Below are a few details to consider prior to submitting an application for the program. We want to help you be as successful as possible, and there are a few things that all successful projects have in common.

Fundraising Goal: Set your goal based on the amount of money you can raise, rather than your budgetary deficit.  You can get an idea of how much you can raise by the amount of personal e-mails that will be sent out by your team members and ambassadors, each personal e-mail has a value of about $4 . Most of our crowdfunding projects raise between $500 and $5,000. Keep in mind that all gifts received by the OSU Foundation are charged a 15% gift fee, please feel free to adjust your budget if necessary. All groups will need to have 20%-30% of proposed total raised before the project goes live.

Project Leadership: Your project/group should have two leaders and a core group of 3-5 members. The projects that gain the most success typically have 8-10 highly invested members.

Target Audience: Each member of your group will need provide a list of 50-100 people with the capacity to give $50 or more, whom they can contact personally by email. The   bigger your “crowd,” the greater your fundraising success! We can help with finding a potential audience but you will need to provide an initial list of people you can contact.

Comm. Efforts: Each group is responsible for its own content and outreach efforts.  All content will be developed by the project teams with the guidance of the OSU Foundation.  We can help send mass communications to a targeted audience through our email service provider.  The initial content for mass communications must be written and approved before the project launches.  

Updates/Stewardship: Your group will be responsible for providing updates on your page to keep donors informed. A group must provide page updates twice a week. Your first two updates will need to be pre-scheduled before launching.  You will also be responsible for any promised stewardship efforts (i.e., each donor at $100 will be acknowledged on group’s Twitter page).  These efforts will be very important because they will encourage donors to provide additional, ongoing support for your project/group.

Providing Perks: Providing perks at each giving level are a great way to recognize and thank you donors. Please remember that these perks should be non-tangible (experiential perks typically do better), be appropriate for the gift size and not violate quid pro quo laws.

Project Timeline: All projects will run for 30-45 days. They are kept short to provide a sense of urgency and prevent donor procrastination. A crowdfunding project requires daily, active commitment in three phases: quiet phase, active phase, and stewardship phase. There should be a 4-6 week quiet phase prior to the 30-45 day active phase, and followed by a stewardship phase after the project has ended. A department/unit should not plan on receiving any raised funds for a minimum of 8-10 weeks after the campaign has launched.

Interested in supporting your project through CREATE Oregon State? Apply here.