Blogs on Pozible.com

Let's Talk Crowdfunding... Brisbane!

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 13:59:13 EST

We are really excited to announce we are taking Let’s Talk Crowdfunding to luscious Brisbane!

This free event is for anyone interested in learning more about crowdfunding and how to use crowdfunding to successfully fund their creative projects.

Joining us on our panel of experts are:

Pozible co-founders Rick Chen and Alan Crabbe
Jazz musician Lauren Lucille who successfully funded her new album
Documentary film-maker Jason Bray, who ran two very successful projects for the documentary Street Dreams with fellow film-maker Mike Crowhurst
Performer Emma Serjeant who co-created new circus company Casus and used crowdfunding to help out their debut show, Knee Deep.

Please join us for a fun and informative night of crowdfunding. Pozible co-founders Rick Chen and Alan Crabbe will also be there to answer any of your crowdfunding questions.

Seats are limited, so please send your RSVP by Thursday 19th April 2012, 12pm.

WHAT: Let's Talk Crowdfunding Brisbane

WHO: Featured speakers include Pozible co-founders Rick Chen and Alan Crabbe, and successful project creators Lauren Lucille, Jason Bray and Emma Serjeant

WHEN: Thursday 19th of April, 2012

TIME: 6:00pm- 9:00pm

WHERE: Turbine Platform, Brisbane Powerhouse 119 Lamington Street, New Farm (continuation of James Street)

RSVP: Please RSVP at ltcbrisbane.eventbrite.com

Hello $2,000,000. That Was Quick!

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 16:42:46 EST

We at Pozible are so proud to announce we have reached $2 million in totoal pledges since launch! Not only is this an amazing feat, but we did this within 5 months of raising our first million in October 2011.

“We are continually surprised and delighted by the passion that Pozible and the idea of crowdfunding invokes in people. Pozible is a living, breathing example of what people can achieve if they work together for a common goal and we are so very proud of hitting the $2million mark so quickly. We would not have met this amazing milestone without the dedication and enthusiasm of our supporters and project creators, and for that we are incredibly grateful,” said co-founder Rick Chen.

Some of our recent successful projects include The Melbourne Cabaret Festival , Wastelander Panda and Gayby Baby, who have raised a combined total $57,000. Each project has smashed their funding goals by several thousand dollars.

Pozible is becoming one of the most popular and effective funding options available. This would not have been possible without the massive support from every single member on Pozible. It is you who have turned Pozible into a supportive and nurturing community. Give your yourselves a big pat on the back!

You can download a full press release here.

Crowdfunding & The Film Industry

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 13:31:45 EST

Since Pozible's launch, we have seen numerous film projects reach and exceed their funding goals and move on to unimaginable success. It has led us to wonder how crowdfunding is helping Australia's new and current batch of film makers and explore the impact of crowdfunding on Australia's film and arts scene. We want to offer two perspectives on how crowdfunding benefits our film industry. We interview film maker Charlotte McLellan, who ran the Gayby Baby project on Pozible with director Maya Newell and FanDependent co-founder Thomas Mai, who mentors film makers on how to connect with their audience via social media.

Interview with Charlotte McLellan

Tell us about Gayby Baby

Gayby Baby is a project Maya (Newell, the director) and I have been developing for about a year. Maya has two mums and had met a number of kids who were also growing up with same-sex parents, and who were asking the same questions she had asked growing up in the 90s. All these years later, and the kids were still grappling with many of the same issues! We realised that while there has been lots of coverage about LGBT couples conceiving and raising kids, there has never been a study of what life in these families is like, for the children. So we wanted to make that film. A film that would explore the experiences of kids growing up - as we say - culturally queer. But as much as it's a film about gaybies (as we're calling them), we also wanted this to be a film that speaks to the wider community. It is, after all, a film about family. In that sense Gayby Baby is a film about all of us, and how we see family in the modern age. Is it about genetics? Environment? Love?

How did you come across Pozible?

I had heard of crowdfunding projects in the US through the Kickstarter website, and about that time a friend of mine ran a small project through Pozible very successfully. That's when I started keeping up to date with what Pozible is doing.

How has/will Pozible help with your project?

Pozible will basically help us keep the project going. We've been working on it for a year all on our own resources, and sadly they can only get us so far. Specifically, we're using the money raised to get us to Alice Springs and Darwin to film a young gayby who lives there for two weeks. We're also using the money to gather a large (for us!) crew to film the Mardi Gras parade, in which 4 of our Sydney gaybies will be marching.

What part of your crowd funding campaign worked and what part didn't work?

We reached our target (10,500) in nine days, so we're feeling overall that the campaign was an enormous success. It's still going for another week. Our video worked really well - the gorgeous kids in it seemed to have a wonderful effect on people, and we had numerous supporters writing to us about how much they loved it. We have used social media a lot throughout the campaign and that has been a great way to get the word out. If I had my time over, I would probably start the Facebook and Twitter page a few weeks before the campaign, to start generating buzz about the project before you start asking people for money.

Can you tell us more about your mentorship with Thomas Mai?

I'm not sure how much I can say at this point except that Thomas Mai has been a wonderful source of information and support throughout the process. He understands social media better than anyone I know, and appreciates that it has the potential to completely change the way filmmakers approach developing and making their art - a terrifically inspiring thought!

What advice would you give other project creators thinking about using a crowd funding platform like Pozible?

I'd tell them to plan plan plan! Pozible is a great resource but it's not a case of simply uploading a project and letting it sit. You need to be constantly keeping the project 'alive' and making it an exciting page for newcomers. That means lots of talking to fans, interacting with your target communities and thinking up new ways to get the word out there about your project. Scheduling when and who you contact is also really important I think. Some people might be better to target at the start of the campaign, while others can be approached towards the end.

What future plans do you have for Gayby Baby?

The plan is for this to be a feature documentary but we need to film for a while longer to make that happen. So we'll be looking at grants and crowdfunding in the future to make that happen. We're also still trying to find some dads with kids who might like to be involved, so if you know anybody people can contact us on facebook.com/GaybyBaby or by email.

Interview with Thomas Mai

What does FanDependent do and how did it start?

FanDependent helps filmmakers connect with their audience before, during and after they have made a film. FanDependent helps with financing (crowdfunding), marketing (Social Media) and distribution (digital distribution ie Four walling, iTunes, Amazon, Hulu, Netflix etc) in a social media connected world. Filmmakers have been trained to pitch to film funds, sales agents, distributors and TV stations but it is a whole new game to be able to pitch and communicate directly with your audience. The goal for any filmmaker in the 21st century is to build and maintain a healthy database of fans that can help with financing and marketing of each film. We are going from "independent" filmmaking to "FanDependent" filmmaking. FanDependent as a concept was born late 2011 and was lucky to win the Innovative Distribution Grant from Screen Australia in 2011 allowing us to work with 10 Australian filmmakers over the next 2 years.

What is the importance of crowdfunding to the arts and film scene?

Crowdfunding has several significant importances.

First of all crowdfunding is an early "test screening" of a film idea or concept allowing filmmakers to get direct feedback from the audience that matters, this can determine early on if filmmakers should proceed with a project or let it go, in the "old days" there was never such an important tool unfortunately, allowing for loads of films to be made that never had an audience.
Second of all crowdfunding is a great marketing tool (that you get paid for if you are successful) as it is a great way to build awareness for a film that has not been released yet allowing you to connect with fans, friends and followers. By promoting a film project on a crowdfunding site the film becomes more "real" as a concept because it can now be judged by a very broad circle of people.
Third, it allows you to gather financial resources from your fans enabling you to make a film that is meant for them, completely bypassing traditional gate keepers such as film funds, TV stations, sales agents and distributors.
Fourth, you can maintain 100% control of your own film project if you are successful in raising money through crowdfunding. Crowdfunders are not owners or investors in your film that require a say or percentage. They simply buy and get a t-shirt, coffe mug, credits or dinner with the filmmakers etc.
Fifth and last, crowdfunding is not exclusive financing. In fact, a successful crowdfunding campaign will make it easier to secure traditional financing as you now have proven that there is a real market, audience and appetite for your film project.

What role does crowdfunding play in the future of Australia's film industry?

I think that the next generation of filmmakers will embrace this concept more than established filmmakers as it allows them to get a film made sooner rather than get in line and wait for their turn for funding. Look at the Australian film The Tunnel from 2011 they crowdfunded the financing, allowing them to make the film here and now on their terms, as opposed to the terms of a gate keeper. The producers of The Tunnel won the Breakthrough Producers of the Year Award at SPAA 2011, how is that for not waiting in line?

Can you tell us a bit about your mentorship with Charlotte McLellan and Maya Newell?

We met with Charlotte and Maya about their great and important project Gayby Baby and immediately fell in love with the project. They needed to shoot the upcoming Mardi Gras for their film so we workshopped a trailer, in less than 2 weeks, that delivers the premise of the film, captures the spirit while making an emotional connection with the audience. We reached the goal of $10,500 in 9 days and have now surpassed the original goal. We will come back and do a bigger crowdfunding campaign later at Pozible.com.au for the rest of the financing. Nobody has said that you need to raise all the money at once. Just remember to be completely honest with your audience. We will now have more footage that we can show for the next crowdfunding stage. Gayby Baby is the first of the 10 projects that we will do over the next 2 years. We have found 3 projects so we are still looking for 7 more projects.

Are there any tips you have for young film makers interested in crowd funding?

Be honest, be yourself, look the camera in the eye and tell your future audience WHY you need to make the film.

Pozible Video Tips

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 10:59:59 EST

Want to make a pitch video for your crowdfunding campaign, but kind of stumped on what to do? Never fear: anything is Pozible!

Videos are not only a great way to lure potential supporters to check out your amazing project and encourage personal connection, but they serve to show off your talents and highlight your passion for the project.

