This is how Middlesex University launched a crowdfunding platform

Michaela Hopkins helped manage the launch of MDXBusinessCrowdfund, Middlesex University Business School’s crowdfunding platform for students and staff. In this interview Michaela shares how crowdfunding can help develop students’ business skills, tips on raising awareness across departments, and advice for fundraisers considering a platform for their institution.

Can you tell us a bit about your role at Middlesex?

I work with Middlesex University Business School as a consultant and part of my remit has included working closely with Anna Kyprianou, the Dean of the Business School, and other members of her team on the launch and subsequent roll-out of MDXBusinessCrowdfund. Having successfully launched the site, our main focus now is on raising awareness of the platform and its benefits among students and staff, and on providing hands-on support to any would-be crowdfunders.

How do Middlesex use the crowdfunding platform?

Anna’s rationale for launching the platform was to give students and staff a way of raising the funds that are often required to turn interesting ideas or projects into reality. Combined with the support and guidance we offer, the platform is a powerful tool that can enable students and staff to fulfil entrepreneurial ambitions or personal aspirations. It also allows some of the fantastic student and staff initiatives taking place within the university to be showcased to external audiences. The Business School is also using MDXBusinessCrowdfund as a learning tool for students.

How are you using the platform as a learning tool?

These are still very early days, but use of the platform has recently been incorporated into one business module as it enables students to market-test their business ideas. The Business School feels there is definitely scope for the platform to be used more fully as a learning tool, as it lets students put many of the skills they learn, from business planning through to marketing, into practice.

Can you tell us about the projects currently featured?

The first, Unite Nepal Org, seeks to provide a mechanism for sharing skills, ideas and expertise with the objective of generating innovative solutions for the long-term infrastructural development of Nepal following the devastating earthquakes earlier this year. The second, KitShare, is the brainchild of Middlesex University’s Well-Being Foundation, a social enterprise run almost entirely by students and alumni. Every year in the UK there are lots of unwanted football kits that go unused or are thrown away; KitShare aims to raise enough money to ship boxes of these kits to children in Gambia.

How are you promoting the platform to students and staff?

We are using a mix of on and offline channels: announcements on uniHub, the University website and the staff intranet; a promotional video; a dedicated uniHub page for workshops; emails to Business School students and staff; social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and the Business School’s own MDXBusinessConnect community); a presence at Refresh, the University’s student fair; flyers in student admissions packs; presentations to senior academics; workshops and drop-in sessions for students; and one-to-one meetings with anyone who enquires. We have had solid support from the University’s marketing and communications department, which has been great.

What advice would you give a team looking to try crowdfunding?

Have a clear vision of what you want to achieve.

Get internal buy-in early. Communication is key. You are going to need support from other departments such as finance and marketing, so get them on board at the outset. Given enough lead time, collectively you can pull together a decent plan of action, both for a smooth implementation and for effective promotion.

Plan beyond launch. So much energy is taken up in the run-up to launch, but you need to build awareness and maintain momentum afterwards, both internally and among external supporters. Think about the news hooks and milestones that will keep you visible and magnify the efforts of the project creators using the platform.