r/kickstarter • u/momomooing • 1d ago
Kickstarter as a NPO with 16k followers - what did I do wrong 😢
I run a non profit organization that supports artists, and we have built a great community in the past 15 months. It's my first time running KS and ofc a npo's resources are limited, but given the circumstances, I had hopes it would get funded within a day. Unfortunately we're nowhere close with less new backers everyday. I don't doubt that we will get funded before the end, but I genuinely want to do better for our future campaigns.
Our instagram:
- 16k+ Followers
- Kickstater teaser post (20 days before launch) got 18k views and 1000+ likes, 160 reposts, 73 saves
- I consistently shared progress and had around 300-500 story views avg
- Kickstarter announcement post also has 18k+ views, 45 reposts, 35 saves so far
Kickstarter:
- Main item (enamel pin) was set at a price of $10, which I think it's very reasonable from research
- Shipping is around $8-12 depending on location, with tracking
- There are a variety of add-ons and rewards tiers of different combinations. Each reward tier has some backers other than the lowest one, so I think the configuration is ok.
- Reward tiers go from $4 to $42.
- The goal is $1200
- We're 3 days in and have barely reached $500. With help of many people promoting it.
What I know I did wrong:
- I set up the pre-launch page only 2 days before the campaign, basically thought about not making it, but then decided against that last minute.
- Maybe I should've asked for more help in promotion before the campaign.
- I set only 1 stretch goal at $2700. It was purely based on calculations, that is the point we would make enough to add something new. But I think I should've figured out lower effort stretch goals and added more goals at lower $$.
It's really baffling because I thought we had great traction before the launch, and this is a one person run non profit that helps human artists, it should feel rewarding to back? Please let me know what you think I did wrong, is it the pricing, or release timing? I'm going to work hard to promote the campaign during the active period (25 more days), any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated 🙏
5
u/Honeybadger841 1d ago
Okay so is this through the organizations kickstarter account? Has that account backed any previous projects?
Were there early bird options?
How many people were in there signed up the receive an email on the pre-launch?
Why didn't you set the bar a little lower? I'm not sure what the market is for pins.
Do you have affiliated artists talking about this? Was there a live or virtual kickoff event?
Was there an element of the story you wanted to highlight that you didn't? Like we did arts grants that helped x amount of people, or have x many classes to the community, or provided x for a local school?
1
u/momomooing 1d ago
Thank you! Here are the answers:
- This is through the organization's KS account, it's brand new and has not backed previous projects.
- There unfortunately no early bird options, I'm not sure if we would ever be able to afford lowering costs further. The organization is currently funded by my own savings and I donate all of my time to operate it.
- We didn't have a kickstarter specific email collection, but it was sent to 1700+ people that subscribed to general updates.
- The goal couldn't be set lower because shipping also counts into the goal, so reaching $1200 is basically $600, which covers the cost of 100pins and the molding fee (lower than 100 pins is too expensive per pin and doesn't make sense). At this point we would make $0 for creating the art, so it's the lowest goal that I can set. Most successfully funded enamel pins projects I researched got $5-10k funding, but they always design a set of 5+ designs - unfortunately we couldn't.
- I highlighted the organization's accomplishments within the first section of the story, 29 artists supported with $10k over the past 14 months, showed the artists in a grid, and also showed our community's art at the end.
1
u/momomooing 1d ago
Oops forgot some!
- I am collaborating with 4 artists twitch streamers (~5k followers each) for promotion. The first stream (4 hours) happened yesterday but got only 2 backers, so I'm not sure how rest will go.
- There was no other virtual kickoff other than an announcement post on instagram.
3
u/Bentendo64 1d ago
In my experience, stretch goals don’t actually bring many backers to the table, so I wouldn’t worry too much about that aspect.
1
3
u/FrostDragonDesigns 1d ago edited 1d ago
Social media likes are functionally meaningless. Pre-launch followers are a better metric, but only expect 20% to actually pledge.
Pins are difficult to fund if it is only one or two designs because even if someone LOVES the campaign idea their pledge value is the same as someone who likes it just barely enough to pledge. In this case that sounds like $10.
Because you don't really have a way for people to increase their pledge value you are stuck in 'get many backers' mode instead of 'get high quality backers' mode.
Stretch goals are not going to help this problem. They do not usually move the needle in a meaningful way for pin campaigns unless you have already unlocked them. People usually wint pledge extra to get them unlocked but they might pledge more if it is already available.
$1000 goal for a single pin feels really high.
Best wishes!
1
u/momomooing 1d ago
Thank you very much for the explanation! I wanted to start small since we don't have the capacity to create many designs, but it does look like many designs are required for a better campaign 🥲 lesson learned!
Unfortunately it's a bit expensive to ship from Canada, and the shipping is basically cost of the pin. So $1200 goal = $600 funding. I really tried to go as low as possible!
Thank you 🙏
1
u/FrostDragonDesigns 1d ago
I would recommend 4 of 5 related designs as a minimum.
Right now ~50% of a pledge is shipping. If someone orders 3 different pins that same shipping is only 25% of the pledge value.
You can also raise the pledge amount. People are not afraid to pledge $12-$16 for a pin they like.
But more than that you need the pre-launch page up for a month or two. Those numbers will give you an idea as to if it will do well or not.
2
u/momomooing 1d ago
That is so true! I even remember myself calculating shipping and saying out loud that there's actually no difference between 1-10 pins, but I only thought about it as internal calculation and not how it impacts value to the backer 😭 feels so stupid but I know I was at maximum decision fatigue at that point - which honestly should've given me a sign to push the campaign later.