Have you and your core team talk about your project face-to-face with the camera, like you would talk to an old friend
Cover who are you, where are you from, why are you doing this, why it is important to you, what do supporters get out of this and where will the funding go
Show evidence of previous work, current work and experience related to your project. If you want to include existing videos such as a film trailer or music video in your pitch video, make sure it's at the end of the video. You want your supporters to know about the project and its goals upfront. Any supporting material should come after this information
Be 3 - 5 mins long
Be totally transparent about your goals
Be creative, funny and engaging and most importantly, have lots of fun!

Here are some examples of some of our favourite pitch videos on Pozible!

Jeremy Kool's Video

Sam Buckingham’s Video

Gayby Baby’s Video

Woody’s Video

Justine Gaudry’s Video

For more information on to start your campaign, check out our Pozible Handbook!

#LTCSyd a MEGA Success!

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 17:11:58 EST

We hosted our second Let’s Talk Crowdfunding session in Sydney last week and we are proud to say it was a mega success! Over 200 creative individuals rocked up Sydney University’s Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning, ready to be inspired by our hand-selected crowdfunding success stories. Co-founder Rick Chen opened the night with a presentation on crowdfunding.

Check out his talk here:

Kicking us off was the charming Sam Buckingham, whose funny Pozible campaign video and continued interaction with her supporters has helped her raise over $10000 to fund her new album. Her experience in crowdfunding has also seen her mentor current Pozible project creators.

Check out Sam's talk:

The hilarious Kate Toon amused us with her witty anecdotes and offered her thoughts on crowdfunding and self-publishing. Kate’s Pozible campaign has already exceeded double her funding goal, which will help her publish and promote her poetry book “Gone Dotty”.

Check out Kate's talk:

Wrapping us up was the delightful Karen Beilharz, whose Pozible project Kinds of Blue reached its funding just three days after launching!

Check out Karen's talk:

It was a fantastic night of crowdfunding love, with lots of beer, nibbles and networking. We want to express special thanks to the lovely Bek Lambert from Unashamedly Creative for her outstanding work in organising this event. Let’s Talk Crowdfunding would not have happened without her hard work and her slick events management skills.

We also want to extend our thanks Sydney University and John Elliot for allowing us to use the Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning for our event and Steve Hopkins from The Awesome Foundation.

Last and certainly not least, we want to thank every single person who came to the event. Let’s Talk Crowdfunding would not have been successful without every one’s continued support. Once again, thank you so much! To check out the photos from the night, visit our Facebook page!

For more information on starting your crowdfunding campaign, check out the links below:

The Pozible Handbook

What is Word of Mouth?

How to Inspire Contributors

12 Tips to Crowdfunding success

Aussie Crowdfunding Facts

Make Your Project Flow

Join us to build something epic.

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 14:51:23 EST

Do you get excited by social media and internet technology? Are you active online with Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or even Pinterest? Are you a great communicator, do you possess strong organisational skills and would you define yourself as entrepreneurial? If you answer yes to most of these questions, our Melbourne office have an exciting role to offer you.

As a full time Marketing & Communications Coordinator for Pozible you will be:

assisting our clients with marketing activities, implementing campaigns and coordinating company promotions, both locally in Australia and globally in the future
managing client communications and coordinating operational activities
working closely with the Directors on the development of marketing plans

What we are looking for:

Strong consultative, negotiation and writing skills
Ideally be degree qualified in marketing or similar fields
Excellent writing and verbal communication skills
Highly organised with strong project management skills
Think strategically; prioritise workload and execute plans with clear outcomes

Why Pozible?

Young, energetic, fun, cutting edge & fast growing tech company
We are a socially responsible business and we want to make a real difference
Creative envionment and be part of our family
Hub Melbourne membership and instant connection of 4000+ valuable members both locally and globally in over 20+ countries
Work side by side with some of the coolest brands in Melbourne including Yammer, TEDxMelbourne, kinfolk, Illumination etc
Based in Melbourne - the most livable city in the world

Please email your resume to rick [at] pozible.com and tell us why you would like this position, please note you must have Australian working rights to be considered for this opportunity. Applications close 9th March, 5pm.

You're invited to "Let's Talk Crowdfunding Sydney"!

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:19:47 EST

Sydney, now it’s your turn.... Let’s Talk Crowdfunding!

After a successful Melbourne event in late 2011, Pozible now brings “Let’s Talk Crowdfunding!” to Sydney. This free event is for anyone who wants to learn more on crowdfunding for creative projects or simply for people interested in self funding through platforms like Pozible. Join us for a helpful, informative and passionate discussion on crowdfunding your dreams and ideas with like minded individuals.
The evening is aimed at giving anyone with an interest in crowdfunding invaluable advice, tips and tricks on how to bring your project to a successful funding conclusion. Listen to inspiring stories from musician Sam Buckingham, graphic novel creator Karen Beilharz from Kinds of Blue and poet Kate Toon on their crowdfunding journey whilst also meeting the creators of Pozible, hearing about their plans for 2012 and networking with other creative and socially innovative people just like you!
Project Creators (Past, Present or Future!), and those interested in crowdfunding their project are encouraged to attend an evening to maximise their project's advancement, and to network with other likeminded project creators.
Seats are limited, so please send your RSVP by Wednesday 15th February 2012. Beer, wine and refreshments are provided.
WHO: Featured speakers include Pozible co-founders Rick Chen and Alan Crabbe, and successful project creators Karen Beilharz and Sam Buckingham and Kate Toon
WHAT: Let's Talk Crowdfunding Sydney
WHEN: Thursday 16th February, 2012.
TIME: 6:00pm- 9:00pm
WHERE: University of Sydney, 154 City Road (Tin Sheds Gallery), NSW, 2008 Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning building next to Seymour Threatre)
RSVP: CLICK HERE TO REGISTER VIA EVENTBRITE by Wednesday 15th February 2012.
http://ltcsydney.eventbrite.com/

COST: FREE

View Larger Map

An Interview with Sam Buckingham

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 13:56:39 EST

Pozible were lucky enough to chat to the lovely Sydney-based songstress Sam Buckingham about crowdfunding, her amazing Pozible campaign, and what she's got planned for the future!

How did you come across Pozible?
Friends of mine 'The Falls' raised money for their EP on it. I didn't know there was an Australian crowdfunding site so was very excited to stumble across it.

How has Pozible helped your project? How has it helped you beyond funding?
Through fans and friends sharing the link it's definitely gotten more people interested in my music and what I'm doing. It shows people that I'm proactive and not just sitting around waiting for someone to come along and do everything for me which I think people really respond to as well.

Did you use any other activities to fund your project? What were/are they?
Nope, just Pozible!

Now that you have been successful with your crowdfunding component, what are the next steps for your project?
We start recording in a week, which will go on for a few months (not solidly... a few days here, a few days there) and once that's done, I get back on the road to play the songs live!

Where can we see the finish product?
Well it's not finished yet so I don't know! But the plan is that it will be on iTunes, in record stores and everywhere I go play a gig.

If you could give any advice to other creative practitioners out there in relation to crowdfunding, what would it be?
Be authentic, thank your supporters, be realistic in what you're asking and offering and never beg. People love to be a part of something exciting and if you're excited about your project and communicate it well, they will be too.

What inspired you to do your project? Why is this album special to you?
This album is full of songs that I've been writing for the past 2 years. It's been in my mind and in my heart throughout Cambodia, Malaysia, Italy, France, England, Germany, Spain, on the road playing gigs and in my little Sydney home. It tells stories of the life, love and people I've experienced along the way. I've been playing music for as long as I remember but, going through this process over the last 2 years I finally feel like I'm an artist – being completely true to who I am and what I'm saying and that is a liberating and scary thing! This album is so special to me because it wraps all of those thoughts and feelings up in a collection of songs that are very close to my heart.

What would be the best possible outcome from your project that you could think of?
That whoever hears it thinks it's beautiful.

You used some pretty cool rewards such as special edition covers, coming and playing at people’s places and even “name your reward” sorts of things. How did you come up with the ideas and which ones worked the best?
I talked to my sister a lot about it – bouncing ideas back and forth, pros and cons, pricings etc and I felt really comfortable and excited with everything I came up with. I thought about who my fans are and what they like about me and what I thought they might like from me. Then, I asked them. The CD packages worked really well – there was 'Pre order the album + my past releases' or 'Pre order the album and get bonus B-Sides and Covers albums' – and then the package that had all of those things together. I was really surprised as well at the response I had for 'Let's write a song together'. And I'm very excited about meeting all these people and finding new creativity in myself and helping bring out theirs.

We are curious- why the tour around to people’s houses?
Why not!? It's intimate, it's practical and it's really fun. For me, music is about connecting with people so I find any way I can to do that. Once you've hosted a house concert you'll never go back :)

How did you go about finding people to help you with the project?
You mean people to help me make the album? I asked around, I gathered my friends, I trusted my instincts. I think first I had to know what I wanted the album to be – then finding the right people to help me do it was easy.

If you could do your crowdfunding journey over again, would there be anything you would change?
Nope!

What would you like to say to those who supported your project?
Oh god, there is not enough room on this page for me to go on and on about what their support means to me. I've said thank you to each and every one of them probably about twenty times. But thank you never seems like enough.

Website: http://www.sambuckingham.com
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/sambuckinghammusic
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sam-Buckingham/91123300006
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/sammybuckingham

#LTCMelb a Great Success!

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 12:44:16 EST

We hosted our very first information session “Let’s Talk Crowdfunding” last Friday to a wonderful crowd of creative individuals. Braving the sticky heat, 70 of our guests rocked up to Hub Melbourne to listen to our successful project creators Jeremy Kool and Kylie Gusset talk crowdfunding.

Jeremy discussed the importance of using social media to your advantage. Jeremy’s project 'The Paper Fox' raised double the intended funding goal!

Kylie graced us with her dazzling pink hair and knowledge on networking. Kylie single-handedly raised over $38,000 for her Pozible project 'Ton of Wool'!

Together with the delightful Vanessa from the Awesome Foundation, we announced our very exciting partnership with the Awesome Foundation, giving our wonderful project creators an extra helping hand to reach their funding goal.

