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They also wanted to provide resources to help them succeed once they did get money. To that end, they teamed up with crowdfunding experts and business coaches to create a network for their class of recipients, namely organizations such as The Kinship Advisors, Fund Black Founders and Crowdfund Better. They found themselves creating a community of people who want to help others in the same way.

Rowe and Hella Awkward benefited greatly from the partnerships with Fund Black Founders and Crowdfund Better. They went through “three to six months of just education through these two companies,” Rowe says. They met weekly, had homework and assignments and learned how to build their business. “We all just kind of hang out for two hours once a week and give each other critiques and build together,” she says.

“Crowdfunding is no longer niche funding, but a growing source of capital tailor-made for startups who are looking both for funding and to acquire new customers,” Kathleen Minogue, founder and CEO of Crowdfund Better, said.

“The big story in 2021 is investment crowdfunding, particularly offerings using Reg CF. These offerings saw a 77.6% uptick in funds raised between 2019 and 2020, and 2021 shows no signs of slowing down with the SEC recently updating the rules to allow for larger raises up to $5 million.”

Tip: Download a free crowdfunding cheat sheet at Crowdfundbetter.com; it will provide you with a list of reputable platforms across the crowdfunding landscape.

With the help of a generous $50,000 anonymous matching grant, the garden raised a total of $120,000 in its first-ever crowdfunding campaign! Over 251 people donated during the 60 day campaign, helping the garden offset losses in revenue due to the pandemic. Thank you to Scott Madsen & Kathleen Minogue from Crowdfund Better for their valuable guidance on running a crowdfunding campaign and providing us with a discount to their service. Thank you to Diane Nicholson, Sam Nicholson, Houston Jones, and Catchafire volunteer, editor Justin Streichman for their help with the campaign video.

Open call to open source. Professionals from a variety of industries can open-source deal templates, due diligence questionnaires and processes, platforms and servicer ratings and experiences, success stories, and lessons learned. Already, some organizations, like Crowdfund Better, ImpactAlpha, and Locavesting, are providing insights and resources to the public. The more that can be shared outside of paywalls, the wiser the movement will become.

That’s because Kermani not only identified a need in her city, but she was proactive about asking for her community’s support and clear about what she was using the money for—something that many campaign creators fail to do. It’s one of the reasons more than half of all crowdfunding campaigns never reach 10 percent of their goal, according to Kathleen Minogue, founder and CEO of consulting agency Crowdfund Better. “Picking a platform? That’s your last concern,” she says. “The first thing you have to think about is organizing your network. Before you start thinking about money and platforms and rewards, take some time and think about your community and how you will communicate with them.”

The Idaho Women’s Business Center connected her with Crowdfund Better (via their collaboration called Crowdfund Idaho) which is guiding her through the steps to create a new campaign, and she’s optimistic that this time will be successful.

Tip: The free Crowdfunding Cheat Sheet at Crowdfundbetter.com explains the different types of crowdfunding, the pros and cons of each, and will help you identify platforms for each type of campaign.

Crowdfund Better CEO Kathleen Minogue founded the company after she saw a lack of resources for women, minorities or rural businesses looking to launch businesses through crowdfunding. She said her goal is to educate businesses on the intricacies of crowdfunding and provide personalized help for businesses to make sure they can have a successful campaign.

Minogue said this process includes multiple steps including making sure business owners have a business entity set up, help them create financial projections, build a reward system for donors and other training before heading right into hoping for supporters. Crowdfund Idaho also doesn’t have a platform fee, like some other crowdfunding services.

“Over 50% of campaigns don’t reach 10% of their goal, but using Crowdfund Better Process™, our clients see significantly higher success rates and often exceed their goals and it’s because we have those middle steps,” she said. “They don’t go straight to posting their campaign. We’re being very strategic and making sure it’s going to serve that business, but also building the business capacity.”

One of these partnerships is called Crowdfund Idaho, and is a collaborative effort between the IWBC and Crowdfund Better, with Sayrd Iverson, IWBC East Director and Kathleen Minogue, Creator and CEO of Crowdfund Better at the helm.

Invitations are already going out to every corner of the state, every industry, every demographic with special attention to the under-represented. We are using one of the experts at crowdfunding, Kathleen Minogue, founder and CEO of Crowdfund Better, to provide free coaching on crowdfunding and other customer-funding models.