People mill around the foyer in the Great Canadian Theatre Company before a showing of the Edward Curtis Project. The company is using a crowd-funding website to raise $25,000 to pay for the construction of its theatre space in Hintonburg.
Great Canadian Theatre Company has launched a crowd-funding campaign to raise $25,000 for the remaining costs of its theatre space.
The theatre company’s “Be a Story Builder” campaign began on March 20 and runs for 60 days.
The company moved into a new space located on Wellington Street West in 2007. The theatre cost $11.7 million to complete and the company had only raised $10.3 million.
Mukhabbat Aliyeva, the theatre’s development assistant and co-ordinator for the campaign, says this effort will cover just a portion of the $500,000 shortfall that remains.
“We didn’t want to be too ambitious,” she says. “But we still wanted to give it a try.”
She says the remainder of the shortfall will be made up in continuing fundraising efforts outside of this campaign.
Aliyeva says the company needs more money to produce shows and hire people and the shortfall limits the company’s creative side.
Crowd-funding campaigns collect money from donors using the Internet and social media.
In a fixed funding campaign, the organizer must reach its goal in order to collect the donations once the campaign is over.
However, the theatre company’s campaign is flexible funding, which means it collects the money whether or not the goal is reached.
“Crowd-funding is really gaining a lot of attention and popularity,” says Aliyeva.
She says the company decided to use a crowd-funding campaign to raise money because it is easily accessible and convenient for donors. It also offers constant updates and gives exposure to the cause.
Aliyeva says the theatre company is important because of its economic and cultural impact in Ottawa.
“Our mandate is to produce Canadian plays and tell Canadian stories,” she says, adding that the company’s plays attract people from all over the country.
Inspiring passion in people is crucial to attract donors, says Matt Cooke, founder of CrowdFund Buzz, an American organization that offers services internationally for people wanting their crowd-funding campaigns more visible through press and social media.
“The project managers need to express why the cause is important and why people need to get behind the project,” he says.
“A lot of projects in the ‘cause’ category explain why the project is important to them but fail to explain why it should also matter to potential backers. If the project cannot get their message across to other people, they are going to struggle to hit their goal.”
Crowd-funding mentor Lee Andrews has a formula that he says leads to successful campaigns.
“The first five per cent of funds need to come from people very close to you – friends and family. Then you need to reach out to your networks – social media, newsletters, friend’s social media, anyone connected to you in some way,” he says.
“This will hopefully push you to 25 to 30 per cent, once you hit 25 per cent, strangers will start donating to your campaign. This is when you reach out to newspapers, local media outlets, and national media outlets. Getting picked up will push you the rest of the way to your goal.”
Andrews is vice-president of business development for crowd-funding website When You Wish.
He also provides advice on Twitter for any crowd-funding campaigners who get in touch with him.
He says using the formula and working hard on promotion leads to successful campaigns.
Aliyeva says the campaign will not be considered a failure, even if it doesn’t reach its goal.
“With this campaign, we realize how many people support us,” she says. “That’s a success in itself.”