It was a great night for mingling, wine and delicious cheese. We want to thank Jan Stewart, Ehon Chan and Brad Krauskopf of Hub Melbourne for their continued support and for allowing us to host our event at Hub Melbourne, Jeremy Kool and Kylie Gusset for their very informative and entertaining talks on crowdfunding, and most of all every single person who made it to the event: we couldn’t have done it without your support! Thank you so much!

Rest assured we will be hosting “Let’s Talk Crowdfunding” around Australia so stay tuned! We look forward to meeting you all!

An Awesome Collaboration

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 10:54:48 EST

Great achievements in history start with strong connections and this is no different. Pozible is very excited to announce our new partnership with the Melbourne chapter of the Awesome Foundation!

Founded in the United States, the Awesome Foundation is a global network of individuals dedicated to “forwarding awesomeness in the universe”. Every month, The Awesome Foundation gives a $1000 grant to achieving and creating “awesomeness” around certain topics of interest. A group of trustees distribute the funds without any financial interest – just good, old fashioned generosity.

While this new partnership is fantastic for Pozible, the real benefactor is you!

The Awesome Foundation wants to give Pozible project creators the chance to be considered for a $1000 grant every month. This means one lucky Pozible project could be given a $1000 pledge towards their project, helping them edge closer to their funding goal.

What you need to do:

Once you’re about to launch your new project, you will be asked if you would like to be considered for The Awesome Foundation this month. Tick this, and your project will be put in The Awesome Foundation’s pool of consideration. You can only put your project up for consideration once.

And here’s another great thing:

Pozible will not be taking a service fee from the $1000 grant, and if you don’t make your funding goal, you get to keep the $1000 grant, no strings attached.

How awesome is that?

For more information on the Awesome Foundation, visit http://awesomefoundation.org/

Pozible wants to hear from YOU!

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 12:26:10 EST

In an effort to improve our services, Pozible have created a survey. Why?, you may ask.

Well, the team at Pozible would love to know about you. Whether you're a past or current project creator, generous project supporter or crowd-funding newbie, we want your thoughts! Pozible want to know what makes their audiences tick, as well as making it a site tailored to your needs.

So give us your HONEST opinion: this is your chance to sing our praises, or vent your spleen!

Once you're done, why not share it with a mate, or someone who's visited Pozible? After all, sharing is caring.

We're excited to hear about what you have to say- so let the surveying begin!

Visit the Pozible Survey today!

You're invited to "Let's Talk Crowdfunding"!

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 17:05:20 EST

You are invited to join Australia's first ever crowdfunding information session for an informative night about crowdfunding, and how it can benefit your creative or artistic project.

Join Pozible co-founders Rick Chen and Alan Crabbe, who will provide advice on how to help your project gain more supporters and help guide your project's campaign. The event will also feature successful project creator Kylie Gusset, who managed to raise over $38,000 for her project "A Ton of Wool" and Jeremy Koo l, who is due to reach his project deadline on 30th November for "The Paper Fox" project.

Project Creators (Past, Present or Future!), and those interested in crowdfunding their project are encouraged to attend an evening to maximise their project's advancement, and to network with other likeminded project creators.

Seats are strictly limited, so please send your RSVP by Wednesday 5th December 2011. Beer, wine and refreshments are provided.

WHO: Featured speakers include Pozible co-founders Rick Chen and Alan Crabbe, and successful project creators Kylie Gusset and Jeremy Kool.

WHAT: Let's Talk Crowdfunding

WHEN: Friday 9th December, 2011.

TIME: 5:30pm- 7pm

WHERE: Hub Melbourne (Level 3, 673 Bourke Street Melbourne VIC 3000)

RSVP: Via Eventbrite by no later than Wednesday 5th December 2011.

COST: FREE

Crowdfunding: the experience and its future

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 12:09:09 EST

By Peter Ghin

The ‘crowd funding’ concept is still in its relative infancy in Australia, so much so that even the spellcheck on my Mac seems a little confused by the phrase; is it two words or one? or maybe it has a hyphen?

Crowd funding is an idea that taps into the collective generosity of people to leverage funds to finance a project. The platforms available in Australia generally support initiatives that have either a creative (Pozible, The Awesome Foundation) or social (Start Some Good) bent.

There’s no doubt that in a very brief space of time businesses like Pozible and The Awesome Foundation are changing the arts funding landscape, though they each adopt different approaches. They’re filling a gap that the highly competitive philanthropic and antiquated government sectors are unlikely to ever satiate.

Speaking from personal experience, my project (Walk the Talk) wouldn’t have got off the ground without Pozible - well that’s not quite true, I could have done it the old fashioned way and upped my credit card limit. But Pozible’s existence did more than simply help fund my project; without this platform I would never have had the opportunity to bring my friends, family and peer networks along for the creative development ride with me.

One of the best things about Pozible’s crowd funding approach is its potential to develop and deepen relationships with your networks. Walk the Talk was modest in scale so there was the very real feeling of an intimate relationship with my supporters. It often felt like they weren’t just making a financial contribution but an emotional one too.

The generosity can be unexpected and overwhelming. Contributions came from quarters I had never anticipated and in amounts that sometimes left me speechless. If you are someone more used to giving than receiving, the decision to crowd fund your project can be a personally confronting proposition. Early in my campaign, I received a phone call from someone telling me they believed in my idea so much they would make up the difference of whatever I didn’t raise. In my hours of self-doubt, and there were many of those, this kind of support gave me the strength I needed to believe in my idea.

But its not all love and fairy dust. Sometimes there’s disappointment to contend with when the support doesn’t eventuate as you envisaged. I had to come to terms with the fact that the world wasn’t revolving around my project, or the personal difficulty I was sometimes experiencing in giving birth to it.

The reality of Pozible’s ‘all or nothing’ model means that only about 35% of projects are successfully funded. That’s a lot of crushed dreams but I suspect it’s a necessary attrition. There are some hard yards to do when you launch your project; a good idea and youthful enthusiasm alone will rarely be enough to get you over the line. You need sound management and entrepreneurial skills under your belt, and you need to be able to show a healthy respect for your networks.

While the Pozible team does have some cursory checks and balances in place, the crowd funding philosophy relies heavily on trust. It’s the reputation of the project sponsor and the importance of their ongoing relationship with peer networks that replaces the traditional funding agreement.

We haven’t yet heard the stories of people who have abused this trust, either inadvertently or otherwise. Project sponsors who perhaps haven’t delivered their promised supporter ‘rewards’ or may not have used the money in ways they originally said they would. There’s no ‘acquittal’ process in place, so the onus lies squarely with the project sponsor to deliver. This lack of accountability is one of the potential pitfalls of the Pozible model from a project supporter’s perspective.

Although crowd funding in itself is not a new concept, the infancy of this iteration of the model means that we really have no idea what kind of impact it will have on the arts funding landscape in the longer term. As it becomes more mainstream, the technology savvy people behind the web platforms will need to work closely with users, creative thinkers and researchers to determine what works and what does not, and to identify who is in fact using the platform. There is a collective wisdom currently being generated about the experience of funding creative projects through this portal, and it’s a wisdom that will be important to harness as the concept develops.

More broadly, we need to understand if this new arts funding paradigm has any unintended consequences. How, for instance, will it impact on the demand experienced by traditional funding bodies? One perverse effect that comes to mind is the pressure that may be brought to bear on creators to adopt the model if they want their government funding bid to be considered favourably. And what will we do when, God forbid, the bureaucracies start planning their own crowd funding platforms in the name of capital ‘I’ Innovation?

And what of contribution fatigue? I rode the crowd funding wave while it still had a relatively low profile, so my networks were happy to support me. But what of the months and years ahead when it becomes so mainstream that we all start receiving weekly requests from our mates to support their latest idea? Sure, I’ll contribute $50 toward your short film about a guy who makes origami swans while holding his breath underwater in a bathtub. I can feel some awkward conversations ahead. I’m glad I got in early.

Peter Ghin is the director of the Melbourne-based consultancy Cultural Value. He recently part-funded his project “Walk the Talk” through Pozible as part of the 2011 Melbourne Fringe Festival.

$1,000,000 Pledged, Thank You All!

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 09:34:10 EST

We are excited to announce that we hit $1 million in total pledges on Pozible last week. This was make possible through the support of thousands of Project Supporters, Project Creators, Promoters and through the help of our Network Collaborators, so Thank You!

We feel very lucky and fortunate to be involved in Pozible and it is amazing to see and hear about projects that might not have existed without the Pozible platform.

We don't get much time to look back at our achievements but to celebrate this milestone we've decided to put together a timeline for Pozible to demonstrate how we got here. The timeline highlights the unforgetable moments and recognises the projects that have made Pozible possible.

If you're reading about us for the first time, we welcome you to Pozible and we hope you will get involved and share our vision for new creative projects. Whether you are an artist, musician, filmmaker, journalist, designer, social change maker, entrepreneur, inventor, event organiser, software developer or someone that wants to be part of a great idea, we have the the platform to make your dreams and aspirations happen.

What is WOM [Word-of-Mouth] worth?

Sun, 09 Oct 2011 15:15:51 EST

Crowdfunding is a pretty amazing thing. Watching one dollar add to another dollar and another until a target is reached just shows how much every little bit counts. But what most people may not realise is that even when you don’t have any money to spare, you can still manage to support a project and create a positive outcome. And there is a group of these people already that have made a huge in-direct impact to projects.

Pozible has always been aware of a group of unsung heroes who raise the profile of projects and expand the network reach for particular projects but it's always difficult to track the impact of these people.

Back in Sept 2010, we launched the Pozible Promote function (previously FundBreak Promote) to track how Pozible members share projects and the value of this contribution in dollar terms.

See info: http://www.pozible.com/index.php/blog/article/index/17

A year later we want to share with you some stats that might surprise you. Of course, this list does not take into account the number of non-Pozible members that have spread the word about a project but gives you a little insight to its worth.

