Patron Check-in: Donations and Desires

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

Crowdfunding Patrons:  What are some of your recent donations?  What projects have you supported by boosting the signal or other methods?  What kind of material would you like to see that isn't appearing or is very scarce?

Comments

Projects

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

Some projects I've been promoting recently:

A Rosary of Stones and Thorns (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mcahogarth/a-rosary-of-stones-and-thorns-a-novel-of-love-and) by haikujaguar

Plunge magazine (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/24724893/plunge-magazine-queer-women-genre) by Ailelie -- now fully funded!

Crowdfunded poetry (http://crowdfunding.livejournal.com/403261.html) by belgatherial

I'd really like to see more crowdfunded poetry projects, especially for National Poetry Month coming up in April.

[minor-architect.livejournal.com]

According to my records for the end of February and the beginning of March:

* Pledged to my local public radio station
* Opened microfunding for the epic poem "Call to Duty" by Elizabeth Barrette

I shifted gears over the last 30 days, funneling more of my budget into charities than crowdfunded projects since crowdfunding took the lion's share in January and the first part of February. However, I still have some cash left to fund both line items later in the year.

Hmm...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

You know, I never really thought about it before, but public radio or television is an early version of crowdfunding. When I was little we used to support public television.

[minor-architect.livejournal.com]

I know that public radio and television stations are technically nonprofits, but because most of their operating budgets come from listener and viewer donations, they could be considered crowdfunded enterprises. Which is why I thought to list my donation here. :)

Well...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

Crowdfunding can be a business model or a technique. At its core, it's about getting a large number of people to chip in small amounts of money to support a cool project, in exchange for perks rather than investment dividends. Pretty much anything can be crowdfunded; it can be done by a nonprofit, an incorporated business, an individual, etc. It's often used to launch a new business or charity.

The closer I look at public radio/television, the better it fits. They do a fundraising drive. They talk directly to viewers. You give them money, you get a coffee cup or some other perk. Sometimes they take feedback on what you want to see more of. When I was little, this one guy called in and offered them some huge wad of money if they'd run all the episodes of ... Dr. Who, I think it was, in order. And they did it.