The Four Crowdfunding Goals (Pick Yours)

Let’s talk about crowdfunding goals. It’s not something people often think about in detail, but so important. 

The reason I wanted to cover this topic in more detail today is because of the type of messages that I get from people. 

The Crush Crowdfunding website has a contact form for people to get in touch. In this form, there’s a questionnaire that goes through various topics to allow me to understand the entrepreneur and project some more. 

The main question this article deals with is “what is your crowdfunding goal?”.

Here are some of the responses I get:

• I really want to raise as much funds as possible. Can you help me? 
• I want to raise a million dollars. Is this something you can help me do?
• I want to get as many backers as possible for my project. Maybe 10,000. Can you help?

There are many people who come to me with a really big, vague goal. I say big and vague because “as much as possible”, or “as many backers as possible” is not really a goal. 

Sure, if you hit unlimited funds that’s pretty cool. 

If you hit unlimited backers, that’s pretty cool. 

But that’s not a real, possible goal. 

A Goal Will Keep You Focused

So what happens next? 

When I get on a call with these eager entrepreneurs, I make sure to ask again: what is your goal for crowdfunding? 

Although it’s great to want to raise as much money as possible or get as many backers as possible, it’s much too vague. 

For example, if your project has an “unlimited” goal for funding, then it’s tough to understand what to budget for to prepare for a campaign. 

If this happens, I encourage people to set a more specific goal. 

From my years in crowdfunding, I’ve found that having a very specific goal will guide your work and approach to a campaign. 

Side note: accountability will too and that’s what we have going on in the Fully Funded Facebook Group so be sure to join!

Crowdfunding Is Hard Work

Having a specific goal is crucial for a successful campaign since it will guide you through the good times and the bad ones, too. 

Because really, crowdfunding an idea is not like a walk in the park but rather really hard work. 

You can’t really just put your idea on Kickstarter or Indiegogo, press the launch button, and get thousands of people to come pledge to your project. 

And this is just talking about one little piece of the entire crowdfunding puzzle. 

Especially if you haven’t done it before. 

Your Real Goal For Crowdfunding

There are different types of goals to set for crowdfunding. Let’s go through four different ones now. 

Raise Funds To Initiate Production

Maybe you’re a game heading to crowdfunding because you need to raise $15,000 to pay for the initial production run. 

That number is the absolute minimum goal that you have to reach in order to be able to actually pay the factory to make the darn thing. If that’s the case, then great! You now have a specific goal for a product.

It might be easy to talk about right now, but getting to this number does involve a lot of research. Everything from contacting multiple different manufacturers and suppliers for different quotes (and quality) and actually honing that down into a number that makes sense to raise. 

Sometimes, if you’re thinking about offering free shipping, it will also mean getting in touch with different fulfillment companies to understand their shipping costs too.

Get Backers To Meet Manufacturing MOQ

Another way some entrepreneurs choose to approach setting a crowdfunding goal is to find the manufacturing MOQ.  

With some factories and suppliers you’re going to work with, there’s going to be a minimum amount required for them to actually make the product for you. 

Hitting that number, whether it’s 100 units or 1,000 units, is crucial to get the entire line going. 

So in this case, it’s not as many backers as possible but rather a very finite number of backers. 

Once you have this finite number of units you have to pre-sell, you’ll be able to work backwards to understand how much time, effort, and funds, it is to actually get to that amount. 

If you need 100 backers versus 1000 backers, I assure you that the input you have to put in for pre-launch, no matter if it’s time or money or anything else, is going to be drastically different. 

Master The Launch Process

Another way to approach this crowdfunding goal is more intangible in nature. Sometimes, it’s not the amount of money or number of backers at the end of the project, but rather the team’s understanding of the launch process.

People who are inventors at heart who love toying with new ideas and creating new products need to understand the launch process so that they can continue to create and take products to market. 

Unfortunately many creators don’t understand the launch process. 

This launch process includes everything from doing early market research, how to find the best people to buy a product, what it takes to gather an audience for crowdfunding, which channels work best for a product launch, how to navigate promotions and press, how to get in touch with manufacturing and lock down a plant, how to navigate fulfillment, and beyond.

Kickstarter and Indiegogo launches are an easy way to learn the launch process that becomes applicable for all product launches outside of crowdfunding. 

In this case, the goal is literally for the team to master the process. 

Find Superfans

Honestly, some people come to crowdfunding with enough funds to put the product to market. 

In this case, maybe a crowdfunding goal is to get in touch with superfans.

Kickstarter and Indiegogo is a different ecosystem than the typical eCommerce site since people here are pre-paying for products that don’t exist. As such, they’re the earliest adopters of a product and tend to be the most vocal group.

For entrepreneurs using crowdfunding to find superfans, a goal would actually be getting early adopters and really early users of the product who will send in testimonials and use-case pictures to fuel brand marketing. 

It’ll mean getting in touch with these superfans and delivering to them so that they will be brand ambassadors in the long run.

Everyone Has A Different Crowdfunding Goal

As you can see, there are various forms of goals for crowdfunding. 

I encourage you to really think about this before you get started on your crowdfunding journey and get deeper into your crowdfunding launch.

Be sure to lock down your own goals before you get started and don’t let other people’s goals define your own.

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