When we chose KickStarter CloudFunding to raise money to help us complete our documentary, The Brick People, we expected to watch it with nervousness and anticipation for the full 30 days…

As you may recall, it’s an all or nothing proposition. “Investors” who donate online are not charged by KickStarter unless and until the total funding level is met. We had 30 days to make our $5,500 goal. Well, we achieved that in the first week! And we still have 10 days to go with additional donations continuing to come in! (Over-funding is not a problem.) Since only about 40% of the projects reach goal, we were ecstatic—and then immediately started questioning why didn’t we look for more, who else could we have approached, etc.

There is much we need to review to understand why we did so well and how we can improve it but one thing is clear, it is imperative to tell everyone you know about it. You never know who you might have as a fan that you wouldn’t have believed. In our case, we received three donations at the $1,000 level that were so unexpected that we remain stunned, even now. Also, others we thought would be very generous, didn’t give anything.

You can follow our project (as of this publication date, we still have 10 days to go) The Brick People, at Kickstarter.com  Also, our friends at Under The Boardwalk, The Monopoly Documentary crawled along for most of their cloudfunding month, then picked up in their last week. With only hours to go they were still a few thousand short (they wanted to raise just over $20,000) and finally made their goal in the last hour!

Next month I will share some of the ‘secrets’ I have learned so that you might successfully use this fundraising method for your projects.

Support THE BRICK PEOPLE at http://kck.st/hON5lu

--Art Krisch, Producer, Cat Herder