Check this out…
- Our Promoters have helped raise over $30k in total funds
- Our top 50 Promoters have helped raise over $17K for projects
- Our top 100 Promotors have attracted an average 73 visitors to a project
- Total 2200 Pozible Promoters and growing every day

Can you imagine how many people they must have reached out to overall and how many people who have seen information about each project who haven’t kicked in? That’s truly powerful word spreading! That word-of-mouth is also multiplied as others share their own support through social media and helps create a buzz on the internet for circles outside of crowd funding to hear about projects!

Promoters are the people who share projects on Facebook or Twitter, Blog about projects, share the Project Widget, send emails to friends and generally do whatever they can to help you in your crowdfunding mission.

Project Creators.
If you are running a project, Pozible suggest taking the time out to thank these guys on your crowdfunding journey because even if they may not always be in a position to kick in funds themselves, they rally other people behind you who can. Mentioning them in your posts on and off the Pozible site or sending an email to say thank you is just one of the ways you can recognise your promoters.

Promoters.
To all of the Promoters who go onto highlight and share projects from people you don’t know, or ones who have their mates back and help market their project across the channels to get them both exposure and funding, we at Pozible would like to say a very hearty thank you! Your efforts help someone reach their goal and help get them to their dream- and that certainly makes you a hero and a very helpful friend indeed.<

Join our growing list of Pozible Top Promoters that are spreading the word and making great things possible.

Special mention to: Abbey Hunt
Alex Kelly
Andrew Yager
Ben Baker
Casey Briggs
Deb Verhoeven
DJ Fitzgerald
Felicity Freeman
Jess Miller
Jessica Craig-Piper
Justin Morrissey
Kym Kani
Lawrence Ashford
Luke Launer
Lynne Vincent McCarthy
Marcus Westbury
Michael Fuller
Michelle Hovane
Miriam Lyons
Nathaniel Cosford
Sundari Carmody
Todd Keys
Zoe Bowman
..and many many more Pozible promoters that spread the word every day!

Have you shared a project with your friends and followers yet?

For more information on how to set up your crowdfunding campaign, check out our Pozible Handbook!

Kinds Of Blue Interview

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 10:56:11 EST

Successful Project Kinds of Blue

Pozible was recently honoured with supporting a unique artistic and writing project, Kinds of Blue, which deals with what it is like for people living with depression. This amazing book is a must read for anyone who wishes to understand, who loves someone with depression, or struggles with depression themselves. We would like to thank Karen (the creator) for taking time out of her schedule to talk to Pozible about this exciting project. Here is her journey and advice, her influences and her project for sharing with the Pozible community.

Crowd funding-specific a) How did you come across Pozible?

I was investigating crowd funding platforms. I knew about Kickstarter through Twitter—more specifically, through Neil Gaiman (who is one of my favourite writers of all time) because he got behind a Kickstarter project by Christopher Salmon (to turn one of Gaiman's short stories into an animated film) and was asking people to support the campaign. Unfortunately, however, you can't start a Kickstarter campaign unless you're in the US. So I started looking at other options, like IndieGoGo. However, I preferred the Kickstarter model—which is that no one is charged any money until the funding goal is reached. IndieGoGo doesn't operate that way. Then my friend Bec (who is heavily involved with Kinds of Blue) sent me the link to Pozible. I checked it out and discovered that it suited our needs perfectly. I also liked that Pozible is Australian and uniquely suited to the Australian context.

b) How has Pozible helped your project? How has it helped you beyond funding?

Being able to use Pozible to crowd fund has just been fantastic! I love that it makes integration with email and social media very very easy, and that it does thing like provide code for widgets that I can use on our website. I found the articles on how to run a campaign very useful. I was also extremely grateful for the way the staff at Pozible offered assistance and promoted us—both through social media and also on the front page of the Pozible site.

c) Did you use any other activities to fund your project? What were/are they?

We didn't do anything else to to raise finances. We pretty much decided that if the support wasn't there for Kinds of Blue through crowd funding, then it wasn't worth it proceeding with the print side of the project.

d) Now that you have been successful with your crowd funding component, what are the next steps for your project?

At the moment, we're working on proofreading and fixing up the layout of the book so that it's ready for printing. Once that's done, we'll book in the print job, double check the proof and get the stock delivered. Then it's a matter of organising and promoting the launch (which will be in Sydney sometime during the latter half of this year), amending our website so that it's set up to take orders, and promoting and selling the remaining copies of the book that haven't been snapped up already by supporters. We plan to book Artist's Alley tables at Supanova Pop Expo in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney next year, which will hopefully give us access to a greater audience.

e) Where can we see the finish product?

You can read the full contents of Kinds of Blue on our website, but the print edition won't be out for another couple of months.

f) If you could give any advice to other creative practitioners out there in relation to crowd funding, what would it be?

Be realistic about how much to raise and what you will put the funds towards. Do a budget and crunch the numbers. (For us, we figured out that we only had to pre-sell around 200 copies of the book for printing it to be viable.)
Know your target audience and how to reach them.
Make use of all the networks you have—friends, family, related interest groups.
Follow Pozible's advice on crowd funding; it's very good! (One thing that worked really well for us was their advice about asking people to promote and support you personally; most people we approached were more than happy to do that. We even got a retweet and a blog mention by comics legend Scott McCloud, who will be coming to Sydney in August for the GRAPHIC festival.)
Make sure you have a couple of extra people who can help you with the campaign while it's running—to write thank you messages, answer questions, promote it alongside of you, and so on. A large part of the success of our campaign has to do with my co-conspirators, Bec and Guan, who really helped carry the whole thing through—particularly in the first few days after we launched.
We didn't do this, but have some sort of marketing plan that spans the duration of the campaign. I've heard that most funds are raised at the beginning and at the end, so put things in place to keep the momentum going, or to inspire a big push perhaps towards the middle and/or towards the end so that people who haven't quite decided whether or not to contribute are reminded and motivated to do so.
Figure out what to do if you do reach your goal!

About your project a) What inspired you to do your project?

I love comics, and have wanted to create them for some time. I follow a number of comics professionals on Twitter, and they would sometimes tweet advice about making them—the most important piece of advice being “Just go out and make comics!” That encouragement wasn't enough, however; it really took something that Kieron Gillen (writer of Phonogram, S.W.O.R.D., Thor and Uncanny X-Men) wrote on his blog to inspire me to action—namely, that five pages was pretty much the maximum that you could ask an artist to do for you for free. The pieces fell into place: suddenly I had the idea of creating an anthology of five-page comics. I wrote a bunch of scripts and asked all these artists I knew to work with me on them.

I chose the theme of depression to unite the anthology because depression is something that both my husband and I have struggled with a lot. I felt I had a great deal of material that I could use and write truthfully about. Another plus is that depression is a broad topic that encompasses a number of different facets—hence the pieces on depression and music, depression and food, depression and work, carers, and so on. The theme also suited my co-conspirators Bec and Guan as they have also tangoed with the black dog at different times in their lives.

b) What would be the best possible outcome from your project that you could think of?

At the beginning of the campaign, I just hoped that we would be able to pre-sell 200 copies of the book. I thought that we would be lucky to raise 25 per cent of our goal in the first couple of days, and that we would need to do a big push in the middle and towards the end of the campaign. The fact that we managed to raise the full amount in just under three days is just staggering, and is far more than I could have hoped for!

c) Your book touches on a sensitive subject: depression. Why do you think there is a need for such a subject to be discussed?

Melancholia is still one of those areas that isn't generally understood. Things are further complicated by the fact that people with depression may not be able to communicate what the darkness is like for them. When you live with it every day, it seems normal and even inconceivable that there are people out there who have no experience with the black dog. And yet there are many who don't quite get it. Even if they do, they're not sure what they can do or how they can help. Kinds of Blue attempts to communicate and talk about these things to a general audience.

d) What made you decide to use such a unique format for your project?

As I said earlier, I've always loved comics. But I've only started reading them seriously over the past eight years or so. Being exposed to works such as Neil Gaiman's Sandman, Craig Thompson's Blankets, Brian K Vaughan's Y: The Last Man, Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics, Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie's Phonogram, and so on made me glimpse the possibilities of what you could do with that medium. As the professionals keep saying over and over, comics aren't just about superheroes; they're for telling stories, expressing ideas and persuading people of a particular point of view. For me, comics is the synergy of two things I love most of all: words and art. That combination, when done right, is just magic.

e) How did you go about finding people to help you with the project?

My friends Bec and Guan are also writers. One thing we've tried to do semi-regularly over the last couple of years is meet up in a cafe on Tuesday afternoons for 2-3 hours to work on stuff. As you'd expect, some days would be more productive than others. When I had the idea for the anthology, they were the first people I shared it with, and they liked it so much, they decided to come on board. Bec, who has a background in graphic design, even offered to lay out the whole thing for us!

I'm also friends with a lot of different people who are artists—many of whom I met through church, the Fellowship of Evangelism in the Visual Arts (FEVA) (which I used to be involved with) and Comix 35 (a Christian organisation devoted to comics that ran a workshop on comics-making in Sydney six years ago). I knew that a few of them were interested in making comics, so then it was just a matter of getting in touch with them, pitching what I had in mind, persuading them to come on board and then collaborating with them.

f) What would you like to say to those who supported your project?

We are so grateful to everyone who supported us, promoted us and contributed a pledge towards the campaign. We've been absolutely blown away by the response to Kinds of Blue and the personal messages that we have received from various people who have read it. So thank you to all our supporters, and a massive thank you to Pozible for making the seeming impossible possible!

Aussie Crowdfunding Facts

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 13:27:18 EST

Pozible has been up and going for over a year now and we would like to share some interesting facts from the platform to give you an insight into crowdfunding in Australia. The results are collected from the Pozible database and please note that this is not an official report, just a data visualisation of some interesting statistics.

Some of the statistics surprised us and we think some of the facts are particularly useful for project creators to understand a little about how people are supporting projects in Australia.
Although we concentrated on providing some useful Australian statistics, we'd like to recognise that people are supporting Pozible projects from over 20 countries around the world.

