What do you want to achieve?

At the start of your crowdfunding journey, spend some time thinking about your personal expectations and goals. 

It’s not all about the money. While raising funds can be a key element, many people decide to crowdfund for all sorts of different reasons. It’s important to have a clear vision for what you want to achieve with your Crowdfunder project, so that you can stay focused on those goals. To get you thinking, we’ll look at a few of the common motivations for crowdfunding. 

Raising awareness

Crowdfunding generates a lot of noise around your project, making it a fantastic way to promote and raise awareness about what you’re trying to achieve. 

Testing a new product or idea

Some project owners use crowdfunding to test the water and find out if there’s enough interest in their new product or idea, before investing too much time or money into it. If your project is successful in attracting support, it’s a good indicator that you’re on the right track.

Growing your membership

Clubs and societies can use crowdfunding to boost their numbers by offering memberships as a reward. The time-limited nature of crowdfunding can act as an additional motivating factor, encouraging people to sign up for a membership sooner rather than later. 

Attracting sponsorship

It makes a lot of sense to offer sponsorship opportunities as rewards when you’re crowdfunding, as in the process you’re showing that your club or organisation has community support and would be a worthwhile investment for the sponsors. 

Building your customer base

If you’re launching or expanding a business, your main aim could be to attract lots of supporters (and future customers!) with really awesome rewards. You may have a particular number in mind for the number of supporters you’d like to attract. 

Uniting your community 

As crowdfunding is all about reaching for a target within a limited time, it gives a community something to focus their energy on, uniting different groups of people within it around a common cause. 

Learning new skills

As you go through the crowdfunding process, you’ll expand your experience and expertise at the same time as raising money. By gaining new skills in things like marketing and content creation, you’ll be better equipped for keeping your audience engaged in the future. 

Unlock additional funding

Having a successful crowdfunding campaign can help to unlock grants and other additional funding. It proves you know what you’re doing.

Looking for more guidance on your crowdfunding project? Head over to our Knowledge Hub.