Author's FAQ

Crowdfunding lets creators raise the funding they need to bring their projects to life thanks to pledges from their family, circles of friends, groups...

They do so not only to support you, but also to consume culture in a different way and enjoy the result of what they're helping bring to life.

You should look over your rewards and make sure you've remembered the following:

• No intermediaries = better prices

  You're going to be working directly with your backers without the need for any intermediaries. This means you can offer them rewards at the same price they'd find in the shops or less, leaving you to plough the difference into your project.

• Crowdfunding isn't donating

  Your rewards shouldn't appeal to people's disinterested support: they should be part of a two-way exchange.

• Reward loyalty

  Your patrons are your loyalest followers. It's not about seeing how much you can get out of them, but rewarding their loyalty with low prices and unique products and experiences. Don't forget that they're making the effort to support an idea long before it actually gets off the ground. Their backing at this early stage deserves a proper reward.

• The range of rewards doesn't need to be merely accumulative

  You can add additional or alternative rewards without affecting existing ones.

• A picture paints a thousand words

  Use any pictures, models, designs or photos of the rewards you have in the description. If you don't have any, make some! A horizontal montage is best to avoid the description running too far down the page. Pictures are vital if you are offering T-shirts.

• They should follow the Verkami format

• Separate the different parts of each reward with a "+" sign followed by a capital letter.
• If the rewards are accumulative, summarise the parts that are repeated.
• If you create a pack, give it a name in bold capitals: VIP PACK, FOR ASSOCIATIONS
• For example:
  • €20
    Your name will appear in the music video credits
    + A dedicated CD of the band's new album "Andergraun".
  • €35 ANDERGRAUN PACK
    Name in the credits
    + Dedicated "Andergraun" CD
    + "Andergraun Division" T-shirt!
    *Shipping costs included*

• Remember you're addressing your backers and your community. Talk to them directly, seduce them, make them feel part of your project. Tell an engaging backstory to help your community relate to your project and want to get involved.
• The key point, which should come right at the start of the description, is to say what you want to fund with this crowdfunding campaign: what do you want to do? You can then give any additional details about the project and campaign.
• Don't forget to say what you'll spend the money on.
• You should be thorough but succinct. Too much information is overwhelming. You can also add links to other websites for anyone looking for more information and don't forget to keep updating the blog.
• You can also add an eye-catching image of a reward in the description.
• At the end you can add a section with links to your Facebook page, Twitter account, Bandcamp page or personal page.
• Get an idea of how your page is coming along by clicking "Save changes" and then the "Project page" link at the top of the page.

• Divide the text into paragraphs with clear headings. Use 1 hashtag to add a new title: # Title 1
• Use short paragraphs with plenty of line breaks. Highlight key concepts and words in bold to make them stand out.
• You can use bold and italics in the text editor in your back office, as well as inserting hyperlinks and images.
• You can also insert Soundcloud and Bandcamp embeds.

If you use more than one language, each text you've written will appear in its corresponding language.

Any pages in languages you haven't chosen will simply be displayed in the default language for your project.

The other language pages will be displayed as follows:

• If the Catalan, Galician or Basque pages don't have a translation, they will display the Spanish text.
• If the Italian page doesn't have a translation, it will display the English text
• If your main language is Spanish and you also add an English translation, users whose main language is Spanish will see it displayed in Spanish and users whose main language is English will see it displayed in English. Users whose main language is Catalan, Galician or Basque will see it displayed in Spanish and those whose main language is Italian or other languages will see it displayed in English.

1. Select "Change available languages" on the "You're editing data in" dropdown menu and add any languages you want to use.
2. You'll see the added languages on the same dropdown menu. Choose the one you want to translate into and fill in the different fields in this language. Don't forget to save it when you've filled in the fields.
3. Remember to translate the rewards as well.

If you want to translate your page, you should do so before publishing the campaign, because afterwards you won't be able to edit the rewards.

For each language you add and translate into, you'll have a link to share your project directly in the language in question.

Once the fundraising campaign is over, it’s time to collect your patrons’ pledges.

Some problems may arise when it comes to collecting pledges: expired or cancelled credit cards, insufficient funds in accounts, PayPal accounts that haven’t been set up properly or don’t have enough funds…

Verkami will get in contact with all the patrons who have had payment problems and tell them what steps to take to sort them out.

We give patrons 10 days after the end of the campaign to sort out any payment issues and we send them two notifications. Most patrons with payment problems manage to sort them out in these 10 days. The number of pledges that ultimately can’t be collected is usually less than 1%.

Once these 10 days are up, or once all pledges have been collected, we close the campaign completely.

From this moment onwards, the link to solving payment problems is no longer active. If a patron tries to sort out a payment problem, they’ll be told to email the creator directly.

And if a patron asks me how to sort out a payment problem…

If a patron asks you how to sort out a payment problem, you can tell them to do the following:

• Go to their user page (log on to Verkami).
• On their user page they’ll find a link to “Sort out payment problems”

If they can't sort their problem out from their user page

Tell them to email us at [email protected]

If it’s someone you know and they can pay you in cash

Email us at [email protected] and give us their name so we can tick this patron off as having paid.

