It's been funny for once being the one on the other end of the "please help us" campaign run. Not funny "haha" or anything like that. Just interesting and humbling to see the kinds of folks that gravitate towards helping out a cause like ours-for the record, those kind of folks are beautiful, wonderful human beings. It is truly amazing and puts me in disbelief of how incredible people can be when they believe in something you are doing. To those who have helped with our project so far, thank you so very much. I cannot even begin to tell you what it means to me and the greater good of this project. This is just the beginning.
The other evening at the Iguana Fund showcase at Club Passim a friend approached me with a proposition. I haven't known this friend particularly long, but as long as I have, I always knew them to be an avid supporter and lover of music, particularly local songwriters. I won't get too into the details (as I have already posted them up on the social media scape), but his offer was absolutely and completely selfless and wonderful. I looked at him for a minute in disbelief and he assured me it was something that he wanted to do, he believes in what we are doing and wants it to succeed. I just find people like this friend to be amazing and wonderful people. Regardless of what they are donating and who they are donating to, it gives me faith in humankind and the kindness that we can share. So if that friend is reading this reading this, thank you. You are a wonderful soul.
On the other end, I always find it interesting when campaigns just blow up...not even Amanda Palmer raising 1.5 million or whatever the insane amount of money she took home was, but people who manage to raise 2-4k in a day. I guess them have a lot of those really supportive folks in their corner (like my friend from the paragraph above) or they just have kickass rewards. I don't know. I helped on a similar "community based" project in the past and found similar results. Now, with our little project, there isn't much in the way of incentives. The artists being covered have all agreed that they are fine with their songs being used for this purpose so long as it's not for profit - so no presale of the record. We are offering original tracks from some of our gracious recording artists on the record, and I am putting my own music on the bidding block. But I am still in awe of those folks that are able to pull in so much so fast...maybe I just suck at marketing.
The last and most confusing thing about these that I always question is why folks seem hesitant to donate the smaller amounts. I have already mentioned countless times that every little bit of money counts, but it seems that there are so few 1, 2, 5 donations to the cause. I am not sure what it is, some stigma of. But if everyone I knew (at least through the blog) donated a buck we could kill this thing and do another volume right out of the gate. Man, I wish everyone would donate a buck! Is there a weird stigma with not donating a lot of money? I'm not sure. Just something I find a little curious and hope that people don't feel that way. When I say every little bit counts, it truly does.
So far I am so blessed and happy with the outpouring of support we have received. It has been both redeeming to know that people care about what we are creating and also just delightful to see this thing coming to fruition because of our supportive community. We only have a little way left to go...lets do this.
What do you guys think? How can we make this thing really take off in the future? Had a successful campaign in the past? What works? What doesn't?
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