 Hi everyone, and welcome to our presentation about crowdfunding for education. My name is Peter Lindbergh, and I'm joined by my colleague Jamie Wood. Hi everybody. We started a crowdfunding website dedicated to education that we call Insight Ed. Our mission is to inspire educators to pursue ideas that make a difference. The problem is that in so many cases, one of the biggest barriers to turning an idea into a real-world educational program or experience is that there are significant costs involved. It can take hundreds or thousands of dollars to get an idea off the drawing board and turn it into a living, breathing thing that makes an impact for learners. And if your school's budget is already overwhelmed, and if other sources of money like grants are also hard to come by, what are you going to do? We know that a lot of educators are already going into their own pockets to make a better experience for their students. Crowdfunding is another option available to you to cover some or all of those costs of turning a good idea into a real-world education program or experience. And by the end of this presentation, we hope you're thinking of possibilities for how crowdfunding can help you turn one of your own ideas into something real. Crowdfunding is a word that's still pretty new to most people, and it might be a little confusing. All the word really means is online fundraising. When you crowdfund, you use the internet to send messages about your valuable education program to potential supporters in your own community or across the country. Crowdfunding makes it possible to raise hundreds or thousands of dollars through many small donations. InsightEd is a crowdfunding website that makes it easy for you to create an online fundraising campaign and to collect donations from people who believe in what you're doing and want to see you succeed. There are a number of other crowdfunding websites that you can use besides InsightEd, like Indiegogo or Kickstarter. All of the suggestions for running a successful crowdfunding campaign that we're going to discuss in the next 15 minutes will work equally well no matter what crowdfunding service you choose. Your effort and planning are the most important parts of any successful fundraising campaign. But before we talk about how to run a strong fundraising campaign, let's first take a look at what other educators have done in the past. You might recognize projects that would be great for learners in your community. Crowdfunding is a good fit for any educator who has a specific project, small or large, that needs funds in order to be sustainable. It could be for something new or for an existing project or program that has run out of money. Let's look at a few real examples. This one is called No Problemo. It's a service learning project that pairs high school kids in the U.S. with high school kids in Guatemala. Their campaign raised money for all the necessary supplies for the fun team challenges the kids did together in Guatemala. Very cool campaign. Here's an example of a classroom technology campaign called Keep Our Promise to Our Kids. They're shooting for $10,000 to provide 35 Chromebooks to 120 students. If your school doesn't have the money to get technology into kids' hands, this might be the way to do it. And here's a campaign that's trying to replace the kinds of programs most schools lost years ago. And it's called Turning Around Boston, Mobile Woodworking Classes for Kids. A crowdfunded program like this makes it possible for students to experience project-based learning by paying for the supplies and expert help that a school might never be able to provide through traditional funding. So the possibilities for crowdfunding are really, really broad. You can fundraise for things to make the classroom learning experience better, things to get the students out of the classroom, things focused on core skills, or things that are just about having fun. If it's a project you can get your crowd excited about, it's a good candidate for crowdfunding. But just having a good idea for a project isn't enough. Running a successful campaign takes effort and a good plan. Let's talk about that next. There's no one perfect recipe for raising the money to fund your good idea. But knowing the attitudes and behaviors that have helped other educators and successful fundraisers will help you when you're ready to launch a campaign of your own. Basically, when you're running a campaign, there are good habits and bad habits. We'd like to show you the difference. Let's try to have a little fun with this. I'm going to introduce you to a pair of crowd funders, Bruce and Bee. Bruce is the not-so-good crowd funder, and Bee is the pretty darn good crowd funder. You're going to hear and see some quotes by our friends Bruce and Bee, and you have to guess if each quote is something a good or not-so-good crowd funder would say. Are you ready? Here's the first quote. Crowdfunding looks pretty easy. Anybody could do it. Who said it? Bruce! Crowdfunding takes courage and hard work. Asking for money, even for a really great project, can be a little uncomfortable for many people. Successful crowd funders are persistent, passionate, outgoing, and organized. Okay, next quote. I asked a couple of other teachers and my principal to join me on my crowdfunding campaign. Can you guess? Bee! Working with a campaign team is one of the smartest strategies you can choose. Even a team of two is a good idea, while three, four, or five people working together increases the chances of success even more. Every person on the team expands the crowd and can share campaign duties. I'd love to raise $10,000, but I set my campaign funding goal for $4,500, because I think I can reach that target realistically. Who said it? Bee! That's right. When you set your goal, you need to balance how much you want with how much your community of supporters can realistically provide. Campaigns that set their goals unrealistically high can end up looking a little sad and discouraging some people from donating. Supporters want to feel that their individual contribution makes a difference in reaching an attainable goal. Okay, who's next? I'll wait until the end of my campaign to thank the people who've donated. There's plenty of time. Who said it? Bruce! You got it. Bruce. Thanking people soon after they donate is a great strategy and the polite thing to do. Right after a donation, people are feeling really good about what they've done and are more likely to want to do more to help. When you say thank you, you also ask the donor to tell other people about the campaign and say that they have already donated. I made a spreadsheet with the names and email addresses of