¡¡¡Verkami, 3 years co-creating culture!!!

Dear patrons, creators and Verkami fans!

We’re celebrating 3 years of co-creating culture, 3 years when everyone’s little bit has added up to almost 1,700 cultural projects brought to life.

And behind each and every one of them lies a wonderful story of exchange and collaboration, of forging new ties. Thanks to all these shared hopes and ideas, we’ve been able to experience something we’ve all been part of.

Once more, by teaming up we can do great things!

FAR MORE THAN FUNDING

Crowdfunding is far more than reaching a financial goal. The true power that’s changing the way we produce and consume culture is created by all the intangible aspects of a campaign: shared group experiences, mutual trust and respect, the magic of waiting for the post in a fast-paced digital world, the communities built up around a project… you’ll never experience all these unseen things unless you take the plunge to bring a project to life.

FAR MORE THAN A PLATFORM

Verkami was set up in December 2010 by a father and two suns driven by a passion for creativity, art and research. Every day we’re eager to help people make their dreams come true.

And our team has grown and grown. In addition to producer Àritz Cirbián, we’ve also been joined by musical industries expert Àstrid Segarra, so we can offer the best personalised advice for each and every project we publish, as well as our powerful, multi-language tool.

We love working alongside creators to ensure their projects are as engaging and well set out as possible: our 70% success rate is unique among crowdfunding platforms. We’ve kept this up ever since we first started with only 6 projects and this year we’ve funded over 1,000 projects, more than double the number in the previous two years combined.

COMMITTED TO CULTURE

In 2013 we’ve continued to back the community of artistes and creators in Spain by helping keep the documentary festival MEDIMED going, and by supporting the creative lab that is the international street festival Fira Tàrrega. We’ll be right behind these two initiatives again in 2014, because they now form part of our very DNA.

We’ve also held some 20 workshops, talks and events in many different places to spread the word about crowdfunding and show people how to design a great campaign.

All our hard work supporting art and creation over these last 3 years has been recognised in the e-Culture & Tourism category at the United Nations World Summit Awards World Summit Awards 2013 in Sri Lanka. The jury praised the innovative, creative, high-quality projects on Verkami and the boost it has given culture.

A RECORD YEAR!

It has also been a record year. The documentary L’Endemà, directed by Isona Passola beat the European crowdfunding record by raising almost €350,000.

There are 7 new projects in the Verkami Top 10!

Audiovisual projects on Verkami were a hit at several leading film festivals, including Málaga, where they won 6 awards, and they notched up 41 nominations for the Goya and Gaudí Awards. And we’ve lost track of the number of films that premiered in 2013 :)

A SUSTAINABLE MODEL

At our talks and events, we always stress that crowdfunding can be a sustainable model and we strive to make this a reality. Crowdfunding sets up a one-to-one exchange between creators and the public where everyone’s a winner. Creators get the money they need to bring their project to life and the public gets a unique cultural product at a great price.

This year has provided solid proof that this mutually beneficial approach we follow at Verkami can be a sustainable model.

Over 100 creators have carried out a second and even a third project on Verkami with a success rate of almost 100% in all areas of creation: documentaries, publishing, music, comics, to name but a few, and they all beat their previous funding best. By building up a solid community around their idea and making the most of their experience, they’ve become ambassadors for new campaigns, helping this community grow and grow.

We’re raring to start a new year as keen as ever to improve our crowdfunding tool and continue growing, creating culture and forging ties between a fantastic community of lovers of creation and culture.

Thanks again to you all for making this magic possible for another year!

A Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Long live the crowdfunding revolution!

Best wishes,

The Verkami family