Monday, July 29, 2013

$0



I've given money to a number of crowd-sourced funding projects, many run by people I don't know, or know only tangentially.

Recently I got the worst announcement for a fundraising campaign I've ever seen:



please forgive the spam and be warned that if i have you in more than one of my email accounts, you'll get this more than once

i've launched an indiegogo campaign to raise money to cover my expenses while i transform the script into a book (sic)



If you want to raise money for anything, you need to actually believe in the value of what you're pitching. Calling it spam tells me you don't.

And then actually spamming me (by not vetting your mailing list for duplicates or even for appropriate audience) says you don't value me or my time either.

Ineffective.
Blocked as spam.
Blog post fodder.

Bingo, bango, gone-o



9 comments:

. said...

it's common for people now to refer to a mass-email as "spam". just how the cool kids talk these days

Ali Trotta said...

That is very poorly done. It shows a total lack of regard and effort. I've funded two crowd-sourced projects, and everything about them was clearly laid out. The details were there. Care was taken, and there certainly wasn't an "if you get this multiple times, oh we'll! Deal with it" attitude. Because...NO.

Janet Reid said...

Well, I hope the cool kids have a trust fund to support their projects then.

Terri Lynn Coop said...

I've written several articles on how to run a good crowd-funding campaign. Charming, professional, enthusiastic, respectful, humble, and engaging are words I've used over and over.

And, how I wish I had this little gem to include in the "don't" section.

One of my best ever "don'ts" included a perk description that was dead serious when it said, "When this book is made into a block-buster movie, these magnets are going to sell for a pretty penny on eBay."

*facepalm*

Terri

NotaWarriorPrincess said...

Worst one I saw was a person who begged all over social media and even did a hunger strike stunt, and a week after the goal was reached, blasted facebook with pics of an extravagant trip to Vegas with the S.O.. So very clueless, tasteless, and SUCH bad karma.

Anonymous said...

Ms. Janet, I agree with you about the "cool" kids better have a trust fund. That seems so unprofessional, and so NOT cool. It smacks of disrespect, lack of effort, and most importantly, flippant high handedness.

April said...

Terrible pitch. And maybe this is just me being grumpy and Monday-y, but I really dislike the trend of writers launching crowdfunding campaigns to "cover their expenses" while they write. Do it the way the rest of us do it, kiddo -- stay up all night, steal five minutes between meetings, or write in your head while you're stuck in traffic.

Don't expect someone to pay you to write until you've written something that people will pay to read.

french sojourn said...

.....something, something, something...please forward me your bank account for my contribution...something, something.

Reverse deposit (withdraw) it's account.

Karma is Mother Natures hitman.

Jennifer R. Donohue said...

See, letters like that give me hope for my hypothetical pitch of "Dear so and so, I am awesome. So is my writing. Please read it! Kisses, me"

Please excuse the spam.

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