Crowdfundsw1 launch event 21.03.12

Editor's Notes

• #5: Henry Hemming in his book ‘Together’ asks the question, what happens when a group of people decide to work towards the same dream? Why is it that when we come together in small groups we are so much more than the sum of our parts? From bee keepers, reading groups, choirs, WIs, knitting circles, flash mobbers, Young farmers and community change agents- he argues that all these groups have one thing in common; they have experienced a nationwide surge in 21st century UK but hardly anyone knows about it. For me this is a challenge to the myth that we are becoming a much lonelier society and his work offers a very different way of seeing society today. Perhaps our society is not ‘broken’ and instead of experiencing community in the traditional ways, we are finding it in small groups of people, bound together by a common interest or concern. Community is often characterised through the English village- knowing the people on your street and being connected to a particular place. Hemming argues that this idea is archaic and is holding us back. It is possible to know very few people on your street bt to experience a great sense of community through the groups you are involved in. Research shows we become healthier and happier when we come together as a group, it often saves us money, we can achieve more together than on our own, it gives us a sense of belonging, and most of all we can make a difference to causes that matter to us. Harnessing Technology we can achieve global scale to make a local impact. An example is Avaaz.org which has close to 14million members that campaign via petition or action for causes ‘people-powered politics for decision making everywhere’. Members are polled for what action or causes they wish to support and since their launch in 2007 71 million actions have been taken across 193 countries with members in. So today we are going to here about six organisations, and how each of us can play our part in the power of coming together.
• #6: Louise Jury article:Social networking sites have often been blamed for having a negative impact on the reading habits of Londoners.When an independent bookstore in Wood Green hit financial difficulties, Twitter and Facebook came to the rescue.Simon Key, 43, and Tim West, 49, the owners of the Big Green Bookshop, sent out emergency tweets and Facebook posts pleading for help to solve their £60,000 debt crisis. It prompted an extraordinary response, with hundreds of new customers visiting the shop and “staggering” online sales.A series of fundraising events were also organised, including readings by writers such as Will Self and Mark Billingham. A party is planned at the shop on Saturday to celebrate clearing its debts
• #7: 90 days from November to end of January to raise £5000 for our Community Cafe in Haringey.Peoplefund.it = A new crowdfunding site set up by KEO films, the production company behind River Cottage - an obvious foodie link for us to want to develop. We were one of their launch projects and it was also our first crowdfunding attempt so a real unknown all round - a major caveat here is also that if we didn't reach our target of £5000 we didn't get ANYTHING!Had to make a video and write a bit about our project, and have different 'pledges' - amounts of money that come with a reward - e.g. £30 = a FoodCycle t-shirt, £100 2 tickets to a VIP dinner at the cafe, £15 for a cookbook, etc.We were on just £2000 with 5 days to go but did a manic final push and built momentum on twitter and made it to £5000 with a day to spare - woohoo!Top tips:1. Try, try, and try again. We changed our copy, photos, pledges and video in an attempt to finally crack it. Be persistent but not too annoying!2. Momentum really counts. When people see they're part of something that's really taking off then it means a lot more - no-one wants to be the first person but if they know their friends have and they see their friends tweet/facebook post about it then they might well donate. So try to build up momentum over a set time period - targets over a set time frame.3. Try to offer something in return, some sort of incentive (easier for some organisations than others) - and engage with people who are donating/telling people about you - that way you can turn donors into supporters who get their contacts to donate too!4. Different methods will work for different organisations - we had an existing band of core twitter followers who got the ball rolling and allowed us to reach out to new groups. Facebook wasn't really of any help to us during the campaign - we just did it on twitter. We also didn't use the real world at all - which might be something that would work better for others!
• #8: 90 days from November to end of January to raise £5000 for our Community Cafe in Haringey.Peoplefund.it = A new crowdfunding site set up by KEO films, the production company behind River Cottage - an obvious foodie link for us to want to develop. We were one of their launch projects and it was also our first crowdfunding attempt so a real unknown all round - a major caveat here is also that if we didn't reach our target of £5000 we didn't get ANYTHING!Had to make a video and write a bit about our project, and have different 'pledges' - amounts of money that come with a reward - e.g. £30 = a FoodCycle t-shirt, £100 2 tickets to a VIP dinner at the cafe, £15 for a cookbook, etc.We were on just £2000 with 5 days to go but did a manic final push and built momentum on twitter and made it to £5000 with a day to spare - woohoo!Top tips:1. Try, try, and try again. We changed our copy, photos, pledges and video in an attempt to finally crack it. Be persistent but not too annoying!2. Momentum really counts. When people see they're part of something that's really taking off then it means a lot more - no-one wants to be the first person but if they know their friends have and they see their friends tweet/facebook post about it then they might well donate. So try to build up momentum over a set time period - targets over a set time frame.3. Try to offer something in return, some sort of incentive (easier for some organisations than others) - and engage with people who are donating/telling people about you - that way you can turn donors into supporters who get their contacts to donate too!4. Different methods will work for different organisations - we had an existing band of core twitter followers who got the ball rolling and allowed us to reach out to new groups. Facebook wasn't really of any help to us during the campaign - we just did it on twitter. We also didn't use the real world at all - which might be something that would work better for others!
• #17: Background picture
• #19: I would suspect she would spontaneously combust if she actually appeared in the poster.A little bit gentlerHaving his face on a cv is his immediate concernAimee – from a high to a low in the blink of an eye
• #54: It’s amazing how quickly you can do something when you’re the client
• #56: It’s amazing how quickly you can do something when you’re the client