Crowdfunding Success Workshop | The Local Crowd, LLC

Announcing an Opportunity for Wyoming Communities!

Get a free crowdfunding platform and supporting services⁠—a $25,000 value! Apply today!

Announcing an Opportunity for Wyoming Communities!

Get a free crowdfunding platform and supporting services⁠—a $25,000 value! Apply today!

The Wyoming Community Navigator Opportunity

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) recently awarded the Wyoming Small Business Development Center (SBDC) a $2.5 million grant to implement the SBA’s Community Navigator Pilot Program in Wyoming. This American Rescue Plan initiative includes funding for The Local Crowd (TLC) to establish a rewards-based crowdfunding platform in four Wyoming communities/regions.

The four communities will be selected through a competitive application process. The successful applicants will receive membership in the TLC platform for two years, along with services, funding and programs described below. The total package is valued at $25,000 for each participating community.

Who Can Apply?

Eligible applicants are Wyoming economic and community development organizations that want to serve as hosts for the TLC crowdfunding platform. These organizations can include a wide variety of structures and missions such as economic development organizations, Main Street programs, Chamber of Commerce groups, community foundations, educational institutions, and city governments.

We want to work with economic development leaders that are passionate about supporting their local businesses and nonprofits and who can envision a localized crowdfunding platform successfully operating in their communities.

Want More Information? You can view our previous informational webinars here:

TLC’s Community Navigator Q&A 01-11-2022 TLC’s RFP Overview 2021-12-10

We will also have a pre-submission Q&A webinar on February 25 at noon

“The more rural a place is, the more likely it is to rely on entrepreneurship.”

—Brian Depew, Center for Rural Affairs

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What is a Localized Crowdfunding Platform?

The illustration shows what localized, branded crowdfunding looks like. Each community gets its own page within The Local Crowd website, customized with their community’s name, logo, and photo. Local campaigns show up on this page. They also show up on main TLC page along with the campaigns of other communities from across the country. Visitors to the TLC site can browse among communities, discovering great local stories from other rural areas near and far.

The TLC Package

The four selected communities will receive the following benefits—a total of $25,000 per community.

Installation and two years membership and use of the TLC Crowdfunding platform. $4500
$12,000 in capacity building funds that will be dispersed to the host organization to use for supporting staff time, marketing and organizational improvements that will enhance the success of the platform.
$4,500 to incentivize crowdfunding participants. This includes up to $750 per crowdfunder (for six campaigns), based on their commitment to implementing best practices, and their participation in TLC research surveys. In this way, we help the crowdfunders achieve the success they desire.
A Community-wide Social Network Analysis study to analyze the impact of the platform on growing and strengthening local networks and the resulting boost to a community’s social capital. $4,000

In addition to the $25,000 package described above, each community will receive a share in the revenues generated by the platform. Platform fees are collected from crowdfunders at a rate of 5% of funds raised online. Those fees will be split between the host and TLC—with the host receiving 75% (3.75%) and TLC receiving 25% (1.25%) of the platform fees. Your businesses will be able to do off-line fundraising as part of their fundraising activities, and platform fees are not assessed to those contributions.

READY? APPLY HERE

Why Localized Crowdfunding?

Crowdfunding provides a powerful, non-dilutive way for entrepreneurs to raise capital – while also increasing a business’s capacity for customer engagement and reach. People often wonder what makes localized crowdfunding work because it seems like “going local” makes the crowd of funders smaller, rather than larger. But the local strategy does make sense when you understand the science behind it. We know that 80%-90% of the funds raised in a crowdfunding campaign come from the efforts of the crowdfunders who reach out to their networks. Then, in turn, people in Tier 1 reach out to their own networks, Tier 2 reaches out to their networks, and so on, moving the support from tier to tier to tier.

When an economic development community gets behind the launch and promotion of a local platform, each campaign is spring loaded with advocates and champions to push it out to their networks. In that way, the crowd grows quickly and exponentially from tier to tier to tier.

