Hello everyone, here is the story
I live in a small city ca. 2.000 inhabitants who tends to use the local gym for a lot of activities and events.
I am a member of the board in a startup of an E-sport club, which activities includes physical sport and secondary activities is to support the local school with additional computers for kids who would like tutoring in programming and game development. We already have trainers and tutors on the team.
I am the financial controller in the group, my responsibility is to ensure that we uphold the financial responsibilities according to the laws.
Many of the activities we hold are performed by unpaid volunteers, and the plain is that only the tutors / trainers will recieve payment for their work.
These positions are also including student trainers, which requires a certain time period in Denmark before a certificate can be obtained towards becoming a professional trainer in the Danish sports union.
We also have a cooperation with our two neighbouring cities, and small tournaments are in the planning.
Overall we needed to collect 30.000$
10.000$ to renovation of an old meeting room. Completed and financed by our selves / Gym finances.
20.000$ to supply 10 computer setups (everything needed). We are 3 software developers/gamers who has validated that the offers we received are good enough.
We still lack the 20.000$ to complete the setups.
Rising capital from funds legates, banks and sponsors haven't succeeded.
For some founds and legates our physical program is insufficient. Many companies I have spoken to refuses to even consider it, as they find the administration of donations/sponsors to be a burden. Many of the options from fonds, legates and banks are often application that are considered once a year, which we will attempt once more.
Assets:
During the past year we have collected about 2000$ by profiting from LAN event. These are reoccurring events, which is growing, but they aren't enough to cover the project in a short time period.
Tournaments in our region is planned to provide profits, similar to our LAN events.
Member fees, each member pays ~50$ per month, which covers expected upkeep on PC's and tuition.
As a bonus, we hope to provide yet another incitement for people to join our community, we provide a position for trainer trainees to be certified and we provide the means for a software development course in the school.
I'm looking for suggestions to raise capital
During my last board meeting we decided to look into crowdfounding, there are certain laws we have to uphold when it comes to collecting money, even when it is our own inhabitants who donates. Ex: We are required to seek permission from our government.
We have considered donations from inhabitants, combined with collecting bottles, but previous projects has shown that collecting bottles is far from effective, and most projects has been years under way to reach a similar goal, usually finally financed by funds or legates.
You can also argue that a union of average joe's with families and other liabilities, are not as effective as a company where making money is top priority.
Lets assume that none in the group has a strong experience with crowfunding, sales or marketing.
And lets assume there is no return on investment, meaning that we are interested in donations or a funding where a part of the funding is used to provide some gift or similar.
So what I'm looking for are some suggestions to what we can do, or what kind of format we could do.
Think of it like this, we need 10.000 people to donate a 1L gas/milk/soda - how could that be feasible?
Should we consider doing an open donation portal and cold calling / flyers to obtain donations? (can be tax deducted)
Should we start a campaign like kickstarter /indiegogo and provide gifts in return of donations.
Should we provide technical service in exchange for money? We might have one who is good with websites, otherwise it is mainly app and embedded systems.
- if yes, who would be interested and can we provide a project solution which targets development in the weekends?
Should we attempt to contact an influencer or streamer to provide attention to the cause? Who would be a good target?
Are there areas we should avoid? Ex, it is a local problem in Denmark, is a campaign targeting world wide something that would backfire as being greedy?
I know that raising capital is hard work. I know how to do it when it comes to my personal investments, because there are a return on investment, and banks, investors and sometimes friends, seems to be very eager and helpfull in such cases. But donations often are rejected due to the lack of "what is in it for me?".
We are serious about this project, after all we have already provided 1/3 of the finance requirement. The donations are only going to the project and will be stopped when the goal has been met, there are no personal gain involved in this, there are no administrative fee or similar. Only what paypal etc. takes.
Also please notice, this is a call for suggestions, not donations.
Thank you for your attention!
