Why campaigns fail
• Wrapping up a campaign