Thank you very much for the tips on the campaign and pre-launch page!!
1
2
u/feldoneq2wire 1d ago
Tiny detail but you need to shop around on shipping. $8-12 for an enamel pin?
1
u/momomooing 1d ago
I'm shipping from Canada and that's the lowest possible for tracked shipping 🥲 The cost breakdown is like this:
$12 total (Example for US shipping)
- $1.2 : KS & payment platform take 10%
- $1: Padded envelopes, pin backing cards, thank you cards
- ~$3.51: Tariffs and brokerage
Remaining is just $6.29 for tracked shipping. I will be donating all of my time to design all packaging, assemble, and mail everything myself. It's really unfortunate, I did worry a lot that the shipping may have deterred possible backers, there's just no other way.
Some US enamel pins on KS ship at $20 for 1 pin to Canada ($25 world wide), but only $8 within the US. I think it's just much more beneficial to be based in the US.
1
u/laotorr 1d ago
Check your analytics on KS. The vast majority of backers (in my case) came from the Kickstarter website, not from people clicking from IG or X or FB. Most of the time, when my art gets ''likes'', it comes from other artists who won't back my project. I appreciate the love and vote of confidence but it doesn't lead to sales.
1
u/momomooing 1d ago
Whoa that's awesome! We currently only have 16 backers, 4 are from Kickstarter, rest are from Instagram or direct referrals (artist collabs). I guess the platform hasn't really picked us up since there is so little traction 🥲
1
u/laotorr 1d ago
Interesting. It was the exact opposite for me. Instagram was a ghost town. My posts barely got any ''likes'' and all I got were private messages from desperate artists begging me to commission them! I'm very lucky customers on kickstarter dug my page.
1
u/momomooing 2h ago
I think I figured it out! It's because our product is too niche since it's a merch for the organization with our mascot - if someone has never seen the mascot, they wouldn't feel any emotional connection to it (simple design and simple/cute art). Currently we only have 6/23 backers from KS, external referrals picked up once we started collaborating with streamer artist friends on Twitch and getting new audience there.
In the future we're definitely going to try more general projects with more artists rather than merch for the org, hopefully KS will pick us up thenn 🙏
1
u/starrytropic 1d ago
So you’re the owner of Artist Ally! I’ve seen it before and I wanted to say good luck!! I don’t have much advice since I am also learning and will do my own kickstarter one day.
But I hope things turn around as the campaign goes on!
1
u/momomooing 1d ago
Yeahh that's me! First time NPO owner and first time Kickstarter, giant learning curves all the time xD Thankfully we have a supportive community and I can get tips online like this, I know we'll get through!
Thank you for your support 🙏
1
1
u/adriansloth_ 1d ago edited 1d ago
I looked at your Kickstarter project and these were some things I noticed.
The audience for the enamel pin is very niche, specifically for artists who do artist alley at cons which could limit your organic reach on the kickstarter website to a smaller audience. Kickstarter brought in the majority of backers for my tiny KS project when I had (still have) a couple hundred followers on social media.
Your goal seems a bit high to me. I've made my own enamel pins before and it was a couple hundred USD for the minimum order quantity of 50 pins.
Usually I noticed with enamel pin KS projects, there are multiple designs to choose which increases the number of backers
I think the main thing limiting your reach is the niche audience 🤔
1
u/momomooing 1d ago edited 1d ago
Thanks so much for the notes!!
- The pin is not for artists who do artist alleys 😅 our NPO is called "Artist Ally" and it's our logo, for people to show their support and become an ally to human artists. But it is definitely more niche due to the pin design is our mascot, so those who don't know us already might be less likely to back even knowing the cause.
- Our price checks out with yours! Originally my goal was 100 pins, to save on production and shipping from the manufacturer (difference between 50 and 100 is $120). So the total comes to $435 USD after shipping and duties, there will be extra customs fee of $45(USD) once I receive it in Canada. So my production total is $480. Kickstarter and payment platform takes 10% ($120), and remaining $600 goes out to shipping rewards, packaging (bubble mailer, backing card, thank you card, etc).
- We definitely need to have multiple designs 🥲 I didn't think the impact would be so big!
Hopefully we can reach a broader audience as we continue to build our brand!
1
u/adriansloth_ 1d ago
Ah I see, that makes more sense. I've seen both projects where they lower the goal and charge shipping to backers separately after the campaign while giving backers an estimate of the shipping cost of each reward tier in the KS project description (that's what I personally did) and there are projects which includes shipping cost in the goal. I think for first time KS projects, the lower the initial goal, the easier it is to fund the project.
1
u/momomooing 1d ago
Ohh I think I actually remember that from some time back, when I didn't think about running my own KS yet. But this time while I was researching enamel pin campaigns specifically, for some reason everyone had shipping in the pledge (select country after selecting reward). So I did that automatically and increased the goal to include shipping + production 🥲 I didn't even think about any other way!
Thank you for sharing your method, and it totally makes sense with the lower goal as first time KS project too.
1
8
u/nmacaroni 1d ago
1%-2% of social media converts to backers.
The question becomes what's your actually social media number?
If you look at "got 18k views and 1000+ likes, 160 reposts, 73 saves" The 1000 likes is definitely inflated. You could look at your real number somewhere around 160 to what ever the real number of likes are.
Or, look at the comments of those posts, and count up the ones that are actually looking at the post and commenting something more engaging than a generic comment... that's your real number of supporters. So you'll get 1-2% of those people actually putting up money.
You didn't share the kick so I can't comment more.