The power of crowdfunding has proven itself in a big way with two recent local campaigns. Both Phil Alain of Mural Mosaic and Dyan Eybergen of Coach Apparent say that the online fundraising tactic is a bona fide success.
“We actually reached our goal with about 30 days to go left in the campaign, well before the deadline!” exclaimed Phil Alain, referring to Mural Mosaic’s King of Kings project. “We’ve still been getting support coming in just from people seeing it online.”
The company works to create large scale painted images comprised of hundreds of smaller ones, often by many other artists. A permanent example is Cultivate Life on the large southeast-facing brick wall of the Gaffney & McGreer building at 20 Perron St.
Lead artist Lewis Lavoie sought to gain funding for a labour of love: a work depicting Jesus Christ with 195 tiles each depicting a different king from history. It took five years to reach fruition and Lavoie needed financial help to see it through.
Crowdfunding is a way of cultivating the vast financial pool of people using the Internet. Various websites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo are dedicated to showcasing different opportunities for the public to support.
The King of Kings Kickstarter campaign had a goal of $15,000 with a deadline set at December 16. Through massive public support, they ended up reaching their goal in November and amassed nearly $25,000 in the effort, “and it’s still going up,” Alain added.
In comparison, Eybergen’s campaign was much more modest but as successful nonetheless. The registered nurse runs a Lego social skills group, a kind of play therapy program for children and youths with social deficits. In less than two years, it became such a popular program that she outgrew her office space and sought to expand into south Edmonton at the same time.
That’s where ATB Financial came in. The financial institution offered its own crowdfunding program called Alberta BoostR. Qualifying businesses were encouraged to meet their goals with the promise of matching funds from the sponsor. Those who came in even a penny shy of their targets would be denied.
The goal for Lego Therapy was set at $5,000 and the December 17 deadline marked on the calendar. Eybergen was overjoyed to report that her supporters offered up $6,149.
“We are so thrilled with the amount of support and publicity our campaign got,” she began. “AlbertaBoostR was an amazing platform to help us get the word out about the work we do in Lego Therapy and to bring value into the minds of the community where people wanted to help us make our target, ensuring the group would continue to expand and grow.”
She added that the publicity also helped the group to garner a 50 per cent increase in registrations, resulting in new sessions.
None of it came easily, however. She remarked that every step of the campaign was a challenge. She didn’t just sit back and put her feet up while the dollars came pouring in. It required constant promotion and attention.
“We held other events outside of the online campaign to generate contributions which required a great deal of planning and execution. We talked to everyone we knew and met and followed up to the point of being annoying with people who verbally committed to contribute. The group's campaign team worked tirelessly right up until the 11th hour to get people to contribute.”
“We had a lot of emotional ups and downs. The key was to never take our eyes off the prize or our efforts for a single minute. We raised every bit of our target one dollar at a time.”
Alain agreed, saying that there was no room for laziness on the King of Kings project either. Despite the toil, they both agreed that crowdfunding is a viable method of raising capital for personal or professional projects, as long as the goal is realistic and a campaign plan is in place.
“It’s kind of an unnerving thing. You really put yourself out there blowing in the breeze,” he laughed. “You can really look like you’ve got egg on your face if it doesn’t work right.”
They both also said that they would consider this financial tactic for future fundraising.
“I would entertain doing it again ... but not anytime soon,” Eybergen laughed. “It’s a time consuming commitment that was often stressful. Right now we just want to enjoy our success and move on to our expansion plans for the future.”
