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What Happens After a Successful Crowdfunding Campaign? Yellow Leaf Hammocks Q&A Follow-Up…

With crowdfunding sites gaining popularity as a way to fund ideas, you may find yourself wondering what happens after money is raised. Back in December 2011 we did a Q&A with the founder and CEO of social enterprise Yellow Leaf Hammocks, Joe Demin. At that time Yellow Leaf Hammocks was about three weeks into a Kickstarter campaign to raise $10,000 to build and manufacture a stand for the company’s sustainable hammocks.

Yellow Leaf Hammock logo

A Crowdfunding Story, Continued…

Having already raised the lion’s share of the ask, Joe and his team still had $3000 left to raise within 9 days. And, as explained in the Kickstarter rules, the entire amount would have to be raised for Yellow Leaf to have access to any of the raised funds.

The group’s hard work paid off. Yellow Leaf Hammocks was able to inspire a total of $11,400 worth of donations to fund their project on Kickstarter, and they did so with 90 backers and 4 days left on the clock. We caught up with Joe to find out about how they were able to garner the remaining the funds and to learn about what happens after money is successfully raised.

Yellow Leaf Hammocks Q&A Follow-Up with Joe Demin

Joe DeminQ | Innov8Social:  Joe, thanks for joining us again. And many congrats on the successful campaign! How was it raising the final $3K? Did you try any different techniques than earlier in the campaign to inspire support?

A | Joe Demin, Yellow Leaf Hammocks: Thanks so much! The homestretch was a little nerve-wracking at times, to be honest.

We had heard from a lot of people that donations tend to slow down in the middle of a campaign, then build momentum again during the final days—but we didn’t want to take that risk & come down to the wire!

Our outreach was pretty consistent over the course of the campaign, which was reflected in the fairly consistent pace of pledges. We continued to share daily facebook & twitter updates and e-mailed our supporters once or twice a week. We really liked using the Campaign Update function on Kickstarter to keep our donors & supporters fully in the loop.

Toward the end of the campaign, we were worried about overwhelming people with ongoing messages, so we tried to reach out on a more personalized basis. It’s human nature for some people to procrastinate—we ended up with people pledging at the very last minute! One huge pledge came in with less than two minutes left in the campaign!

Through the whole campaign, it was awesome to watch Kickstarter’s statistics and see how people found us—almost 1/3 of our donations came through the social networks (for example, people who saw the campaign in a friend’s facebook status). It was amazing to see that our fans were inspiring a whole new group of people to become involved!

Q | Innov8Social: So, what happened immediately after the funds were raised? And how did you & your team feel when you found out you had achieved to goal?

A | Joe : We were ecstatic when we hit $10,000! It was really gratifying and humbling to feel the support and excitement of this amazing community of backers. We posted the news through all our social networks and tried to just express our excitement and gratitude as we soaked in the news!At that point, we had 4 days left in the campaign, but a lot of people didn’t realize they could still pledge after the goal was reached. We did one last push to make sure people knew they could still get a hammock in time for Christmas & be a part of the campaign. That spurred another round of backers, so we ended up exceeding our goal by nearly 15%!Once the campaign officially closed, we immediately shipped out the first batch of Kickstarter rewards (the ones that were meant as holiday gifts), then took a nice relaxing break to celebrate over the holidays!Q | Innov8Social: You guys had set up some great rewards for donors. How has the process of following up with the rewards been?

A | Joe : It is definitely time-consuming! I think we underestimated the time it would take. It was a challenge to organize the process and there was a mad dash to get those initial rewards out in time for Christmas. We are continuing to work on fulfillment for a couple of the backer levels and we’re especially excited about getting these first stands manufactured and shipped out for spring!
That being said, putting these packages in the mail is one of my favorite things to do! We are so grateful to our backers and it’s nice to be able to express that gratitude in a meaningful way. I’ve personally hand- written a Thank You note to each person and we’ve sent them each a Polaroid from the Mlabri village.
We also worked with a designer to put together a ‘Rewards Suite’ of beautiful, unique gift cards and stationery, because we wanted it to be a really special experience when people opened up their rewards package.It meant a lot to us that people saw our vision and supported us and we wanted them to know we were truly thankful.
Q | Innov8Social:  Does Kickstarter do any follow-up after funds are raised? Do you have to complete any additional forms?

