5 Most Common Mistakes in Crowdfunding Fundraising (and How to Avoid Them)

Most crowdfunding campaigns fail. It's sad, but true. It's estimated that more than 75% of all crowdfunding campaigns fail to reach their fundraising goals. These statistics are pretty grim. And while there are many factors that can lead to failure, most unsuccessful campaigns tend to make the same types of mistakes, ones that, more often than not, can be avoided.

Startsomegood is an Australian platform that's globally accessible and primarily geared toward social entrepreneurs, non-profit organizations, and individuals. It attracts its audience by focusing on causes that do social good.

Here's what the platform shares about the 5 most common mistakes made when running crowdfunding campaigns, and how to avoid them:

1. Lack of clarity

When we raise funds, we sometimes fail to communicate the impact we'll create with that money. We talk passionately about why our organization was founded and about our team's skills, but for donors, what matters is knowing what clearly measurable results we're aiming to achieve.

2. Failing to Inspire Trust

We often fail to explain our proven track record related to the project, or how we'll manage the initiative and work with community partners to achieve lasting results.

We can build that experience by sharing stories about past initiatives and projects, listing our achievements, and presenting proof through shared opinions and references from colleagues and clients, to build trust in our campaign.

3. Misalignment with the Goals of the Community (the One Most Invested in the Campaign's Impact)

Campaigns are often run by people who are relatively new to social entrepreneurship or the NGO world. Even when they're deeply skilled specialists in their particular field, they often fail to properly engage their community partners in the fundraising campaign.

Building relationships with our partner networks in the field we work in will help us gain their support and reach a target audience that's already engaged and interested in the topic of our campaign.

4. Not Using the Right Communication Channels

Using a scattershot mix of communication channels and methods, a generic email to our mailing list, a post on a personal Facebook account, a LinkedIn post, and shares from friends, without a clear strategy for each one, rarely produces satisfying results.

Carefully selecting the right channels and planning a communication strategy for each of them is a key factor in a campaign's success. It's important to set aside dedicated time and a team for this part of the campaign work.

5.Lack of COURAGE (to Launch and Sustain the Project to the End)

Often, even when a campaign starts off well (for example, raising the first 20% of its goal within the first week), a slump tends to follow, and it's not unusual for the next week to bring in just a single donation. This can leave us feeling defeated and confused, which discourages us and leads to weaker engagement with the campaign and a slowdown in our efforts to promote it.

When starting a crowdfunding campaign, we need to be prepared for its ups and downs, as well as for a great deal of hard, sustained work throughout the entire campaign period. We shouldn't be afraid to seek help, or even a "coach" to guide us through the difficult moments. It's important to remember that it's always better to work as a team that can take on and share out the heavy workload, rather than trying to do everything on our own.