continued from previous page on coming. Singer Joanne Rand collected just over $2,000 last year to mix, master and duplicate her 12th CD, and recently started another Kickstarter campaign to fund her 13th album. Actor/playwright Jacqueline Dandeneau raised $5,000 to take the show Women of the Northwest on the road after a run at the Arcata Playhouse. Chocolatier and baker Cassie Forrington, surpassed her $2,000 goal by more than 50 percent (she got $3,375) to help start Boujie Baking Company, making candies and desserts using, in part, local craft beers. And baker Rhonda Wiedenbeck raised money for a lightweight trailer to deliver her Beck’s Bakery products, breads made from locally grown grains, stone milled on site. Wiedenbeck, who hadn’t been much of a social networker before she started her business, was surprised by the customer loyalty that can come from a crowd of financial supporters. “Getting the money to buy the trailer was awesome,” she said, “but it was so much more — the marketing side floored me. Now people feel this ownership in my business. People feel like they’re invested, so they want to help get my bread in new places.” And although some business advisers initially discouraged her from expecting much from Kickstarter, now the local Small Business Development Center is using Wiedenbeck’s Kickstarter video in presentations it gives to help people looking for startup funding.
A Guide to Crowd Funding Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of crowd funding websites help people drum up financial support for everything from creative projects and social causes to medical bills and disaster relief. Based on volume of web traffic, Kickstarter and Indiegogo are the top two, followed by GoFundMe, according to the Internet ranking site Alexa. All are online payment portals that collect funds through a third-party service. The sites charge a fee, and typically so do the payment services. Combined, the fees can run around 10 percent of the total raised and sometimes more. Crowd funding sites follow two basic models — all or nothing or keep whatever you get. With all or nothing sites, supporters make a payment pledge, but aren’t billed unless the project reaches or passes its dollar goal within an allotted time. With others, all money donated (minus the fees) goes to the project creator, whether a goal is met or not. Earlier this year, Time Magazine listed four crowd funding sites as among the best for collecting money from friends, fans, relatives and strangers. They are Kickstarter (specializing in creative projects), Gambitious (specializing in games), and Rock the Post (specializing in viable business ideas), and Indiegogo (founded with a focus on film, but now wide-ranging). The field has seen some legal scuffles, among them a patent suit by Kickstarter, which claimed a company called ArtistShare had tried for an overly broad patent. ArtistShare, one of the early pioneers in crowd funding, began in the early
While Kickstarter seems
to be the most popular here, some Humboldt musicians, cooks and other creative types have chosen different crowd funding sites.
2000s, essentially helping jazz musicians pre-sell records to fans; it’s now beta testing an expansion into a wider market.
Founded: 2009 Size: 77,917 total projects to date, 32,644 of them successful, raising $358 million. Fees: 8 to 10 percent (a fixed 5 percent fee to Kickstarter, plus 3 to 5 percent to Amazon. Pays: Only if a dollar goal, specified in advance, is reached. Approval process: Only accepts projects that are creative and that have an end goal. Requires users to accept payments through Amazon. Prominent successes: A startup called Pebble Technology raised $10 million-plus this year for its E-Paper Watch, a customizable watch that works with iPhones and smart phones.
Founded: 2008 Size: Doesn’t disclose specifics, but says “tens of thousands” of projects have been funded to date, with millions distributed weekly in more than 198 nations. Fees: 6 to 12 percent (4 percent for all or nothing funding, 9 percent if project goals aren’t reached, plus 2 to 3 percent to payment processor). Pays: User has option to pick all or nothing or
Songwriter Melody Walker and her band AkaBella had used Kickstarter to fund a 2010 concert tour, but last year when Walker wanted to produce her first solo record, Gold Rush Goddess, she
to keep whatever comes in. Approval process: There is no application process, and users can arrange payments through Pay Pal or with credit cards. Prominent successes: Backed films that have appeared at Sundance, Cannes and other prominent festivals. Raised $500,000-plus so far in Hurricane Sandy relief.
Founded: 2010 Size: Doesn’t disclose total projects or funds raised to date, but has six current, public projects in Arcata and Eureka, most dealing with medical bills. Fees: 7.9 percent plus 30 cents per transaction (5 percent to GoFundMe plus 2.9 percent and the 30 cents to WePay, its payment processor). Pays: Users have three options; All or nothing, keep everything and get each donation immediately, or for charities, keep everything and get paid monthly. Approval process: Projects don’t have to qualify, and can range from medical bills to schools to sports teams to honeymoons, but users are required to accept payment through WePay. Prominent successes: More than $170,000 for Farrah Soudani, injured in the Aurora, Colo., theater shooting earlier this year, and $16,000 for custom-made shoes for America’s tallest man. — Bob Doran
switched to Indiegogo for its financial flexibility. “The main difference is the all or nothing part,” said Walker. With an Indiegogo project, fundraisers can opt for “flexible
home & garden
service directory
continued from page 8
so fresh, so clean Hwy 101 in the Safety Corridor 707.826.7435 10-6pm M-Sat • Sun 10-5pm
14 NORTH COAST JOURNAL • THURSDAY, NOV. 29, 2012 • northcoastjournal.com