9 Tech Essentials for Running a University Crowdfunding Platform

What’s the key to a successful institution-wide crowdfunding program? Buy-in from key stakeholders; e.g. project creators, student associations, departments, donors, corporate sponsors etc.

Can tech features improve buy-in from stakeholders? Yes, dramatically so, if we make it easy for them to interact with the platform and each other.

This post looks at 9 features to consider when researching your university crowdfunding platform, to get buy-in from stakeholders, so that your program can succeed.

#1 Funding Models

For: project creators

”All-or-Nothing” Funding

If your crowdfunding target is £5,000, all-or-nothing funding would mean that the project creator only receives donations if that full £5,000 target is met. If it isn’t met, none of the donors’ money is taken out of their account. This model ensures that donations aren’t wasted on campaigns that haven’t raised enough to make the project happen.

All-or-nothing funding creates urgency, but there are other models available to support the variety of campaigns that students and departments create.

Minimum-Needed/Stretch Goals

This model allows project creators to set an all-or-nothing minimum target. The minimum-needed target refers to the lowest amount required to make a project happen (i.e £500 for sports kits).

A second target is also set (an overall or stretch goal). This target is for any extra money raised to take the project further. Using the sports kit example, the minimum of £500 may be needed for the kit but an extra overall/stretch target could be set to £800 for additional sports kits.

This is ideal for smaller student projects and reduces the risk of setting a large funding target.

Participation Goals

Participation goals refer to targets showing how many people donate to a project, as opposed to how much is raised. This is useful for initiatives like senior class gifts, when participation matters more than the amount raised.

The University of Oxford’s Somerville College, for example, had a target of 100 alumni donors to their Somerville 20 in 2 Days project.

#2 On-Platform Project Creation

For: project creators, platform admins

Crowdfunding success does not mean taking a student’s idea and guiding them through writing the perfect project page.

There’s not enough ownership in that approach. Project creators should be given the tools and guides they need to write their own personal project pages and submit them when ready. A crowdfunding moderator’s job shouldn’t be to upload all the information, you have better things to do!

Projects should be made by project creators, with automated guidance along the way. Moderators are able to see draft projects develop but projects will only be submitted when they’re ready.

#3 Gamification

For: project creators, project teams

When you create a crowdfunding program, you allow students and faculty to act as fundraising ambassadors for your institution. Leaderboards can encourage ambassadors to better promote their projects and reach more new donors.

Just like recording best student callers in a telephone campaign, you can record the best crowdfunding promoters by tracking their social media impact.

#4 Project Dashboards

For: project creators, platform admins

Project creators must know how their promotion is working if they are to remain enthused and make smart marketing decisions. This means giving them oversight of their project stats, such as the number of page views from different activities. The data provided on a private dashboard can also be used by platform admins to encourage project creators at the right times.

#5 Matchfunding

For: project creators, major donors, corporate sponsors

If your program focuses on student projects, you can expect around half of all donors to be under 25 years old, naturally building a donor ethos in students and young alumni. To reinforce this benefit, some universities offer matchfunding to their projects.

There is roughly 1 view for every dollar given to a crowdfunding project, so thousands of individuals see that alumni actively support causes at your institution. This exposure is also a great mechanism for encouraging corporate support.

#6 Mobile Responsive Payments

For: project creators, donors

Every provider will tell you their solution is mobile responsive, which most pages will be, but the question is whether the payment page is.

Around 50% of all traffic to your crowdfunding platform will be from mobile, so it’s important payments are too. If not, conversion rates will be low. Test each platform you’re considering by making a small donation from your smartphone. The differences will be significant.

#7 Auto-Email Stewardship

For: project creators, donors, platform admins, development office

Donors need an immediate thank you email because their gift is warm in their mind, and they need to feel confident their donation was successfully received, ideally with tax relief details.

Projects need stewardship too. A good platform will provide auto-emails at various events and times to project creators and platform administrators. Auto-emails should include calls to action to increase the vitality and success of your projects.

#8 Auto-Retention

For: project creators, donors, platform admins, development office

How best to steward crowdfunding donors is still being debated, but one proven way is to make an additional ask at the point of giving. The regular gift option is ticked by around 20% of alumni donors during the donation process.

#9 Donor Profiles and Histories

For: donors, platform admins, development office

If a crowdfunding platform lets donors create profiles, they can make later gifts quickly and look back proudly over their donor history. Of course, this also means platform admins can identify prolific donors for future solicitation. If profiles are created through Facebook or Twitter login, moderators can collect additional information to support stewardship efforts.

BONUS FEATURES (Non-Essential)

Departmental Subsites

For: departments, platform admins

Ownership is key to crowdfunding success, and this applies to stakeholders throughout your institution too. If you want your enterprise or athletic departments to provide great projects, give them ownership of the process.

One way to do this is to provide them with their own subsites with permissions to moderate their projects. All projects still appear on your institution’s main platform, and you still collect all funds and donor data.