Q1. Tell us about your campaign…. your inspiration, goals, why it’s important to you.
Everyone knows someone who has overcome or is currently facing a serious life challenge. As a Stage IV cancer survivor I personally know what it feels like to wake up and just hope I make it through the day. I know what it feels like to wait with sweaty palms and my heart racing just to hear what the doctor is going to say about my test results. This is real life and so many people are looking anywhere they can to see if somebody else has made it through. We started YouInspire to build a safe platform for these amazing people to discover and connect with others who have made it through those dark moments of cancer, amputation, lupus, heart disease, paralysis, etc. and be able to reach deep inside their own hearts and minds and believe in the incredible.
We want our members to feel like they are not alone in their hardships and we feel the quickest way to do that is to organize and connect similar stories. We want these amazing people to see each other and be heard and most of all shine light on all the grim statistics that bring hopelessness and defeat that are so easily found online. It is important to me because it has to be done, we really have no choice. I was one of them.
Q2. What were your ultimate goals with your funding campaign? Who should care and why?
Our ultimate goals were to a) fund our platform through donations from our trusted networks and their connections; b) bring awareness to the movement that is YouInspire. Our members voiced the urgency to get YouInspire built and launched. There are millions of individuals who are looking for hope, support and inspiration. We want to ensure no one will be diagnosed or treated feeling like they have nowhere to go for life-giving hope and inspiration online. Everybody knows someone who has wrestled with these serious life challenges and we all want to find wellness and we feel that YouInspire can be helpful for the mind and the body.
Q3. How were you reaching, engaging and involving others? Share your tactics, please!
Raising the funds was a huge team effort and everyone on our board and all of our friends and family spread the word via email, Facebook, text, and homing pigeons… We followed the “tip jar” philosophy seeding the campaign with donations from a handful of close connections, then opening it up to our wider networks with a solid base of funds. Constant dialogue between team members was critical so that we could stagger our networks and consistently see new donations rolling in every few hours. Donors and the team loved refreshing our page throughout the day to see us grow. We also found that reserving a few larger donors at strategic milestones was useful to keeping it moving forward.
In addition, filming weekly video updates helped. People have to see a face and story and we really tried to do that by pairing a few of our team with some of our new members.
Q4. You’re rocking the fundraising on IndieGoGo? Congrats! What was working? What was not working?
Gratitude kept it moving!!! Facebook was our center stage. There, we thanked people publicly, tagging their name thereby getting exposure on their walls and news-feeds. Expressing gratitude also lets our contributors know they haven’t just given to a machine but a person who actually cares and is mindful of their generosity.
Q5. Any surprises or especially fun moments during your campaign that you’d like to share?
I think our first surprise was our first large donation! I got a text from one of our team members “We Just hit 9k!!!! To see the campaign jump a few thousand dollars was a huge morale boost and gave us a little wind in the ole sails when we weren’t sure where our next donation was coming from.
Q6. Any tips / advice for other aspiring entrepreneurs, creators and project leaders like yourself?
It’s really helpful to set a daily goal. It’s a lot easier to think about raising $500 today instead of $19,500 which might actually be the overall goal. If you surpass your daily goal it’s a huge bonus and you must celebrate.
We’ve found that planting the seed of our idea early before we ever started raising money was really crucial. Tell a good story and wallets will follow. Never forget that kindness and generosity is worth more than the actual number attached to it. The willingness to give even the smallest amount means so much especially in these crazy times we are living in.
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