PledgeMe up and running

I think I first came across the wonderful site, Kickstarter, earlier this year, when Taika Waititi was raising money to promote his marvellous movie, Boy, in the USA.   He had a goal of raising US$90,000 and exceeded that by over $20,000.  The donations came in from around the world. 

Kickstarter is a site where you can promote a creative work of any sort and give people the chance to invest in it by offering a sum of money, usually anything from $5 upwards.  You become part of the creative process, a kind of mini-producer/entrepreneur as it were.  Your reward can be nothing at all, if you wish, or you can take up one of the rewards that are offered, depending on the size of your donation.   (Check out some of the hilarious but actual 'rewards' Waititi offered in relation to Boy.) 

If the project doesn't reach the target mark, then you don't pay anything.  It's disappointing for the project initiator, but as the site states, it's better to have the full funding you requested than trying to complete the task on partial funding.   Kickstarter has an excellent site with plenty of information about how to go about presenting your project and what you need to know. 

The only bugbear about Kickstarter is that it's based in the US and only connects to US projects.  (Which is why Waititi had to be there to get his funding off the ground.)

Now New Zealand has its only equivalent.  It's called PledgeMe and it subtitles itself: New Zealand's first crowdfunding platform.  Things are small-scale, at this point, with the number of projects under a hundred, but the quality is good, and there are some very interesting projects available.  Some, remarkably, have had no investment at all (To Go Viking in Moesgard - pictured at right - for instance).  Some are doing very well (the Gone Curling movie, for exmaple. It's centred in Naseby).  Often a video accompanies the project's details, which helps to give a good idea of what's up for grabs.   And, as with Kickstarter, people offer rewards to the investors. 

Unfortunately it's probably a bit too late for us to try and get some funding for Grimhilda! - though if anyone wants to help fund it I won't object!