If you have any questions regarding to the data visulisations, feel free to leave a comment below

How to...inspire contributors on Pozible

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 16:14:51 EST

So you have your wonderful idea bubbling away in the back of your mind, and now you need the funds for it to reach the next stage of its development. You stumble across Pozible and know this is the right place to gain your funding. So, how do you make the most of your time on Pozible? By inspiring contributors! Here are a couple of tips and tricks on how to help make that inspiration flow!

FIRST and FOREMOST: Treat your time on Pozible like a project within itself
Creating enough verve and excitement so that people wish to support your project takes time every single day your Pozible campaign is running. Just like a creative project, it requires time and effort and attention to detail. Part and parcel of making your campaign a success is making sure you have the time and effort for the following:

a)	Getting over the stigma of asking for help. That may sound silly, but especially if this is your first project, it can be really intimidating plugging yourself to your friends and colleagues, let alone asking them to support your project financially. Make sure you are able to do so without cringing, stalling or giving up otherwise you significantly decrease your chances of success. Be brave, believe in your idea and be assured that if you know you’re on the right track, people will follow you if you project that.
b)	Using Social media. Don’t just assume going onto Twitter once and a while or occasionally linking your project on Facebook will cut the mustard. It won’t. You need to allow time to identify proper targets on Twitter who may be interested in sharing your project and establish contact with them. You also need to Tweet and Facebook every day as a minimum, but also make them count. Use social media prior to your campaign to ask people about what rewards you should give, to tell them what you are doing, to ask them if they will back you if you are on Pozible. Use it during as a way of thanking people, updating on progress and generally keeping them involved in the process.
c)	Creating and following a marketing plan. Think of your marketing and plan it out before you kick off your campaign. That way you can manage the lifecycle of your project on Pozible more efficiently. Take into account things that may tie in during that timeframe and make use of them. Don’t just get to a stage where you need crowdfunding and then just jump in without planning it out. Marketing is a creative pursuit and the ONLY way you will stand out is if you use creative and innovative ways of tapping into an audience you understand and can speak to. If you don’t think of it in the proper terms and do it “just because” as you go along, you will not reach the audience you want in the way you intend.
d)	Blogging, updating and thanking. As your supporters begin to drop coin into your project updating them, blogging and thanking them becomes part of not only taking care of those who have contributed to your project, but also inspiring others to do more of the same. It can be great to talk about your journey thus far with your project and explore aspects of it with people, or you can equate the current dollar amount of your funding total with what that provides for your project. Or you can simply share how the support makes you feel and what it inspires you to do in the future. Tell your story!
e)	Being a little bit obsessed with your project. Live it, love it, become it. When something asks you what you have been up to or how you are, relate to your project. If someone gives you $5, shower them with praise and love as soon as you can. Keep following your marketing plan but also be in tune enough to know what your audience is responding to in case you need to change tack. Think of new and creative ways to get the social media word out there. Become a champion of your own cause.

SECONDLY: Push the envelope

Guess what? Being successful creatively means either being a shameless self promoter, or getting someone to do it for you. At this point in time, it’s up to you! But there is no shame in adopting the following ideas to get the word out there about your project:

a)	Going to events that tap into your project and promoting it
b)	Leveraging old contacts from previous creative projects and letting them know what you are up to
c)	Emailing old uni, school or work buddies and telling them the “where are you now?” story of the awesome project you are doing
d)	Plugging into the old alumni. University’s love hearing stories about ex-graduates- write your own press release and send it to your favourite lecturer (no matter where they teach now), your old uni, the department you did your degree under and the uni newspaper telling them what you are up to
e)	Contacting places where you have done short courses or volunteer/intern work
f)	Telling family not to give you birthday or Christmas presents, sending your project URL and asking for a contribution instead
g)	Speaking to your boss and create a “swear” jar at work which can be given in the company’s name as support to your project
h)	Approaching community radio and TV, SBS and ABC and let them know about your project. You’d be surprised at how many will help with some publicity
i)	Creating “Super Supporters” amongst your potential supporters. The more people who have incentive to push your project for you, the wider your net will get- so don’t be afraid to offer a reward for getting the word out there (it works for Tupperware!)
j)	Creating your own line of “support me” stickers, badges and tee shirts that you and the people involved in your project can wear. Any Spotlight store has all the kit and caboodle you need to make yourselves a temporary team uniform
k)	Baking cupcakes with your projects name on it and giving them to people who contribute at places like work, school or uni and making a show of it
l)	Making people feel awesome because what they have done for you is a huge favour... it is!

THIRDLY: Remember it isn’t over til it’s over. In the immortal words of Yoda “there is no try!” Be prepared to commit yourself to the funding lifecycle and go, go, go. The worst thing that can happen is you don’t reach your target, the best is that you exceed it. So make the most out of the time you have. Keep plugging away as much as you have to in order to get the desired result.

After all, isn’t that what being creative is all about?

For more information on how to set up your crowdfunding campaign, check out our Pozible Handbook!

Street Dreams Interview

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 11:56:42 EST

This is not a usual working day, even for Pozible. I am staring into the abyss of a computer screen, with Skype pouring out the story of Mike and Jason, two Adelaide based film makers, and their latest project, Street Dreams. Mike has been kind enough to offer Pozible an interview before he and Jason leave for Asia, where their journey of truly capturing the stories of young Asian sex workers begins. What can you say to someone who is about to capture the foundations of a truly poignant story for their documentary? Is there a little bit of admiration and awe seeping into my voice with every question I ask?

Mike tells me Jason (who is absent from the interview) and he are Red Earth Films. Both are very much interested in social justice- with Mike interested in issues such as Fair Trade, sustainability and injustice and Jason more into documentary film making and looking at the plight of other human beings. The inspiration, if you can call it that, for Street Dreams comes from working on a previous documentary in the Philippines some 12 years ago, when Jason met girls in brothels as young as 12 trying to pass themselves off as legal age, mature sex workers. The girls came from different backgrounds with the same ear marks of poverty, limited choices and subservience to their lot coming through. But something else was detected. Like any child or young woman of their age, the girls all possessed the same wishes and desires other kids hungered for. Each one of the girls our intrepid film maker spoke to had their own dreams of what they wanted for their life, despite being on the streets. From here, the idea of Street Dreams was born.

Pozible became part of the mix as Jason and Mike looked at the various funding options available and stumbled across the portal in yet another search online. Back in the day when Pozible had just started and was listed as FundBreak, it seemed like the logical choice for their funding needs.

“It was a good way of centralising everyone into one place. (Pozible) was a helpful tool for sharing the focus of our fundraising efforts, but also helped us raise awareness and get attention so that people would and could participate,” explained Mike.

Already, Mike and Jason had already investigated and exhausted funding routes such as film making grants, documentary funding, and humanitarian funds and spoken to bodies that had an interest in the stories of human trafficking or highlighting the suffering of children with the sex industry. Jason, himself an active member of the Uniting Church, rallied many of his peers and friends behind the project and together with both of the film maker’s friendship networks, their exposure to other film and documentary makers and mailing lists from previous projects and some momentum with social media, they were able to reach their target of $13,500.

For anyone who donated to Street Dreams, there is a lot of gratitude. Your efforts have given Mike and Jason the ability to go to Asia, conduct interviews and film footage which will then be turned into the documentary and trailer needed to gain further investment in the film for marketing, distribution and screening. Their aims are not small, but their hearts are very big and their heads strong.

“We want to raise awareness and expose these stories to the rest of the world. Human trafficking is big business- it is drugs, arms and sex. If we can expose this to a wider audience and get people to act on it, turn interest into positive action, then it will be worthwhile,” says Mike.

In order to make use of their time to promote their campaign on Pozible, Mike and Jason worked very hard. They held talks about their project in front of established groups interested in supporting human rights and humanitarian issues, they set up booths at events demonstrating their project and what it hoped to achieve. They used social media, email and talked to anyone who would listen about their endeavours. On using crowd funding itself, Mike had this advice to offer:

“You really have to be vigilant and focussed on the task. If you think putting your project up on a crowd funding portal it will just do its thing (and automatically gain funding), well, it’s just not going to happen. You have to keep funnelling your friends and contacts to the project. You have to keep people informed. Use social media, blog about it, keep your info up to date and be comfortable about it.”

Mike and Jason are also determined to return to Pozible for further stages of funding as the project progresses. I for one will certainly be glad to see what unfolds in the stages to come. As interviewer, I was struck by this odd sense of hopefulness in what Mike and Jason are setting off to do. Street Dreams is not your usual ‘the horror, the horror’ documentary on children in sexual slavery. This is about realising that the girls in this industry are just like our sisters, daughters, nieces and kids down the street. They are just like any of us when we were young as we dreamt of being famous actors or firemen, doctors or business moguls, vets or ballet stars. And that is what Mike and Jason hope to share with the world. They hope by sharing those dreams, maybe someday these girls could get the chance to fulfil them back.

The Pozible team wish them the best of luck and look forward to seeing Street Dreams as it unfolds.

To follow the journey, head to http://www.redearthfilms.com.au/seeking_funding/streetdreams/street-dreams.html

What determines which dreams will see the light of day?