A | Joe : No. Before you start the project, you do all the necessary paperwork & get them your financial info. When the project closes, they transfer you the funds (minus their fee). They also send you an email with some broad tips to engage your backers as you move forward.When the deadline hits, your project page is immediately ‘retired’ from active duty- a notice goes up with the end date and final funding amount. People can still watch your video and you can continue to post updates as the project progresses, which is great.Q | Innov8Social: Finally, do you have any tips for social entrepreneurs on what to do (and what not to do)  after raising funds on a crowd sourcing platform?A | Joe : Things don’t slow down when the campaign closes. Once you are lucky enough to reach your goal, you have to immediately switch gears and begin delivering on your side of the pledge.

Plan ahead for rewards fulfillment and make sure that you continue to give your backers the best experience possible. A pledge on Kickstarter is more than a purchase on your website and people are really vested in your success. They’re genuinely excited to hear about how the project is going and it is awesome to continue to interact with them afterwards.

It is amazing to have this whole new community of people who share our vision. We’ve received really touching emails from people who love their rewards packages and we’re looking forward to staying in touch with everyone who was a part of this project. Update your supporters!
It can feel overwhelming to realize that you need to a) keep up with your day-to-day work b) manage your rewards fulfillment and c) actually build the project you funded! Just hold onto the excitement you felt when you launched your project and remember that now you have an awesome group of people cheering you on!
Many thanks once again to Joe and the Yellow Leaf Hammocks team. We can’t wait to see the new hammock stand prototypes!
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What to Know Before Launching a Crowdfunding Campaign, Q & A with Social Enterprise Yellow Leaf Hammocks

A Closer Look at a Kickstarter Crowdfunding Campaign for Social Enterprise

We have looked at crowdfunding through investment by following federal legislation that would make it easier for start-ups and small businesses to raise capital from non-accredited investors.

But what about crowdfunding through donation? How does it work, and what is it like to actually choose a crowdfunding platform and launch a crowdfunding campaign?

Meet Yellow Leaf Hammocks

We turned to a social enterprise that is learning about crowdfunding for donation first-hand. Yellow Leaf Hammocks is an innovative company that produces unique hammocks handwoven by artisan weavers using proprietary designs made of over 150,000 interwoven loops and spanning up to 4.5 miles of yarn. The weavers are members of an indigenous tribe in north Thailand who have been able to create economic and empowerment opportunities through their artistry.

Yellow Leaf Hammocks launched a Kickstarter campaign in mid-November 2011 to raise $10,000 to build and initiate manufacturing of a new Swiss-designed hammock stand prototype. They are 9 days and about $3K away from from their goal. You can see the video explaining the product and campaign below.

Then, see below for a Q&A with Yellow Leaf Hammocks founder Joe Demin on his company’s decision to launch a crowdfunding for donation campaign, their initial steps, and what they have learned through the process.

Yellow Leaf Hammocks Kickstarter Campaign

What to Know Before Launching a Crowdfunding Campaign: Q&A with Yellow Leaf Hammocks Founder Joe Demin

Q | Innov8Social: Thanks Joe for taking a few minutes with us and congratulations on the success of the Kickstarter campaign so far. As an initial question, how did you first decide that launching a crowdfunding campaign might be a good fit for your social enterprise?

A | Joe Demin, Yellow Leaf Hammocks: For a long time, we’d been kicking around the idea of a furniture product that supported our hammocks. The Sitting Hammock is relatively compact, so it is a great option for urban hammockers and people who want to be able to hammock indoors- except that there has not been a good stand out on the market.

We knew that designing and manufacturing a hammock stand would be a huge project to take on!

For a young boot-strapped company like ours, we have to carefully consider budget in everything we do. From the beginning, we have wanted to build this company independently to make sure that we can remain focused on our vision and not lose sight of our social mission.

Crowdfunding encompasses lot of the traditional steps to product development- its market research, product design, an investor pitch, a marketing campaign and pre-sales all in one exciting campaign- so it seemed like the perfect alternative to raising money from investors and taking on a huge risk!

By going directly to the public, we are assuring ourselves that there is going to be an audience for this cool new product we’ve designed and we feel more confident about jumping into manufacturing and pushing this out for the spring.

Q | Innov8Social:  How did you assess various crowdfunding platforms? And what were the deciding factors that ultimately led you to Kickstarter?

A | Joe : There is definitely a crowdfunding boom going on right now- you’re right, there are a lot of options and even niche platforms that target specific types of projects, like non-profits, music, etc.

