Crucial Crowdfunding Guide

These are the main elements that you need to communicate via your pitch:

1. The people
2. The project
3. The campaign goals
4. How to get involved

A pitch should cover the following:

Who you are

First introduce yourself. Give a small profile of who you are and what you do. Make it conversational, just like you are physically meeting these people reading your pitch.

Introduce the team…Who are they? What is their role? What are their qualifications?

Introduce your project

This is the part where you give a captivating story of why the project is important to you and the inspiration behind it. You must appeal to your audience’s emotions. Keep it short, make your writing enjoyable.  Use anecdotes and humour sparingly. Keep it serious but make sure it is not boring.

Briefly tell your audience the kind of impact your project will have on the world or on the community around you and show them why they want to be a part of your initiative. What problem does it solve?

You may also want to outline the potential market for your product or service. Particularly for an equity or loan campaign, investors will want to know who your target market is… how big is it? What are the key trends? What other factors need to be considered?

Finish with a powerful summary paragraph, think of it as a closing argument and include a call to action for them to proceed to watch your video for more details, to fund your project and to share it via their own networks.

The campaign goals

Be specific and include your funding goal, and even a breakdown of where the money goes.

When your project will take place: Set a deadline, this creates a sense of urgency. Show your passion, explain the impact of your campaign or tell us about the people who will benefit from it.

Include details about where your project will take place and also give the reasons why you chose to crowdfund..

How people can get involved

State how the person reading can become involved in making the project a success.

Beyond just donating money, what else can people do to help you? Outline any perks you have created.

Share the social media platforms you are using and explain the value of sharing the campaign with others.

General tips and things to consider

• Try and be positive at all times and focus on the benefits of your product rather than just the features
• Develop an engaging story. Personality, voice and storyline count
• Be concise: Every word you use needs to have a specific purpose. If it doesn’t, cut it out. Your proposition should be only three or four sentences
• Communicate clearly in everyday language. For people to invest in you, they need to understand what you’re asking them to buy into
• Use real-word language, not the latest trendy buzzwords. You are pitching to the crowd, not to the industry
• It is important to write your pitch in the first person rather than the third person
• Be specific: Being positive and backing up what you say with verifiable facts is a good thing, but making unproven claims and using overly flowery language that only lovers of jargon will understand should be avoided at all costs. People respond best to clear communication
• Be clear how much funding you’ll need to raise and how it will be used to bring your project to fruition
• Create your social networking platform well before you post. Most crowdfunding will come from fans and followers on social media, as well as from friends and family
• Understand the funding platform rules, including whether it’s an all-or-nothing model, what your timeframe will be, whether there’s a penalty for missing your goal, and what percentage of your funds are paid to the platform. Read all the fine print
• Check your spelling and grammar thoroughly

Include a call to action for your audience to fund and share your campaign.