crowd-fundingThis question got me wondering. If I decided to use crowdfunding, should I do it on multiple platforms or focus on just one platform?
I suggest you not to crowdfund on more than one platform at the same time. It will highly hurt your campaign.
Reasons:
Crowdfunding is not a “post it and forget it” proposition. Therefore, the first hurdle would be executing all the preparatory & engagement work required to run a successful campaign – but duplicating that effort for multiple funding platforms.
On which site do these folks find your campaign? If one media outlet covers your project promoting it on peerbackers and another journalist touts it on Indiegogo, this can add confusion in the marketplace. Are friends and family being sent to one site, and media outlets to another? Is twitter being used to promote one campaign and Facebook to promote the second? Better to rally all the social media and hard-earned press exposure around one fundraising initiative.
Backers like to see growing support for a project – they want to see the progress bar move towards fulfilling your financial goal. If a project is posted to more than one site, there is a dilution of campaign momentum as contributors are split amongst multiple platforms. And of course if you are on an “all or nothing” (aka “fixed funding”) site, you risk a bigger chance of not reaching your goal and therefore losing all the funding you do attract.
Don’t underestimate the amount of work that goes into promoting, maintaining and updating your campaign while you are fundraising. Refreshing your content, providing updates, adding new videos and perhaps even new rewards, etc., all contribute to a successful raise. Given this, how many sites would you really like to manage on a daily basis? So, in summary, I suggest it is better to invest your time preparing, planning for and promoting one robust campaign. Running more than one campaign simply reduces your effectiveness without the benefit of expanding your reach.
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