The TLC platform comes with education and coaching for the host and the campaign creators, enabling the crowdfunders to use proven best practices when running their campaigns. The worldwide success rate of campaigns that meet their funding goals is about 24%. The TLC success rate is more than double that—about 60%.

In addition, the TLC crowdfunding platform has been developed with local needs in mind and includes locally focused features unavailable elsewhere such as matching grants, offline fundraising, and third-party rewards.

Application Format and What We Are Looking For

The application is online. It includes eight questions designed to provide information to help us evaluate how well each applicant fits the needs of the program.

The application questions are listed below, along with our rationale for asking. Please have your answers ready before you begin the application process because your responses cannot be saved. Once you hit the SUBMIT button, you will not be able to return to your application to make any changes.

1. Please provide the name and address of the applicant (Host Organization) and contact information for the person who will serve as team leader and TLC liaison. What is the mission of the applicant organization?

(An eligible applicant is a Wyoming organization with a mission to support the economic and social wellbeing of the community served.)
2. Is your proposal for an individual community, or a region that includes multiple communities? Briefly describe the community or communities involved. Include total population of the area and, if applicable, the populations of individual communities within the region.

(We are looking for geographic boundaries that make sense and include enough population to create critical mass to meet the milestones described below.)
3. What is your rationale for selecting the geographic area described in item #2? Why do you believe it is a good match for this program?

(We are looking for a well-thought-out strategy for deploying the platform, engaging key partners, and integrating it into the overall economic development plan for the proposed area.)
4. What are the existing services and programs for entrepreneurs, small businesses, and nonprofits in the proposed area? How will you integrate the TLC platform into these offerings and coordinate with other players in the economic development ecosystem of the area?

(We are looking for collaborative relationships that can help amplify the use of the platform. We want to see how it can be “hard wired” into the local economic development ecosystem for success in the near term as well as the future.)
5. Who will be on your team? Please identify at least seven individuals who have agreed to support the program by joining your local team. Include a sentence or two about each person indicating why they are a good fit.

(We are looking for a team made up of individuals from different backgrounds and organizations that provide a variety of skills and networks. For example, an SBDC consultant can support business applicants, a social media expert can help get the word out, a business leader can provide access to a large network of supporters and potential sponsorships. Identify who will provide leadership, cheerleading, organizational functions, resources, communications, etc.)
6. How do you plan to use the capacity building funds described above?

(Each winning community will receive a grant of $12,000 to be used to support the planning, launch and maintenance of the program. This can be used to support a portion of someone’s salary, for marketing, or for any purpose that increases the probability of successful launch and continued operation of the platform.)
7. The milestones below call for the recruitment of 15 businesses to participate in the program, with 6 of them going on to launch and complete a fundraising campaign. Do you believe this is achievable in your community/region? Please explain your answer.

(We want to make sure you know what is expected of you and that you are prepared and willing to make it happen!)
8. What is your vision for the TLC Platform in your community after the grant period ends?

(We are looking for a vision and strategy for growing the platform and for making it a part of your community for years to come.)

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Project Milestones and Goals

The Community Navigator Pilot Grant includes an obligation to accomplish specific milestones. Below are the milestones that have been set for each TLC community. We used our past experience with community outcomes to negotiate these milestones and we believe them to be conservative and achievable.

Minimum number of team members who will receive training and will support the platform on an ongoing basis — 7
Number of businesses/organizations (potential crowdfunders) that will sign up and be trained — 15
Number of campaigns that will launched and completed during the grant period — 6
Number of team SNA surveys completed — 7 pre-project and 7 post-project (14 total)
Number of business/organization surveys completed — 15 pre-project & 15 post (30)

Timeline

Request for Proposals published: January 20, 2022
Applications Due: Midnight, April 15, 2022
Notification of Winners: April 31, 2022

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