Crowdfunding Without the Cringe: How to Raise Cash by Pre-Selling to Your Customers
Hot Take: Crowdfunding is not begging. It's a product launch that pays you upfront. Find out if your business has the audience to pull it off.
Think crowdfunding is for charity cases and boardgame geeks? Worried you don't have a big enough community? Or that it'll make your business look desperate?
You're not alone, and in this workshop we'll take those fears apart.
Rewards-based crowdfunding is a pre-sale activity. Customers pay upfront for something they want, and you get the cash to make it happen, plus proof of demand that helps when you need to seek extra funding later. Nobody is doing you a favour, you’re simply leveraging an under rated and under used tool.
In 60 minutes, you'll learn:
Why "beggy" is the wrong framing, and how successful campaigns position themselves as launches, not appeals.
The audience maths: how many warm contacts you actually need to hit your target (spoiler: probably fewer than you think, but they need to be built before you launch)
The campaign roadmap: what happens in pre-launch, launch, mid-campaign and close, and why most campaigns live or die in the first and last days
Reward and pricing logic: how to avoid fees, shipping and fulfilment costs quietly eating the cash injection you're counting on
Real examples of businesses that started with small audiences, including what went wrong
You'll leave with:
A completed audience-maths worksheet showing your own numbers
A clear sense of whether crowdfunding is right for your business now, or what to fix first
An attendee-only offer on a Crowdfunding Readiness Audit
This is for you if:
You're a startup or scaling business that needs funding without giving up equity
You've never run a campaign and don't know where to start
You've thought "I don't have the following for this"
This isn't for you if you're looking for charity or community fundraising, or equity investment.
About your host: Lucy is the founder of The WIP, an Impact & Funding Consultant and a Fundraising Development Manager for a London charity. Having Crowdfunded herself to start her business, Lucy now supports other impact driven businesses to leverage the crowd to fund their businesses. Lucy has 5 years experience leading workshops, designing programmes and mentoring, as well as speaking on panels.
Ticket includes live Q&A and replay/worksheet.
General information only, not financial, legal or tax advice.