ECF Europe: Let's do this crowdfunding thing

”Hey, let’s do this peer-to-peer crowdfunding

thing.

It will bring in tons of new donors!”

The setup

? ?

The setupStorytellers in the field:• Suggest projects• Provides details• Collects stories of impact

Operations team:• Builds / manages platform

(Linvio / Salesforce)• Segments list / targets• Makes asks (email / social)• Tells stories of impact

Donors:• Invite friends to give (?)• Share stories of impact (?)

How has it worked?7 projects successfully funded so far, $16,000+ raised • 9% of total online donations• Projects between $800 - $4000• All projects funded

305 project donors • 2015 total: ca. 3500 individual donors• 156 entirely new donors / 149 previous donors • Jan – Sep 2016: 617 new donors total• Jan – Sep 2015: 481 new donors total

• 32 donors have given to more than 1 of the 7 projects (7 of them were new)• repeat asks were not (yet) a key part of the

strategy• 35% of revenue came from new donors• Too early to tell if existing donors give beyond their

regular gifts

How has it worked?Traffic / conversions- overall: 7.7% conversion rate- traffic sources:

- Facebook: 43%- Email: 36%- Direct: 15%- Twitter: 2%- Main website: 2%- Others: 2%

- 46% desktop / 54% mobile

The idea: once you build it, they will come (and bring

their friends)(Our) reality so far: Once

you build it, and you advertise it, and you push it, some of them will come

(not sure if they have friends)

Is it worth it?Time suck:• Need for ‘Storytellers’ in the field (hire dedicated

staff or train team)• Outreach and reporting to donors

Challenges:• Segmenting of audiences (limits to capacity of

systems and skill?)• Data management / scalability• Lack of peer-to-peer sharing (ownership) • people have been asked to give, rather than do

Is it worth it?Strategic fit?• Unrestricted vs. restricted funds• Cannibalizing regular giving?• Large variety of calls to action / platforms • Donations• Adoption• Products• Crowdfunding• FB fundraisers?

Share your experiences! matt@snowleopard.org /

@MatthiasFi