FundRazr Success Story: RiverBlue [VIDEO]
Crowdfunding Advisors, FundRazr Team
RiverBlue is a feature documentary that uncovers how the fashion industry plays part in destroying our world’s rivers.
The film follows Mark Angelo, internationally-celebrated river conservationist and advocate. As Mark journeys through some of the most pristine to most devastated rivers around the world, he unveils the source of much destruction of these waters; harsh chemical manufacturing processes and the irresponsible disposal of toxic chemical waste.
RiverBlue aims to bring awareness to the destruction of a some of the world’s vital rivers and propel significant change in the textile industry from the top fashion brands that can make a difference. The production team needed to raise the funds in order to edit the film, market it and submit to film festivals. They knew the only way to do this was to involve other individuals and like minded organizations, this meant raising over $48,000.
We met with co producer, Lisa Mazzotta, to discuss highlights from their crowdfunding experience, how to build an online community of people who care about your cause and valuable advice for people who want to raise money by crowdfunding.
[Watch the interview below]
Building a worldwide online community:
“When you have a crowdfunding campaign you have to contact all the people that you know to be able to make the project successful. It’s really from your individual community that the initial dialogue about the film starts. The initial funding will come from all the people that you know, and then you have to look at it in phases: so this is what we get from all the people that we know, and then how do we surpass that and outreach to an even larger community? You really have to find the people that would be interested in that topic and have an existing passion or care for it.
We really tried to keep people engaged for the duration of the campaign and gave them video updates on some of the things we were working on and some of the people that we interviewed in the film…We wanted to give people as much of an idea of what they were supporting as we could. Facebook, Twitter, reaching out to different media organizations, and blogging is something that we did and continue to do to reach out to different groups.”
The highlight of your experience:
“One of the great aspects about FundRazr is that you can embed the campaign on your own website. So that’s really beneficial, if you would like an audience to see your website in addition to your crowdfunding campaign because you are then raising awareness about your whole project.
Having this crowdfunding platform was really the door opener to be able to contact different organizations, to let them know what we were doing and to see if they would like to be involved. We contacted many outdoor recreation, environmental conservation and film organizations. We used the crowdfunding campaign as a way to initiate conversation.”
Advice for crowdfunding a project or non-profit:
“Doing a crowdfunding campaign is a big project, it’s not something that you just put up and it generates some money on its own, you really need do need a team of people to make it successful. Great you have made a video and you have filled out the synopsis of what you’re doing but unless you then work on it every day, you won’t see any traction with it.
Start building relationships sooner with various individuals and organizations that would be interested in your cause or project. You can’t stop talking to people, as soon as you stop talking to people, and stop reaching out, then you’ll find the crowdfunding stops too. It’s really important to keep in mind when you are doing a crowdfunding campaign because you really have to get community engagement and interest from people.”
Click here to get involved with RiverBlue.