Tue, 31 May 2011 20:06:20 EST

This blog post includes a subset of a recent graduation speech by TED Curator Chris Anderson. I thought i'd share it on the Pozible blog because it answers a question i've been asked numerous times over the past 12 months.
Question: "What will determine which of the dreams here present today see the light of day, and which will languish unfunded, forgotten, ignored?"
"Well, usually a single person can't make a big idea come true (unless they have extremely rich parents). In almost every case an idea need multiple backers. So it must first spread from one brain to many, spreading excitement as it goes. So what makes THAT happen? It certainly helps if the idea itself is powerful. By which I mean some combination of beautiful, ingenious, and... affordable. But there's something else. It needs to be communicated with power. One of the most tragic things in the world is a powerful idea stuck inside the head of someone who can't actually explain it to anyone else. At TED over the years, we've had a lot of architects come and share their visions with us, and a good number of them have been absolutely... awful. How can that be? They have the most compelling subject matter imaginable. Giant designs at a scale that impacts thousands or millions of people... Yet when it come to articulating them, they descend into gibberish - the abstract, over-intellectual language of architectural criticism that makes an audience's eyes glaze over and their brains numb. This is an utter tragedy! Whatever else you do in the coming years of your life, I beg you, I truly beg you to find a way of sharing your dreams in a way that truly reveals the excitement and passion and possibility behind them."
By Chris Anderson The speech is targeted at recent architecture graduates but I do believe it applies to the creative industry as a whole. Read the full graduation speech post here

Creative Commons Licensing on your project - now available

Sun, 15 May 2011 10:44:43 EST

With help and advise from Creative Commons Australia, the Pozible Platform now provides Project Creators a function to place conditions on their copyrights. Traditionally, copyrights restrict the rights of others from modifying or distributing copywritten works. Creative Commons licenses offer flexibility by allowing the creator (copyright holder) the ability to choose what limitations they want in place with respect to specific copywritten works.
Creative Commons is a world wide project that encourages copyright owners to allow others to share, reuse and remix their material, legally. They offer a range of free licences that creators can use to manage their copyright in the online environment, each providing its own specific protections and freedoms. We have built upon the “all rights reserved” of traditional copyright to create a voluntary “some rights reserved” system.
Briefly...
Attribution means:
You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your copyrighted work - and derivative works based upon it - but only if they give you credit.
Noncommercial means:
You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your work - and derivative works based upon it - but for noncommercial purposes only.
No Derivative Works means:
You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform only verbatim copies of your work, not derivative works based upon it.
Share Alike means:
You allow others to distribute derivative works only under a license identical to the license that governs your work. CC Licensing Options when creating your project:

Appears on your project description:

Rewarding your supporters

Thu, 12 May 2011 23:18:03 EST

Issuing rewards for support of your project is part and parcel of having a successful project on Pozible. But it can also be one of the hardest things to work out for you and your project group prior to launch. In this “How to...” the Pozible team share a few tips and tricks that will make setting your rewards a hassle free process!
1. Every little bit counts
One of the most common mistakes made on Pozible is setting the rewards limits beyond the reach of people who contribute smallish amounts. Whilst you may wish to encourage people to give higher amounts to get to your target quicker, you might actually intimidate some of your potential audience by making their contributions seem unworthy. Think of your funding as a bucket you want to fill with water yet you do not have a tap or hose. If you place a bucket out in a rain storm, no matter how light or heavy, remember each of those tiny drops combines together to fill the bucket. So too do smaller contributions to your campaign.
2. Think about your audience
As we have talked about before previously, crowd funding is more fan or peer funding, in that it is generally your peers or fans who will back your project and spread the word. With that in mind, think about what would appeal to your friends, colleagues and other people in your creative field as a reward and offer something that entices them to participate or stretch their support a little further for an even cooler reward. Ask yourself what (beyond the warm and fuzzy feeling) would be a draw card to you? Measure your rewards in those kinds of yard sticks and your rewards will seem more personalised, appealing and meaningful.
3. One size doesn’t fit all
Our lifestyles, tastes, income level and how we were raised all determine the true meaning of words such as “generous”, “affordable”, “lots” and “a little bit”, and you need to take that into account when setting up your rewards. Your rewards act as a spectrum that allows people to feel encouraged to participate financially in your project, but it won’t necessarily determine how much you receive. Think of it this way- $25 donation might mean one less CD to you, but it could mean an entire week’s transport to work to someone else. Another person may see that $25 as a tip, another as something they need to save for a few weeks to have as ‘spare’. The reality is people will give within their own means to what they believe in and what is little to one person could be a very big deal to another.
4. Be inventive
Your project is a reflection of who you are - so make your rewards an extension of that personality too! You might not be able to give everyone a copy of your album or free tickets to your show, but you can think of a meaningful way to say thank you to a person who supports you! Ask yourself if you were going to support a friends project financially how you would like to be rewarded and add a dash of creativity. It can be as simple as a hand written thank you note or as grand as their name forever associated with your creative projects journey. What matters is the sentiment attached.
5. Mega Supporters do exist
There have been cases in the crowd funding world where some projects have received support from people who have paid 50% or more of the funding level. The reality is people looking to fund creative works on a larger scale are increasingly choosing to look at their options through crowd funding as opposed to angel investment or other traditional means. So here you should also cater to these kinds of supporters/sponsors. For example- if you are producing a film that has a $10K budget, if a Mega Supporter wants to cover most of that, is there any harm in offering a producer credit in the titles as their reward? Your reward doesn’t give someone entitlement to your work, you are simply recognising the reward they give you with the appropriate thank you- and if they help you a lot, shouldn’t the thank you be big too?
6. Share the Love
Everyone who supports your project is doing it because they believe in you and what you are doing. So another way to encourage more rewards from people is to make use of the update feature to thank your supporters on your Pozible project page as they come in. Doing this and carrying it across to social media such as Facebook or Twitter can also be a great way of not only acknowledging the support you get straight away but also encouraging other people to do the same.
So, in short, when it comes time to set your rewards remember to:
- Offer small, medium, large and mega rewards to cater for all kinds of supporters
- Think about the kinds of rewards your supporters would find meaningful, fun and enticing
- Reflect your project and your creative personality in what you give
- Support comes in all shapes and sizes - and so should your 'thank you' for that support!
List of Reward ideas
- Tickets to Performance
- Early bird discounts
- Limited edition
- Signed copies of CD / DVD
- Box sets
- Digital copies
- Appear in end credits
- Acknowledgment on website
- Opening night exclusive / Premiere / Launch party
- Private cast and crew screening
- Dine with the crew / Group photo with team
- Private performance
- Complimentary drink with cast.
- Prints / Printed still frames
- Framed painting / illustration
- Sketches / Script & Storyboard
- 1hr session to learn how to …
- 12 mth membership / subscription
- Corporate sponsorship / logo display / association
- Free advertising
- Gift package / Experience
- Escorted tour
- T-shirt
- Handmade items
- Vouchers / Coupons
- Post card
- Certificates
- Named credits - Producer
- Character naming
- Access to the build and design process
- Regular updates and progress

Pozible and “Crowdfunding for Good”

Wed, 20 Apr 2011 12:37:42 EST

Recently, Pozible co-founder Rick Chen had the privilege to be a part of a panel discussion in Melbourne alongside StartSomeGood and the Awesome Foundation. Here, in front of a full house, Rick not only spoke about Pozible but also gained some valuable ideas and insight for the Pozible team and community at large on how to gain funds we’d like to share.

Entitled “Crowd funding for Good”, the discussion was geared towards giving people who are particularly interested in seeing their projects come to life the opportunity to learn new ways to raise funds. This inspiring event was organised by Sarah Stokely from TACSI - the Australian Centre for Social Innovation and Pozible were honoured to take part.

Talking on a panel is just so damn delicious when you are with co-contributors like these...

In their own words StartSomeGood.com “provides social entrepreneurs with a platform to raise start-up funds and build a community of supporters -- all in a fun, engaging and community-driven way.” StartSomeGood uses the same methodology as Pozible, only they base their efforts towards looking at issues surrounding social problems and seeking solutions through providing people who wish to work in this space access to crowdfunding. StartSomeGood is for anyone who has ever looked at a social issue and thought “something needs to change”.

What the Awesome Foundation offers is the opportunity for 12 projects a year (that’s one a month) to receive a no strings attached grant of $1000 courtesy of a board of micro-trustees where each chapter of the Awesome Foundation is located. It’s as simple as submitting a proposal for an idea and the micro-trustees like it enough for you to receive the monthly award as the Awesome Foundation are about supporting whatever they think is a plainly awesome idea.

And finally, here is a recap on what Rick had to share on behalf of Pozible...

Pozible not only work in the crowd funding space, but we live it and love it too. And we learn as we go along. Part of the process of the panel discussions is to learn what the burning questions from our audience are and sharing the responses to help make your project journey a successful one:

•	As Tom from StartSomeGood so eloquently put it and Rick from Pozible agrees crowdfunding is in reality peer funding. That is, the people who respond to your project will more often than not be likeminded individuals- your peers.
•	As simple as that sounds, it highlights the need to always keep in mind who your audience is, and to know things about them such as what they respond to, where they go for information, and how to communicate with them about your project effectively- and to put that knowledge into action for the lifecycle of your project crowdfunding experience. Gaining traction with your project is still hard work. Don’t be as naive as to think simply having your project on a crowdfunding site the money will roll on in. You still need to promote your project, use social media, be vocal about what you need and above all else, get your friends and family behind you in your endeavour.
•	Keep in mind traditional ways of fundraising still help you to get where you want when raising funds, it is very worthwhile to combine old methods like fundraiser or events with crowd funding initiatives. It also helps broaden your publicity opportunities to adopt this approach.
•	Make sure you are realistic about your crowd funding goals- a great way to do this is to check out projects of a similar nature and see what targets other people set and reached. Remember, you can always receive more than your target goal, but if you do not reach it, the pledges are not given and the captured funds are not deducted from your supporters under the “all or nothing’ crowdfunding model.
•	The more you talk about your project, the more likely you are to attract financial supporters and the higher your profile will be for anything else associated with the project once you have finished with the crowdfunding process. There is no shame in publicising your efforts!
•	Unfortunately, Pozible cannot accept projects that are about raising funds to donate to formalised charities as we cannot verify the legitimacy of your association with them. Your best course of action if you want to raise funds for places of a charitable nature is to contact the charity that interests you directly offering your support.
•	Pozible cannot accept projects that will give the supporters of that project a direct financial return. In other words, your supporter reward cannot be monetary. Also, we can help you raise funds for your creative projects and other endeavours to come into fruition, but we cannot fund you as a person to practice your creative art. Pozible is open to projects of all different kinds from creative through to environmental, social innovation and more. We encourage you to review our categories, previous projects and check out our site and see how it can work for you.

