Crowdfunding Tip

**This is an old article that was originally posted in 2017 and may have outdated information**

On Target!

Setting a realistic goal is key to crowdfunding campaign success

If you don’t already know, the group who ran the campaign on the www.cfcrowdfund.net portal is the York Lake Golf & Country Club. They’re a fantastic community organization with driven, connected, enthusiastic volunteers heading up the campaign. We chose to work with the group from York Lake because they were committed to doing the work necessary to set up and run the campaign. They saw the opportunity to introduce their community to a new way of fundraising and set themselves up with tools that would make future fundraising much easier.

The York Lake Golf & Country Club came up with some great rewards for contributions – the response was fantastic! The campaign just ended and they are very happy with the results.
When we first met with the team of staff and volunteers from York Lake Golf & Country Club, we wanted to help them set a realistic goal. With crowdfunding, in general, it’s important to set a goal that is achievable. Most portals require that campaigns hit their goals or they don’t get to keep the money. With www.cfcrowdfund.net, whatever the campaign raises goes to the business or group. Additionally, goals are part of the motivation for people to contribute:
1. If the campaign goal is too large, some potential contributors might think that the group will never make it anyway so their small contribution won’t help.
2. If the campaign goal is too small, the organization could lose out on potential donors who decide not to contribute because the goal has already been met.

Christmas and other gift-giving seasons are ideal times to run a campaign:
• Most people have an open wallet
• Many of us are looking for something new and different to give as a gift

York Lake Golf & Country Club had a great story to share: Check out their video here. Initially, they listed several large projects that they’d like to complete to upgrade both the clubhouse and the course. Big projects come with a big price tag – much larger than a short-term crowdfunding campaign could support. We worked with the team to break down the projects and find one moderately-priced upgrade that would make a big difference to their cash flow. They had sourced a used air conditioning unit but needed the funds to install it in their clubhouse. Eventually, they’d like to upgrade the kitchen equipment and broaden their menu. For now, giving people a comfortable place to relax after a round might make them spend more time (and money) in the clubhouse giving them the revenue to fund the larger projects.

The goal of their campaign was $5,000 and they were just shy of achieving that. Successful campaigns usually raise one third of their goal in the first couple of days and another third in the last days of the campaign and they were right on target. Overall, their campaign delivered what they wanted to. Unlike some of the bigger platforms, the cfcrowdfund.net site allows the group to keep all of their earnings (less fees) whether they achieved their target or not.
To learn more about goal setting download this tip sheet. All of our tip sheets are available for you and your clients to use in the Tips section of the portal.

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