For us, Kickstarter appealed most because it is the largest funding platform. We’ve learned that you can’t really count anyone out when it comes to hammocks- hammock fanatics come from all age ranges, industries and regions.

We appreciated the fact that they have a thorough vetting process, so there is not a lot of clutter to cut through- the projects on the site are inspiring and crazy and daring, but the people behind them know what they’re talking about.

I think some people can be intimidated by the “all or nothing” model on Kickstarter (if you don’t raise 100% of your goal, you don’t receive any funds). For us, this was absolutely the way to go. We wouldn’t want to have half the money to build out the prototype because it would be tough to deliver on the promises made to backers! Plus, it gives you a ton of motivation to set your goal carefully and then work like crazy to reach it!

Q | Innov8Social:  How was the process of setting up the campaign? What was the most challenging aspect? The most surprising?

A | Joe : The first thing we had to do was design the stand!! We worked with an amazing engineer, Bryce Gibson, to go through several rounds of designs and come up with the sleek, versatile design that is at the center of the campaign. It was a little bit like hammock-stand “Survivor,” with a group of friends and advisers weighing in and voting on each round of the designs.

The hardest part for us was creating the video- we had so much that we wanted to share, between our mission and our current products, before we even got to the stand itself!! We ended up with a really long video by Kickstarter standards- but we have gotten a ton of compliments on it and I think it’s been a huge help in terms of energizing people with the story and getting them excited about “Do Good. Relax.”

A big surprise was realizing that a lot of media want to cover something that’s already succeeding- so you are really on your own in terms of creating that initial momentum before media start to pick it up and spread the news! We also realized that there’s really no guarantee that Kickstarter itself is going to take an interest in your campaign. They can be really instrumental in sharing and highlighting specific projects within their vast community, but they haven’t shown much interest in our campaign. You never know what the considerations are behind the scenes for other people!

Q | Innov8Social: What are 3 things you would suggest to social entrepreneurs thinking about starting a crowdfunding for donation campaign online?

A | Joe :  A generous timeline and some groundwork are essential. I would already love to go back and give myself twice the time to prepare! I read a lot of articles (like this one!) about other people’s experiences and spent some time observing campaigns I admired. Sometimes it seems like all you hear about are the runaway successes that raise $100,000, but a lot of campaigns don’t work, so that was important to me. I wanted to understand why campaigns fail as well as why they succeed.

Creating rewards that excite and engage your backers is another key to success. The point of crowdfunding is that you aren’t simply asking for donations. You are creating an experience for people- they get to be a part of your mission and take home a tangible reminder of their support. At this time of year, we knew we were going to see a lot of holiday shopping traffic. Because a part of our mission is to spark creativity, we decided we wanted to offer our backers a chance to design their own hammock. But each of our rewards was designed to help recreate that feeling of “Do Good. Relax.” and engage people for the long-term. The most exciting reward, of course, is that you can be one of the first to receive a customized Sitting Hammock Stand!

Once you’ve outlined your project goal and the rewards you’re going to offer, it’s critical to have a solid launch. You need to have some built-in momentum before you click that “launch” button. We should have been more aggressive about our PR strategy in advance of the campaign, but we did a good job reaching out to our internal network and community. They backed us early and we hit $1000 within three hours of launching. I think there is a statistic that if you reach 20% of your goal within the first 4 days, your chance of a successful project is 90%- that’s how important your launch is.

Q | Innov8Social:  Finally, what are your hopes for this campaign. What do you hope to get, and to give?

A | Joe : We’ve got a little more than a week left and we are on track to hit our $10,000 goal! For me, that is the number one hope right now.

In the long term, I am excited to have introduced ourselves to so many new people this month. I know it’s a little insane to expect people to go crazy for hammocks in the middle of winter, but we really think that this stand can revolutionize the way people relax year-round.

I really can’t wait to start sending out the rewards! I think people are going to love what they receive in the mail. We’ve got cool things heading their way that will help them feel connected to our mission and our weavers and will help them relax at a really hectic time of year!

The feedback we’ve gotten and the growth of our community has just been amazing already. I’m glad we could share our experience and I hope I can help future social entrepreneurs succeed in their crowd- funding efforts!

Innov8Social:  A big thank you to Joe and Yellow Leaf Hammocks team for sharing their experience and insights. We look forward to following up after the campaign concludes on Sunday, December 18th 2011. You can help them reach their fundraising goals by donating here.

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