Info From The Vine- 7 Secrets To Win With Crowdfunding

It's a cool Monday here on Florida's Gulf Coast, which is a great way to re-introduce the most successful Crowdfunding campaign ever- the "Coolest Cooler", the largest funded campaign on Kickstarter. This campaign featured the feature-laden, blender-centric, electronic-supported beach cooler discussed in a prior blog note (Cooler), a campaign that failed the first time, but raised $10.3 on the second attempt.

Entrepreneur.com interviewed Ryan Grepp, the inventor and detailed his 7 secrets to a running a "killer" crowdfunding campaign:

1.  Have a prototype available for photos.
2.  Short, customer-focused video.
3.  Think about Product's timing.
4.  Talk about your crowdfunding campaign before it launches.
5.   Go all-out on the social media that works best for you.
6.   Market!
7.   Failure does not mean "game over".

SignVine is a niche/specialty crowdfunding service, but still this advice applies directly. Of course you may not have a prototype of your LED sign available but you have drawings and plans- use them on your webpage.

Crowdfunding works and the Sign Industry needs this tool. Call or send an email today to discuss your non-profit organization's needs.


- Mike Prongue
  Campaign Director for the Non Profit SignVine
  michael@signvine.org
  www.signvine.org

Info From The Vine: "Pump Up" With 5 Campaign Exercises

SignVine is a specialized crowdfunding service for the sign industry, helping non-profit organizations purchase message boards.

Crowdfunding works- there is no doubt about that. But crowdfunding is not a walk through a magic “money garden” where golden apples are harvested. Effort is required at the grass-roots level.

There are 5 behaviors that every crowdfunding campaign must do to ensure that funding goals are met.

  1.    Have a plan- simple or complex. Write it out and create a timeline. 

        2.    Divide the campaign funding goal into time specific goals- how many dollars per day, per week, per month, must be collected. Then keep score and adjust tactics and strategies as required.

        3.       Create a team of leaders. If you are the Athletic Director at a school and you are crowdfunding an LED display for the football stadium, you know the power of a team. Assign a dollar goal to each team.

        4.       Network, share, ask, implore, direct and encourage donors to visit the site and make a donation. Use all social media, the telephone and personal visits to encourage donations.

        5.       Have fun and celebrate the efforts of the campaign. You must not get mired down. Each new day is an opportunity to excel.

Approach a crowdfunding campaign with eyes wide open and promote it to “project status” within your organization. 

Remember “return is equal to investment” and crowdfunding is no exception!

- Mike Prongue
  Campaign Director for the Non Profit SignVine
  michael@signvine.org
  www.signvine.org 

Info From The Vine- Nonprofits, A Large Customer Percentage

Crowdfunding is the process of raising funds online at a specialized website that tells the story for the cause, product or ideal. The website also captures the donation and forwards the proceeds when the campaign's time limit is reached.

SignVine is specialized crowdfunding for the Sign Industry that helps deserving non-profits purchase message signs.

In the Sign Industry there is a huge audience of prime candidates for this type of service- schools, fire departments, churches, chambers of commerce, clubs and civic organizations. Without knowing an exact percentage of sales this non-profit segment represents for the sign industry, it’s fair to say that it’s “large, active and dynamic”.

If crowdfunding is not considered as a method to help obtain a message sign for the non-profit then what do they do?

      1)      Use on-hand funds,

      2)      Obtain financing,

      3)      Conventional fund raising campaign,

      4)      Save for a future purchase,

      5)      Give up and continue to be under-represented in the community.

Non-profits are an important part of the sign industry. Explain their options, but remember to add the “Crowdfunding” option to the list- it might be just what the proverbial Sign Doctor ordered!

We help non-profits, sign dealers and the sign industry with our online campaigns. Call today- 844-807-9720.

- Mike Prongue
  Campaign Director for the Non Profit SignVine
  michael@signvine.org
  www.signvine.org 

Info From The Vine- Early Adopters Have a Competitive Advantage

SignVine is crowdfunding for the Sign Industry, assisting sign companies and their non-profit customers purchase message signs using online fundraising.

