Crowdfunding 101Katherine Carter

University of Southampton

Overview

• What is crowdfunding?• Are there different kinds of crowdfunding?• Why did we decide to give it ago• What makes crowdfunding successful?• Case Study – Southampton2Mongolia

Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding is sponsorship by a crowd of many donors, each making an individual and relatively small donation in return for a small

reward.

What can you fundraise for?ANYTHING!*

Types of crowdfunding

Project based crowdfunding

Sponsor led crowdfunding

Equity crowdfunding

Why did we do it?

• Hubbub came to us with a great product• Our students wanted to fundraise for their own

projects• We wanted to engage with our students about

the impact of giving to the University• We wanted to engage our younger alumni with

an alternative way of giving• We had the resource to implement and run the

platform

University of Southampton Projects

What makes a project successful?• Engaged audience

• Great idea or need (that has a deadline)

• Passionate team and supporters

• Engaging content (videos)

• Unique rewards

• Social Media and the Press

• Update, Update, Update

• Ask, Ask and Ask Again

• Say thank you a lot and report back to your donors

Case Study: Southampton2Mongolia

Funding need: £7,000 in 90 days

How they reach their target• Engaged audience

• Great idea or need (that has a deadline)

• Passionate team and supporters

• Engaging content (videos)

• Unique rewards

• Social Media and the Press

• Update, Update, Update

• Ask, Ask and Ask Again

• Say thank you a lot and report back to your donors

Andy the ambulance makes his debut

Is crowdfunding right for you?

• Is crowdfunding right for your organisation?• If so – which option do you choose?• Is it the right time to implement it into your

organisation?• Do you have the resource and enthusiasm?

What we learned

• Crowdfunding is great for student engagement• It’s opened up our donor pool. And not just to

our younger alumni• It takes a lot of time• BUT it’s very rewarding (for us and our

students)

So… what’s next?