Kickstarter

I thought a great way to start off this blog would be to share a review of a website called Kickstarter. It's an innovative idea for creatives who need to raise funds, but it can be really useful for museums too. Basically, for my American readers, it's like a PBS fund drive. If you donate a certain amount of money toward a goal of say, $5,000 toward publishing a new exhibition catalogue, you get a reward (like say a past exhibition catalogue or some gift shop surplus stock). The difference is that only if the campaign makes the goal, then peoples' cards get charged. If the goal isn't met, no one pays.

One organization's experience:

LocalWiki and Kickstarter

And the actual Kickstarter website:

kickstarter.com

It's a new way to generate unrestricted funds, requiring a lot less effort than an event. Of course it has some drawbacks, but that's why I was so excited to see a review.