There are countless reasons for reaching out to utilize and support a new concept. But are those reasons enough to allow this new tool to become widely accepted? Currently, as an innovative idea for the industry this is the “early adopter” era in the Innovation Adoption Lifecycle.

Early adopters are those users who test the service and provide feedback, both good and bad, and work to shape the future of the product or service. They’re the “guinea pigs” it would seem, but there is a positive return for their early participation- a competitive advantage.

With crowdfunding, the concept is simple, as a previous blog post discussed (Simple). Unlike product  technology evolution, the changes with crowdfunding are not as dramatic. There are no new processors to incorporate into the next product release, and a bigger display screen is not part of the crowdfunding future. Using crowdfunding today makes a lot of sense.

Sometimes even the most extraordinary idea is delayed for years or decades before becoming “main stream”.  The early adopters are the ones who have the “guts” to try a new concept and benefit from doing having done so- they are the innovators as much as the service itself. The early adopters will decide the future of sign industry crowdfunding

The next time your non-profit customer complains about not being able to afford a new sign project, consider crowdfunding to gain a competitive advantage and to help your customer!

- Mike Prongue
  Campaign Director for the Non Profit SignVine
  michael@signvine.org
  www.signvine.org 

Info From The Vine- Crowdfunding is Simple, Let's Keep it Simple

 There is nothing new about “crowdfunding”- soliciting contributions from large groups of people is precisely what non-profits have been doing for over 100 years. Today, the Internet enhances their ability to communicate their ideas to large numbers of supporters with money to contribute.

With the exception of the technical "nuts and bolts" of the website, the idea of Crowdfunding is simple. Instead of the Minister standing in front of the congregation and extolling the virtues of the church’s project and asking for a donation, the congregation and other supporters visit the website and make a donation.

Imaginative people overly-complicate the process and insert many interesting fictional twists into crowdfunding:

1. “So when we sign up, how do your supporters send us the money?”

2. “How long do we have to pay the money back?”

3. “If we miss our campaign funding goal, how do we get the rest of the money?”

The crowdfunding effort belongs to the campaign. Grassroots effort is still required to get contributions. With the web presence, people can donate 24/7 without calling the Church’s Minister up at 3AM- simply visit the website. The funds are not loans, they are gifts and if you miss your campaign target then you either purchase a smaller sign or dig into the Church treasury.

Raise money for your outdoor message sign...completely FREE with #crowdfunding SignVine is waiving ALL FEES for the remainder of the year.

- Mike Prongue
  Campaign Director for the Non Profit SignVine
  michael@signvine.org
  www.signvine.org

Info From The Vine: Crowdfunding for Disaster Recovery

SignVine is crowdfunding for the Sign Industry that allows non-profit organizations to raise funds online to purchase a message sign. And now, to introduce the service, the 5% fee has been waived for the duration of 2014.

Crowdfunding promotes new ideas, new products and supports many causes. It also raises money for well-known causes such as regional disasters, here are a few examples that have made headlines:

Hurricane Sandy- using GoFundMe, $1.3 million collected, and additional support through Indiegogo and HelpersUnite. The Red Cross raised over $800,000 using Crowdrise to help defray the costs of support.

The Boston Marathon Bombings- Over $3.4 million using multiple crowdfunding platforms. 

The Emergency Relief for Oklahoma Tornado Victims- raised $46,000+ on HopeMob.

The goal of such crowdfunding efforts is to supplement traditional charitable giving, not replace them. Such efforts generates additional attention to the cause and allows people to participate directly in the solution.

There are many roles for crowdfunding in 2014. From equity crowdfunding to bootstrap a new business to traditional crowdfunding to create new product to disaster recovery, crowdfunding is a simple idea, whose time has come! 

- Mike Prongue
  Campaign Director for the Non Profit SignVine
  michael@signvine.org
  www.signvine.org