Pozible would like to thank everyone who came to the Melbourne seminar. It was great to see so many enthusiastic people in the one space! Make sure you check out our friends at Start Some Good and Awesome Foundation and stay tuned for more happenings soon.

Pozible Wall {discontinued - now integrated into the platform}

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 00:39:53 EST

“Pozible Wall” is our exciting new project feature. Each project will have the option to allow supporters and sponsors to appear on the front page of their project. Project Supporters can choose to pick up a profile box and add a link as a reward for supporting the project and get instant recognition for being part of the project.
We think this is equally great for both the Project Supporters and the Project Creator.
See the thinking behind it below:
Benefits for Micro-sponsors / Supporters:
- visible association with the project
- weblink to the website / blog (forever)
- all or nothing advertising for local business and sponsors
- recognition for angel supporters / recognition for supporting the arts
- instant and direct recognition of support
Benefits for Project Creator:
- better recognition of supporters and the associates of a project
- provide an instant reward for supporters
- fun and visual way to recognise supporters
- encouraging first supporters (the angel supporters)
- encouraging local business / sponsorship through advertising on the project
- increased project credibility
- the size and cost to pledge can be updated at any time

See what it looks like

How does it work?
Project Creator
It's quite simple, the project creator chooses:
1. how many boxes are available (in multiples of 6)
2. the minimum pledge amount required to choose this reward
For Example:
18 'Pledge Me' boxes (3 rows of 6 boxes)
Minimum pledge $50 for reward.
Project Supporter
Step 1: Pozible Member clicks on a box

Step 2: Choose the "Appear on my Pozible Wall" & Complete the payment process

Step 3: Update Profile (if necessary)
If the supporter has not already uploaded your profile image/logo or if they need to update the profile name, clicking the "My Profile" option in the menu bar opens the profile form:

Make Your Project Flow

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 13:22:31 EST

Introducing guide to making your project flow as smoothly as possible- The Pozible Project Flow! From the moment you dream up your awesome idea, you can use The Pozible Project Flow to chart your progress, get valuable advice on how to approach important decisions and make your crowdfunding journey a positive one.

The Pozible Project Flow is a MUST for any crowdfunding project and is a highly recommended resource for any project you undertake. Click on the image and zoom in to see the details.

We're making things Pozible!

Sun, 20 Feb 2011 23:54:24 EST

You may have noticed some changes in the wonderful world of crowd funding recently, the most notable being FundBreak’s name change to Pozible. Rest assured loyal fans, followers and friends, your favourite crowd funding platform is still at heart the one you know and love. It’s just that we have decided to up the ante a little at our HQ and made a decision to make things Pozible! Confused? Let’s take some time out to demystify our new identity.

We still are basically the platform you are familiar with. We provide the same service of giving creative practitioners and innovators the chance to gain much needed funds in order to follow their hearts desires through practical community support. We still allow our members to support people and groups they believe in as well as be a part of a community that cares about nurturing and fostering new endeavours. What has changed is after only six months of being operational, our team has realised just how vital our platform is to a lot of very incredible people. So we are putting ourselves out there to make crowd funding work for you as much as we possibly can. And this is why we have moved to our new name as Pozible.

Pozible is about creating a culture of creativity. Pozible will remain a place for crowd funding, where you can put your projects up for financial backing through audience participation. However we also want to add value to the Pozible experience and process through making use of our presence to build a community, encourage interest in your projects from the business world and help more and more people get to their end goal of a successful project.

So how do we plan to do this?

Building the Pozible community begins with our consolidation to centralised points of contact through social media. We’ve settled on our Facebook Fan page as our central point of contact. This means when you want to follow our adventures on Facebook, you should do so here http://www.facebook.com/pozible . We will also continue to bring you Tweet updates via http://twitter.com/pozible . To help build more of a sense of community we will be beefing up our offerings in social media and our main site blog to incorporate more advice, tips, tricks and articles about how to make ANY creative project a success as opposed to just focussing on our Pozible journey. A huge part of this is hearing from you- we want your comments on our content, your suggestions, debating, discussions, you name it we want it! Whether you have done a Pozible project or not, we know our audience is full of proactive, clever and inspired people who are just itching to share with others just like them. So we want you to be a vocal Pozible community sharing and learning!

Attracting the business world can help all of us achieve our goals. Any smart business can benefit from supporting the creative community because we are the people who innovate, create and share our stories with the wider community on a regular basis. Any smart creative practitioner knows gaining funding and access to a business’ customer base can open many exciting doors. So we have brought the supportive companies together with the savvy creative people under one very simple initiative- LikeBreak. This is as straight forward as the name suggests- any business sponsoring a project will match a Facebook Like with a set dollar amount. If your project is successful, you get the money from the company who gets the Likes and the business gets not only the warm and fuzzy feeling of helping out a cool project, they also get a tasteful logo at the top of your page to encourage the Likes and show who they are. How awesome is that?

Helping more people have a successful project is what Pozible is all about. To this end, over the coming weeks and months, we will be documenting the learning and experiences others have had using crowd funding and creating a virtual Pozi-pedia of this knowledge to assist our community with practical, real world experiences. We have also made a commitment to expand Pozible into arenas beyond just creative projects to help a whole host of people realise their dreams. Not only that but we have huge plans to make 2011 the year of letting the world know exactly what Pozible is to attract more people to fund projects, help our loyal fans make their mark and if we have time, create a crowd funding revolution in Australia and beyond.

This is why we are now Pozible. We believe we will make a new kind of creative community Pozible, make fruitful relationships with business Pozible and make more projects than ever before Pozible. Because at the end of the day, we believe anything is Pozible. Wouldn’t you agree?

Pozible | FundBreak is now Pozible

Sun, 20 Feb 2011 23:54:24 EST

We are excited to release the new version of FundBreak with a new name - "Pozible".

Why change our name to Pozible?

It was a extremely difficult decision to change our name but we learned that using the word 'Fund' in our name could be seen as misleading, especially in other countries.

If it is not obvious to you, the name Pozible comes from the words Possible and Possibilities. We think these 2 words best describe the Pozible platform and what we are all about. If Pozible appeared in an english dictionary, this is what you would find:

pos·si·ble
– adjective
1. that may or can be, exist, happen, be done, be used, etc.
2. that may be true or may be the case, as something concerning which one
has no knowledge to the contrary: It is possible that he has already gone.

poz·ible
– adjective
1. that may or can be, exist, happen, be done, through the power and wisdom of the crowd
- noun
1. a crowdfunding platform for creative projects and ideas

Over the past month, we have been working very hard on upgrading the platform and making some major enhancements to cater for larger projects. These enhancements include a more robust, faster and effective payment system that did not rely on Paypal. Your feedback was very valuable when designing a better solution for everyone.

Many of the changes may not be immediately obvious to people browsing the website but project creators and project supporters should appreciate the value adding enhancements.

Below we have listed 2 key Pozible functions that differentiate Pozible from the old FundBreak platform:

1. Pledges made on Pozible will only be processed when a project reaches its funding goal at the project deadline. Previously, FundBreak returned funds to supporters if the project failed to reach its funding goal.

2. The project time frame has been extended to a maximum 90 days. Previously, the 50 day restriction was off-putting for larger projects. We still recommend a 50 day time frame for projects.

Apart from the changes mentioned above, Pozible will operate no different to FundBreak. Please be aware that our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy have been updated to reflect the changes mentioned above. If you need any further assistance please check out the FAQ's.

LikeBreak - Share and Connect with Business

Thu, 18 Nov 2010 19:40:20 EST

About LikeBreak
LikeBreak is our first initiative for businesses, corporate sponsors and advertisers to get involved and help raise funds for Pozible projects.
LikeBreak is an initiative to incentivise people to share great projects with their social network while at the same time for businesses, sponsors and organisations to be associated with a project.

How does it work
It's very simple, a business/sponsor/advertiser will match the Facebook "Like" count with the dollar amount.

Our Recommendations:
A maximum dollar limit be set
A project should only receive the reward if the project reaches it's funding goal.

What's in it for Business?

Appear on everyone's Facebook News Feed and Wall

List your logo at the top of the project(s)

The business/sponsor/advertiser will display a short sentence, web link and logo at the top of the project – this is placed here for maximum exposure. Everytime someone clicks on the Facebook "Like" button, the sponsor name will be displayed on their Facebook News Feed and Wall together with the project name. More importantly, this is viewable to ALL of their Facebook friends.

All or Nothing Sponsorship

Pozible works on an "All or Nothing" funding model, if the project fails to meet its funding goal the sponsor and Pozible is NOT obliged to provide the project creator the sponsorship reward. Note: LikeBreak sponsorship funding does not count towards the project creators funding goal.

List on Pozible as a Creative Sponsor

Your business/organisation will have a sponsor profille and a logo displayed as a "Creative Sponsor" on the Pozible Profile page. This provide a backlink to your website. LikeBreak is open to everyone, from business owners to individuals.

More Information
If you are interested in finding out more please contact Rick or Alan on info@pozible.com.
Click to see LikeBreak Terms and Conditions

RoadTrip – FundBreak Tour of Europe

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 22:11:38 EST

RoadTrip – FundBreak tour of europe

I'm just on my train journey back from Sheffield Documentary festival to London. I'm taking the time out to share with everyone the key things I will take away from the 2 weeks i've been in talking and most listening to people in Ireland, Scotland, England and the Netherlands. It's true what they say, travel helps to broaden the mind.

Throughout the trip I gained new perspectives on crowdfunding and I also realised the responsibility of crowdfunding platforms to look longer term. I will talk about this sometime again but I generally refer to the alternative for the “all-or-nothing” crowdfunding model and also to the open for everything crowdfunding platform.

These are the 4 re-occurring subjects throughout the trip

Sustainability in tough times

Partnership and Alliance

Collaboration

Public Engagement

I hope I haven't put you off this post already but i'll try to use examples as much as possible.