all the people in my social and professional circles who I think would potentially donate. Who is it? B! That's right. Creating a master list of potential donors is a great campaign tool. It helps you set an attainable financial goal for the campaign and it helps you organize your outreach from the beginning of the campaign until the end. I started planning my campaign a month before I wanted to launch so I could take my time and have everything looking and sounding just right on day one. Who said it? B! You guessed it. B! Planning well in advance gives you time to think carefully about your message to the crowd and to hone it so it will have the maximum impact. Planning ahead gives you time to organize a strong campaign and to prepare things like a campaign video, a press release, and your master list of supporters. Alright. Who's next? I checked to see how my campaign is doing every Sunday afternoon after football is over. Otherwise, it pretty much takes care of itself. Who is it? Bruce! Of course, Bruce. A good campaigner will spend at least a little time three to four days a week doing things like sending thank yous, writing campaign blog posts, contacting influencers, or thinking of new people to add to the master contact list. A little effort applied frequently is usually enough to keep a campaign going strong. Now who's next? I put a lot of messages out about my campaign on social media but I know personalized email is probably my most effective communication tool. Who said it? B! Social media is a good way to put campaign messages out to a lot of people quickly but those messages also get lost or buried pretty quickly too. Don't underestimate the value of email. Email seems almost old fashioned these days but it's still effective in connecting to people you know and remember that most of the donations will come from people you know or people who know of you through friends and colleagues. I emailed Henry on the second day of the campaign. I'm sure he saw it and will donate later. I don't want to bother him again. Who is it? Bruce! That's right. Being shy or easily discouraged is the number one killer of crowdfunding campaigns. You should be determined to send seven or more personalized messages to people who are on your master donors list. Far more people will be won over by regular positive messages about your campaign than will be annoyed. If you believe that much in what you're doing, others will too. I've spoken to a bunch of close friends and colleagues who are excited about my upcoming campaign. Many have agreed to make a donation on day one. Who said it? B! You're right. A strong start is important because donating for many people is at least partly a social decision. We tend to fall in line with what other people are doing. If a campaign has strong early support, others will follow more easily. If you can't get eight to ten people to commit to donating on day one, that may indicate that your crowd is weak or unreliable. You might want to consider strengthening your team or lowering your goal. Okay, who's next? My campaign hardly got any donations for ten days straight, so I pretty much gave up. Who said it? B! You know it. It isn't unusual for a campaign to have a lull in the middle where donations slow down or stop altogether for a little while. Good campaigners don't get discouraged and continue to send out regular positive messages. Donations typically pick up again as the end of the campaign approaches, but not if you stop communicating. Who's up next? I contacted a bunch of local media outlets, education bloggers, my church, my state senator and representative, and other influencers with details about my campaign. Who is it? B! Correct. Crowdfunding is still new and newsworthy. Newspapers, bloggers, education policy makers, and others are interested in stories about good people doing good work for education in the community. If they send details of your campaign out to their own crowd, it could give your campaign a serious boost. Okay, who's next? I sent out a bunch of messages asking my crowd for support, but mostly what I got were a bunch of likes on Facebook and hardly any money. And who is this? Bruce! You got it. Give supporters a clear call to action. Ask them to donate money. People will appreciate you being clear about what you want and need. Your call to action should also ask people to spread the word to other potential supporters about your campaign. Okay, well, that's it for Bruce and B. As you can see, there really is a better and worse way to conduct a campaign. And as far as we're concerned, if you're going to go to the trouble of building a crowdfunding campaign, you should do it so you're most likely to succeed. Here's a quick rundown of the main lessons from Bruce and B. Number one, crowdfunding is not the hardest thing you've ever done, but it does take real effort and a little courage when asking supporters for money. Two, start planning your campaign early to give yourself time to be prepared. Number three, working with a dedicated campaign team really increases your chances of success. Number four, set an achievable fundraising goal. If the goal is set too high, you might scare some supporters away. Number five, create a master list of all the people you plan to contact about your campaign. Number six, get off to a fast start. Campaigns that have early success do best overall. Number seven, be prepared to reach out to potential supporters frequently. Once or twice just isn't enough. Number eight, don't get discouraged if your campaign has a lull. Keep sending messages and things will pick up again. Number nine, contact influencers about your campaign, education bloggers, your local newspaper and TV, politicians and anyone else you can think of. Number ten, don't be shy about asking people for money. Okay, that's it. Hey, Jamie, it looks like you and I are just about out of time now too. You're right, Peter. So let me just conclude with a few reminders for everybody. Crowdfunding might be a great way for many of you watching this presentation to bring a worthwhile project to life. We want to encourage you to go for it. And if you have an idea for a specific campaign, Peter and I would love to discuss it with you and help you get started in the planning process. Second, there's a lot of information available on our website in site ed.org that you can read or download that can also help in the planning. Everything we covered in this presentation is covered in more detail on our website. Finally, we created in site ed to support the important work that educators like you are doing in your schools and communities. We wish you all the best in your endeavors wherever you are. Thanks for listening.