Crowdfunding Corner 9 : Common Kickstarter Questions

Hey all, and welcome to Crowdfund Corner! I’m RM Sean B Jaffe of Nerdy City, and I’m here with Nicole Amato from Kickstarter to talk about crowdfunding! This month, Nicole took some time out to answer some common questions about crowdfunding for people like parents and family members who might be unfamiliar with the concept Take it away, Nicole!

Sean Jaffe: How would you describe crowdfunding to a friend or family member who had never heard of it before?

Nicole Amato: Crowdfunding is essentially a method where individuals pool together money, typically small contributions from a large number of people, via the Internet to support a project or business. It’s a popular way to raise funds without the need for traditional lenders or investors.

Having run my own campaign in the past, I had to break this down often! I explained to them that we made a board game and were hoping to publish it ourselves, and what we needed was $9,500 to do so, and in order to do that, we went to a crowdfunding website to raise the funds. I explained to them that the website allowed us to offer copies of the game that we would then collect the money for—if we funded!—so we could then print the game and get it to however many backers we had. The hardest part was explaining that it would take a few months to get to them, and at the time, I was also learning a lot about the manufacturing process myself. The next question they usually asked was "can anything be crowdfunded?" which I thought was so fun to answer, because then I got to tell them about the books, enamel pins, and even sweaters I've gotten on Kickstarter! 

Sean: How would you spread awareness of a crowdfunding campaign to elements that might not be as online, like older folks?

Nicole: That's really dependent on the campaign itself! One example I can give you is educational games—those can be harder to spread awareness because the people who back those may not be online as, say, hardcore gamers are. I encourage those creators to think outside the box and focus on schools and libraries. With older generations, again, it's dependent on the campaign itself! But if you can target where those people ARE looking, that's the key to making them aware of your campaign. 

Sean: What are some good ideas for rewards that might entice these elements?

Nicole: To entice people who are less familiar with Kickstarter, I encourage very clear reward tiers! Make sure you have at least one tier that is simply the game you are offering without too many bells and whistles. If analysis paralysis can hamper the most veteran superbackers, it will definitely intimidate people who are new to the platform! If you're focusing on a crowd that falls more into this category, it might be a good idea to make your tiers easy to read and simple to understand. If you have a lot of extras you want people to have access to, you can combine those in higher-level tiers, or even just have them as add-ons. There are a lot of options!

This article is part of the Indie Game Developer Network’s blog series. The content of this article reflects the views of but one member of the IGDN. This IGDN blog article is brought to you by Sean B. Jaffe from Nerdy City. If you want to get in touch with the contributor you can visit their website at nerdycity.com.