This means they won’t appear on the list of patrons who have defaulted and they’ll keep on receiving news about the project.

Once the pledges have been collected and any payment problems have been sorted out, if you reached your funding goal* we’ll close the campaign completely and send you our bill, and the Crowdfunding Report on your campaign and transfer the money to your account.

The bill for our services is 5% of the total amount raised for the project + 1,35% as bank fee for the pledges made by bank card. The invoice will include the 21% VAT on the amount to be invoiced, if applicable.

The Crowdfunding Report sets out the campaign in detail: the amount collected, the final number of uncollected pledges, all the expenses, the amount collected through PayPal (if it has been used), your account balance and the total amount transferred to your bank account.

The amount transferred to the creator will be all the successfully collected pledges minus:

• The bill for Verkami’s services.
• The pledges made through PayPal that the author will receive directly to his PayPal account, if this payment method had been enabled.

^ The funding goal has to be reached with the collected pledges. If the campaign falls short of its funding goal because some pledges cannot be successfully collected, we can’t close the campaign until this has been sorted out. Since this situation does not arise very often, and each project has its own characteristics, the project heads should meet with Verkami to discuss ways of closing the project.

You’ll receive the funds raised in two different ways, depending on how the patrons made their payment. Part of the money will be paid directly into your PayPal account at the end of the campaign, if this option had been enabled, and the rest will be paid into your bank account within 10 days of the close of the campaign.

Pledges made through bank card

Pledges made with a bank card are collected through the payment gateway and paid into a Verkami account.

We’ll transfer this money to the bank account you gave in your back office in the “Bank and billing details” section.

This money will be transferred within 10 days of the close of the campaign or sooner if all pledges have been successfully collected.

If you had enabled the PayPal payment option

The pledges made through PayPal will be paid directly into the PayPal account linked to the campaign. You’ll receive these pledges the moment the campaign ends.

You’ll see that PayPal has subtracted Verkami’s 5% fee from each pledge.

You’ll also see that PayPal has charged you whatever commission you’ve agreed with them, generally 3.4% + €0.35 per pledge.

You can then move the money from your PayPal account to a bank account.

The access to the form tool will be enabled once the campaign has ended. The form tool is specially designed to gather information on your patrons to send out their rewards as quickly and easily as possible.

You can access the form tool from the Dashboard of your project.

We recommend you send out the forms when you’ve got the rewards almost ready.

You can send out a form for each pledge level requesting the information you need from the patrons at that level: shipping address, name to be included in the credits, T-shirt size, etc.

Patrons who have made a pledge for different rewards will receive a separate form for each pledge.

Every three days Verkami will send a reminder to any patrons who have not yet filled in the form asking them to do so as quickly as possible.

When you want to send out the bulk of the rewards, close replies to the forms. Once you have clicked this option, after 72 hours no more replies will be received and any patrons who have not yet replied will receive an email notifying them that replies to forms are now closed.

Any patrons who try to access the forms once replies have been closed will be given your email address so that they can contact you directly to manage delivery of their reward.

Once replies to each form have been closed, you can download a handy Excel or .csv file containing all the replies to manage delivery of rewards.

We put together a handy Excel to help you manage the process of sending out the rewards. We recommend you download the definitive version once the project is closed and invoiced.

Once you've reached your goal, you can download it from your patron management page. You'll see an "Export to Excel" button for downloading a .csv text file with the following columns of information:

• Name: Username
• Email: User email
• Amount: Amount pledged
• Reward Index: If you have different rewards for the same amount, this will help you identify which is which. The number in the Reward Index shows the position of the reward from top to bottom in the reward column on your public project page.
• Payment Method: Indicates whether the contribution was made through PayPal or credit card. Or if an unpaid contibution has been solved through transfer or directly to the author.
• Payment Status: Once the fundraising period is over, this column will show whether the amount has been collected at the time you download the Excel (showing "ok") or is yet to be collected (showing "unpaid").
• Date: Date and time of day when the patron made their pledge.

Once your crowdfunding campaign is over, your project enters a new stage. Now you can carry it out as planned and deliver the result to your patrons to close the circle.

But it is vital to keep your patrons informed while they are waiting to receive their rewards. Patrons love receiving updates on how the project is going, getting an exclusive angle on the process and hearing from creators in person.

This is all part of the crowdfunding experience and it’s what makes this form of getting involved in creative projects so special. Getting to be right alongside creators in the creative process would be unthinkable in traditional ways of consuming culture.

• Keep the project blog regularly updated: Each new post will be emailed to all patrons. This is important: not all patrons will be following you on social networks and this might be their only source of information.
• Besides the logistical side, creative projects can often suffer delays and setbacks. If you keep your patrons up to speed and well informed of any new timetables, the community that has supported you will understand. What annoys patrons is only being told that their reward will arrive later than planned at a very late stage.
 

When your patrons receive their reward, it will be a far more intense experience, and one very different from traditional ways of consuming culture, if they’ve been up close throughout the whole production process. They’ll feel part of the result and they’ll help spread the word as ambassadors for your project.

As far as possible, record how things are going and share it with your patrons on the project blog. The rewards are well worth the effort!