This Is What Happened When I Ran My First Kickstarter Campaign

“What’s Art prize?” I ask. I’d never heard of it until that moment.

“It’s an annual, world-wide art competition in Grand Rapids, Michigan. People come from all over to see the art and it’s everywhere, in restaurants, in museums, just everywhere you can imagine.”

I try to picture what it would be like to have my art in another city.

My eyes open wide as I imagine people from all over the world, looking at my charcoal drawings.

It would feel amazing to be part of that.

And then reality hits

My drawings would have to be professionally framed in order to be displayed.

I don’t have the money to do that. I don’t even have enough to frame one drawing.

I wouldn’t even have the money to pay for gas. And then what about lodging?

It would be a 14-hour drive round trip— twice!

Suddenly, I’m overwhelmed.

There’s no way

I push the idea to the back of my mind. And every time I start to think about it, I push it back again.

But a few days later, I remember a website called Kickstarter.

I had heard it’s a way for artists and all types of creatives to raise money for projects.

Do I pursue this crazy idea? Should I look into Kickstarter? Will this be something I regret if I let it pass?

After a lot of thought, I finally decide I have to try this.

But with any big project, I knew I had to break it down into smaller parts that were more manageable.

These are the three steps for creating a Kickstarter Campaign.

1. Figure out your funding goal

The first step is to calculate exactly how much money you need for your project. Sit and brainstorm everything you’ll need, even down to details. You don’t want to come up with a number that will not take care of your needs.

Think about this carefully, because you can’t change it later.

If you make the amount too high, it may not be successful. If you make it too low, your needs may not be met.

In my case, it would take less than $1,000 dollars, so I calculated everything and wrote down the amount.

Note: Someone graciously offered to put me up, which lessened the amount I needed considerably. Sometimes you just gotta start.

Funding on Kickstarter is “All-or-Nothing.” If you don’t reach your goal, none of your backers will be charged. So people are more willing to come aboard.

The struggle:

I’m not a numbers person. It took energy to get all my quotes and figure out exactly what I needed. There were many decisions to make, and I have a hard time with that.

The outcome: I focused on one decision at a time. If I had let things pile up, or thought about too much at once, I would’ve been a mess.

Tip: Focus on making one decision each day. And don’t make any decisions fast just to get them done. Make a list and check each item off.

2. Create your video

After figuring out the amount of money you need for a project, you can make a video explaining what your project is, and what the money would be used for.

You can do this in a variety of ways. You can show your work, show the process of a piece, show your materials, and closeups. Have fun with it.

Let people see your face, or if you’re not comfortable, you can always do a voice-over.

In fact, you can view my Kickstarter video here.

Making the video was actually stressful for me. I wanted to do something creative, but I didn’t know what.

One day my mom and I went for a walk and the idea came to her,

“You should have a meeting with your drawings. Talk to them about taking this trip.”

I talk to my drawings anyway, I might as well do it for the camera.

Then I had to think of what to say in the video. Lucky for me, my mom likes writing. She was a big help.

The struggle:

Memorizing my script, and acting in front of the camera!
You’d be right if you guessed I had A LOT of outtakes!

Talking in front of the camera is much different than when I do my self portraits. I can’t control how I look or sound when the video is rolling.

I thought editing would be easier, but after just a few minutes, I hated the sound of my voice! Why would anyone else want to hear me? And eventually the soundtrack got on my nerves because I had to listen to it over and over again while editing. After my campaign was over, I couldn’t watch it anymore.

Tip #1: Be picky when you choose your background music. You’re going to hear it over and over again. I can’t stand my sound track now, since I had to hear it so many times.

Tip #2: Make short notes on what you want to say in your video. This is if you’re not going to do any acting, like I did. In my case, I had a script to memorize. But if you’re going to have shots where you’re speaking directly to the camera, you want it to feel natural. Don’t read to your audience.

2. Reward your backers

In Kickstarter, you offer incentives for people to support your project.
These are called “rewards.”

The greater the pledge, the greater the reward you can offer.

For a smaller pledge, you can give a postcard, or even a PDF file.
One artist gave away PDF versions of his coloring book.

I gave my backers access to the bloopers and outtakes of my Kickstarter video. It took some extra work to compile that second video, but I liked doing it.

For bigger pledges, you can offer something unique — like a live concert or custom piece.

For some of my backers, I decided I’d give away full resolution images of some photos. They got to pick from 10 photos.

This artist drew custom pet portraits for pledges of $300 or more.

You are working for your backers — offer something special for their support.

Kickstarter gave me a kick in the pants!

I’m thankful for Kickstarter. And I’m even more thankful for those who supported me. Without them, I would not have had that opportunity to go to Artprize in 2013. It’s an experience I’ll never forget. …Just like the song from my video that is STILL playing in my head!

Every day I’d check to see how my campaign was going. Then one day I woke up, not even halfway through, and I found most of it had been pledged!

Not only that, I ended up surpassing my goal.

I was overwhelmed to think that people believed in my art like that.

But none of this would have happened if I hadn’t pushed through my doubts and taken the first step.

If you have a dream, you have to figure out how to make it work. And when it seems impossible, don’t give up, just keep thinking, and do something small every day to make it happen.

Don’t let the lack of money stop you from pursuing your dreams.

What about you?

Do you have a project you need funds for?
Have you ever considered doing crowd-funding for it?
What is one little step you can take to make it a reality?

I’d love to hear from you!