Thoughts on a Crowdfunding Plan?

[shadows-gallery.livejournal.com]

Hello, all!

I've been doing a lot of calculations and thinking and planning these last few days, and I'm suffering from brain-drain from it, so I'd like to detail a potential crowdfunding plan of action for artwork/digital painting, and see if anyone has any suggestions/comments/thoughts. I'm trying to decide if this is a viable and ethical plan or not.

The model would be as follows:

1) I make a number of sketches and post them, offering a vote as to which project I'll pursue.

2) Whichever project is voted through, I would then offer up as a crowd-funded digital painting project. I would post watermarked updates on the project itself until it is complete. If the goal isn't reached, it would be offered for sale on Zazzle, and any contributors would be given a link for a full-sized download, as well as contributor perks (detailed below). If the goal is reached, a full-sized download link would also be made available to the public.

3) Project sponsors would also receive perks or gifts featuring the image created for their contributions, based on the amount they've donated, as follows:

* Less than $6: Button
* $6.00-15.99: 8x10 Photo Print
* $16.00-20.99: 10x13 Photo Print
* $21.00-30.99: Choice of Mug or 16x20 Photo Print
* $40.00-99.99: Choice of Women's, Men's, or Kid's shirt or 20x24 Photo Print
* $100+: 15x15 Unframed Canvas Print

Any thoughts/comments/concerns?

Comments

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

>>I make a number of sketches and post them, offering a vote as to which project I'll pursue.<<

That's a good start, especially if you already have an audience for your art. If you're starting from scratch, audience input into topics for sketching might help.

>>Whichever project is voted through, I would then offer up as a crowd-funded digital painting project.<<

That sounds cool.

>> Project sponsors would also receive perks or gifts featuring the image created for their contributions, based on the amount they've donated, as follows:<<

Consider how high you set your goal, although it sounds like you did some careful figuring. People are generally willing to pay more for hardcopy than electronic content, so digital art may not attract as much as paint would. Again, this may also vary if you already have an audience.

Re: Thoughts

[shadows-gallery.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the input! I'm considering crowdfunding goals for large-sized digital paintings at $200-300, depending on complexity and detail.

[meeksp.livejournal.com]

Will you be shipping contributor perks internationally? I can see that eating up a substantial part of the donations, especially once you get to the larger/heavier items that can't be sent as documents.

[shadows-gallery.livejournal.com]

That's a very good point. I'll have to look into international shipping rates. Thanks for bringing it up :)

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

I think the first part of your plan sounds quite good... by itself, even. I get to vote on a piece of art--that's already good. Then a piece of art starts being developed and if I like it, I can give you money and ensure that it gets made. If it fails to make some arbitrary cap, I still get a download of it. If it does make the cap, then other people get the download too. That sounds like plenty of win for me.

The perks and gifts don't interest me, oddly. I hate having to wrangle stuff. I don't like getting stuff. I don't like having to worry about whether the stuff I am 'entitled to' arrives or not. It just makes for too much stress. I would just do away with the physical gifts altogether. If you feel like you want to give something, make it digital, like wallpaper pre-sized for typical monitor resolutions, or phone backgrounds or whatever.

Just my few cents. :)

[shadows-gallery.livejournal.com]

Thank you for your input! Filing away for consideration. :)

[wordslinger.livejournal.com]

The one issue I have was brought up by a friend who felt they'd spent money on something that failed: What if you start the painting and Life Happens and it doesn't get finished for months?

I can see voting on an image and then offering things for sale. But waiting for 6 months for something... my friend groused about that and about a story that he'd sent money for that was never finished.

(true story: Harlan Ellison once called me thinking I was a fan who had bought a to-be-written story at a convention some 5 years before the phone call. So even the pros have problems finishing.)

[shadows-gallery.livejournal.com]

That really is an excellent point, said from the perspective of someone who's had Life Happen before.

There have been a lot of very good points made in the comments here, and I've done some (mental) revisions to the "plan" which I will detail later today in my blog (so as not to spam this group with too many posts).:)

[red-trillium.livejournal.com]

It sounds like you've done a lot of thinking and planning and have some good ideas.

For the Gifts/Contributions side, definitely keep in mind international peoples. If I see international shipping/details automatically included I'm more likely to donate to something I'm interested in than to something that doesn't. It saves me time having to ask and being told no. I contributed to something on Kickstarter and they had a flat price for US/Canada and then said anyone anywhere else would need to add an extra $7US (I think it was) on top of the donation amount for it. You could calculate how much say a button would be for shipping (and packing) to the furthest places from you and have international people add that much extra in, same with the print, mug, etc. For the unframed canvas print you may need to absorb some of the extra postage as that's probably the hardest to weigh and figure out.

But also, as someone has already mentioned, what if something happens and you don't finish the project? One way around this and to save your sanity upon finishing something and then having to turn around and produce/send stuff is to maybe offer something already completed. IE--Buttons of a similar image you've already completed.

For the smaller $ figures (ie, maybe up to the $40 mark) maybe only give one option, but once you hit say $40, maybe give the donor the choice of either (a) completed image, (b) completed image or to wait until the project is completed for their goodie. If Real Life happens then you can contact them and offer something already finished if they chose to wait

[shadows-gallery.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much for the input, and so sorry for the delay in reply :)

Yes, I'm going to have to do some calculations and re-working of what I'll make available and such. I'm thinking of holding off on making a piece available for funding until after it's complete, though, because I know how difficult it is to predict how quickly a piece will be completed. Some things take a day or two, others take weeks. (This one I'm working on now seems to be falling into the latter category)

Thanks again for the thoughts! Everyone's input is highly valued by me in this endeavor.