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Inquiring Cause Marketers Want to Know, What Works on Kickstarter?

The growth of Crowdfunding in the United States seems likely to continue and, I suspect, it to be further cemented as a vital tool for cause marketers. Ethan Mollick, at the Wharton School, has a taken a first crack at some early learning about what works in crowdfunding that has application for both cause marketers and entrepreneurs.

Mollick used Kickstarter as his dataset, with its 48,500+ projects and $237+ million in combined funding

Here’s what Mollick’s analysis shows:
  1. Because the greater the size of the founder’s social network the more likely the project is to be funded, it pays to be popular… especially on Facebook.
  2. Polished pitches are the most likely to be funded. Relatively few succeed without a video, for instance.
  3. There seems to be a geo-cultural component to successful pitches. Films are more likely to be funded in Hollywood, while music projects are more likely to be funded in Nashville.  
  4. Sixty-day Kickstarters are less likely to be funded (29 percent) than 30-day pitches (35 percent).
  5. Being highlighted on the Kickstarter website is like being kissed by the success angel; 89 percent get funded vs. only 30 percent of those that weren’t thus featured.
  6. Cities with more ‘creatives’ tend to fund more projects than those with fewer creative individuals.
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