Chequeado<\/a> of Argentina.<\/p>\nSome reflections to keep in mind<\/h4>\n
The SembraMedia team would like to thank the journalists who\u2019ve been generous enough to share not only their achievements and efforts, but their mistakes as well. Our community of digital entrepreneurs understand the value of collaborating and supporting the development of other journalists by sharing their experiences.<\/p>\n
The digital sites in Latin America are as diverse as the region itself. They all follow different strategies as they cover a particular beat or audience. Some publish transnational coverage, others are hyper-local. Some focus on politics, others on sports and health. Nevertheless, based on our analysis of these crowdfunding case studies, there are at least six major conclusions worth highlighting:<\/p>\n
1.) Make sure the narrative of your fundraising campaign is simple and direct.<\/h4>\n
Generally speaking, crowdfunding campaigns should appeal to emotions. All of them are seeking to inspire and motivate people to open their wallets and contribute. Nevertheless, it\u2019s recommended that you avoid complex narratives and be very clear about the message you want to send and what action you want readers to take. Before starting a campaign, at the very least it\u2019s worth answering the next four questions:<\/p>\n
a.) What product or service is my outlet offering and why is it relevant?<\/p>\n
b.) Why are we doing a fundraising campaign?<\/p>\n
c.) What do we plan to do with the funds we collect?<\/p>\n
d.) If someone has previously donated, how do I incentivize them to do so again?<\/p>\n
2.) Make someone responsible for the campaign.<\/h4>\n
Not all digital outlets have the luxury of hiring a specialized team to handle crowdfunding, but it is important to designate someone as the point person of your funding campaign. This means that whoever is responsible should be relieved of some of their everyday responsibilities, in order to better plan, run, and track the campaign from beginning to end. Ideally, this person should act as an intermediary between donors and the media outlet outside of the campaign.<\/p>\n
3.) Place your bets on strategic alliances.<\/h4>\n
When you\u2019re dealing with a small team, it\u2019s worth considering making strategic alliances with creative agencies, video producers, artist\u2019s collectives or other groups that might be able to contribute something to the campaign. Nevertheless, be careful not to generate such a large body of work that its difficult to manage. It\u2019s also worth asking what are these allies gaining by linking themselves to the crowdfunding campaign?<\/p>\n
4. Plan and organize the campaign.<\/h4>\n
While many crowdfunding campaigns are pulled off thanks to the motivation, energy and effort of a media team, it\u2019s important to create a strategy to keep yourselves on-message both online and offline during the campaign. Otherwise, you run the risk of sending partial, contradictory or insubstantial information.<\/p>\n
5. Make sure there are no technical difficulties on the donation platforms.<\/h4>\n
We\u2019re about to enter the second decade of the 21st century and digital outlets are still battling with electronic payment platforms. It\u2019s fundamental to pay attention to the technical part to make sure there are as few problems as possible when people donate. As Juan Esteban Lewis of Colombia\u2019s La Silla Vacia said, \u201cThe most frustrating thing is when a person tries [to donate] one, two, three times, and due to technical problems, they can\u2019t do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
6. Maintain an active relationship with your donors.<\/h4>\n
The context and motivations to donate can change year to year. What worked during one campaign isn\u2019t guaranteed to work during the next one. That\u2019s why it\u2019s worth considering different strategies to attract new donors and keep those who\u2019ve donated before. \u00a0This could involve giving repeat donors special benefits, so they feel as though they\u2019re part of a select community.<\/p>\n
This article was translated and republished with permission (see the original in Spanish here<\/a>). It is part of a series on creating financially viable journalism by SembraMedia<\/a>, an organization dedicated to improving the quality of news content available in Spanish.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\nSembraMedia\u2019s founder and executive director is ICFJ Knight Fellow Janine Warner, who is an expert at helping digital media entrepreneurs implement sustainable business practices and generate new sources of revenue online. Learn more about her work as an ICFJ Knight Fellow here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\nMain image CC-licensed by Flickr via Hamza Butt<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n