Sustainability for my work in tougher times

It was very evident in Amsterdam that government policy changes were going to significantly impact the well subsidised creative industry. The digital pioneers initiative who invited me to discuss crowdfunding was winding up itself. Also, the UK announced significant spending cuts for the arts – an increasingly difficult situation for many individuals and organisations in the industry.

Is the creative industry too reliant on subsidies? And what are the solutions?

Partnership and Alliance

This was a very interesting subject for me and I want to discuss this more in detail in the future. With so many DGO's operating in the Netherlands, in the UK and even in Australia, there are numerous opportunities for individuals, groups and organisations to strategically align their vision through partnership. What on earth does this mean?? Take for example a DGO's thats mission statement is to provide training services to unemployed youngsters. Is there a project you are working on that could involve a keen apprentice? I recently spoke to PIIP in Sydney about this exact topic.

Key advantages:

Engages local community

Social purpose and socially responsibility

Share marketing and promotional activities

Tap into new networks and audiences

I see this as a huge growth area for creative endeavours – especially for crowdfunding efforts.

Action Point: Find an organisation with your shared values and vision then talk to them and find out if a partnership or alliance could be mutually beneficial (especially for marketing and promotion).

Is this not collaboration??

Collaboration

In this post I refer to collaboration as an effort by a group of individuals that combine a complimentary skill set for a project.

I am a very strong advocate for collaboration. FundBreak would not be possible if it was not for the mutually beneficial skillset of the FundBreak team. Like any creative project and in its simplest terms, the FundBreak project brings together skills in web design, web development, customer service and marketing. The FundBreak team is a collaborative effort and each member has a role to play.

For a typical crowdfunding effort, a successful pitch requires a broad mix of skills and talent. Collaborative projects that involve people from very different backgrounds usually develops into something more creative and provides a much wider appeal.

It is also essential for project creators to built an audience to target a campaign. The more people you collaborate with the larger the instant network and audience (fanbase).

Action Point: Start building your dream team now

Public Engagement

Engagement, Engagement, Engagement – the word of my euro road trip 2010.. It's nothing new but I think the so called “Facebook generation” are shifting the mainstream audience to online social media. The question is, how do we leverage this for a sustainable future?

Interesting I watched an excellent trans-media documentary yesterday that combined a fictional story; a gaming element and a documentary about conflict and war. For me this was one of the most user engaging and revolutionary pieces of work I have ever seen. I'll post the link soon.

I also listened to a psychologist today about crowd psychology. I found it very interesting that he observes a crowd as a group of individuals with their own independent values and beliefs. A crowd effort is initiated only when there is a shared interest or common motive. The simple example used was a group of people sitting on a train carriage. Whilst the train is operating normally, individuals typically sit and only interact with people they know. Once the train is delayed for 2 hours, the crowd becomes a collective and shares a common interest and effort. The people refer to the group of individuals in the train carriage as “we” - due the circumstance. Ie “We have been waiting here for 2 hours” and “We need to find out what's happening”

Without a common interest or shared sense of identity, the crowd does not have a bond. In the context of crowdfunding, a project creator speaks for the crowd and should refer to the campaign as a collective effort. Personally, I think this reverses the needy aspect sometimes inflicted on crowdfunded efforts.

Also, building public engagement into a crowdfunding project is a key element to motivating the people to share, connect and inspire others.

Action Point: List the ways you currently engage your fans and audience. What is the common interest and motivation of your audience and how do you build on this?

Closing Comments & Outcomes

As a creative organisation, FundBreak has already started investing time in making partnerships & alliances; collaborating with organisations and increasing client engagement (typically with our project creators). We ask that you contact us or leave a comment if you are interesting in learning more.

Finally, I want to take this chance to acknowledge each and every individual I spoke with throughout my roadtrip in Amsterdam, Belfast, Edinburgh, Sheffield and London. I had the pleasure to meet some of the smartest, wittiest and experienced people along the way. I especially look forward to sharing a beverage with everyone again soon – maybe in Australia ;) I hope everyone take something away from this post and I value your comments and suggestions.

Plum Jungle Retrospective

Fri, 22 Oct 2010 15:28:52 EST

This year Sydneys Hyde Park celebrates its 200th Anniversary. Life on Top of Hyde Park is a multimedia tribute by Plum Jungle commemorating this event. Featuring the talents of Pete Longworth (photography) Michael K. Chin (music) and Chris Baron (film), Plum Jungle secured an 'Official Selection' at the New York Independent Film Festival. The funds raised through Fundbreak allowed for the group to travel to New York for the festival. After already being exhibited at the Festival de Cannes, screened at the Court Metrage and receiving an 'Official Selection' at the End of the Pier, Plum Jungle was awarded best 'International Experimental Short Film' and the 'Audience Award'. "I wish we had raised money to physically get us to the other festivals," Michael says "just being at there really publicised us and our work."

Plum Jungle at the Sydney Apple Store

Currently available for purchase on iTunes is the soundtrack, composed by Micheal K.Chin, Life on Top of Hyde Park. The soundtrack features Yama Sarshar on tabla and Phil Sander on Steinway piano. On the 7th October 2010 Life on Top of Hyde Park was released on iTunes. To coincide with this Plum Jungle were at the Sydney Apple Store giving their retrospective on their work.

The event attracted Plum Jungle fans of all ages, especially their main demographic early thirty men and woman interested in multi-platform art. "We made some early relationships with Apple and they were really excited by our work. Both visually and musically" says Michael. "Being on iTunes has definitely increased our fan base." According to Pete "iTunes, much like FundBreak, is an essential building block that helps in its own little way."

Plum Jungle and FundBreak

To raise the money needed to travel to America Plum Jungle advertised their project on FundBreak. "We worked on our current individual fan bases which naturally tripled when we collaborated. Pete had various clients who bought his artworks and I had fans of my music" Michael says. E-mail was their biggest tool used to gather support. They would send out a primary e-mail alerting fans and then a reminder e-mail was sent afterwards. "Consistent contact with those people supporting you was a key to how we got so many supporters. It keeps the interest levels up" Pete believes. These e-mails were sent out in waves rather than continuously to create an ongoing energy for their cause. "We did little JPEGs and PDFs about our FundBreak page and sent them to family, then friends, then acquaintances. We also had little blinks which would lead people to our page. We also used worldwide social networks like Twitter and Tumbler and these really worked for us. People all the way in New York were donating and offering us places to stay. By the time we got there there was already a buzz about us and out work" Michael says.

According to Pete, rewards also played a big part in Plum Jungles FundBreak success. "A lot of time went into the rewards. Decent rewards let people be a part of the process rather than them just being people funding a project. Rewards are there because you have to help people along and convince them." Michael agrees that the reward system plays a crucial part in gaining supporters. "Big money should equal big rewards. Personalising the rewards is a good move because it lets people be more involved." Even though they raised the money to fund their trip looking back both Michael and Pete felt that some things could have been done differently. "If we had more time I would have liked to have done more video blogs that were updated continuously. Just to let people know what was going on" says Michael. "I would have loved to have used different forms of media," says Pete, advertising on the radio and stuff like that. But it all happened so quickly."

TOP THREE TIPS FOR FUTURE FUNDBREAK USERS

- Keep up communication with your fan base and contacts.
- Make sure the rewards are worthwhile and if possible personalise them.
- Social networking and e-mails are the best and cheapest way to gain support.

Plum Jungle and the future

Plum Jungle will soon be touring the US displaying Life on Top of Hyde Park in the Australian embassies, starting with Washington. Nights in Tokyo is one of the several projects this group is currently working on and will be a series of stills that use traditional and contemporary Japanese artists. The plan is to take both major works on tour in Japan.

FundBreak Promote - Recognising creative champions

Tue, 14 Sep 2010 21:53:14 EST

We are excited to announce the launch of FundBreak Promote - probably the most innovative feature of any crowdfunding platform in the world.

FundBreak Promote essentially recognises the help and support individuals and organisations provide to project creators for spreading the word about their project.

Quite often we ask people to share projects they love with their social networks but we sometimes fail to publicly recognise the people who have gone that extra mile. Until now!

Basically, FundBreak Promote tracks where the project web link came from ie. Facebook Like, Widget, etc..

We hope project supporters and promoters can share the FundBreak experience.

Facebook Login

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 15:04:12 EST

Facebook login is now available for creative users on FundBreak. Now users do not have to register with Fundbreak, as you can just login through Facebook Connect - making the whole process much faster and more enjoyable.

Facebook has enabled third-party websites to use Facebook’s login and authentication system through a program called. Facebook Connect allows users to take their Facebook identity, network, and privacy settings with them as they browse and interact with FundBreak. We now provide an option to login to Facebook directly from FundBreak. When you see this, you should make sure that the login opens in a separate browser pop-up window, and that the Web address (URL) for the pop-up contains the proper "www.facebook.com" domain. If it does, you’ll know that it’s a legitimate Facebook page and not a phishing attempt, and you can log in safely and securely.

The platform features seamless, one-click authentication, Facebook friend account linking, distribution back into Facebook streams, and the full power of the Facebook REST-like API and FQL.enable users to easily share FundBreak content and the actions users take on it with their friends on Facebook.

This means that if you’ve blocked a user on Facebook, that user will not be able to see you on a "connected" site. When other users connect with FundBreak, those users will not be able to see information you’ve added through Facebook that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to see simply by browsing Facebook. You can decide what types of information your friends’ applications can access from the "Applications and Websites" section on the Privacy Settings page. So the entire process is very secure and you don't have to worry.

12 Tips to Crowdfunding Success!

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 12:51:17 EST

Crowdfunding – a new era in raising funds

This evolution in fund raising is taking the financial risk out of running that creative project or idea that you've been battling with.

Here are 12 crowdfunding tips from Pozible, the crowdfunding platform for the creative industry.

1. Plan your project and set yourself a goal

It is very important to set yourself a funding target. This target should be realistic and achievable. Typically you have a time limit to raise the funding target, so we recommend you set your goal to the minimum you need to get your project started. There is usually no upper limit to how much you can raise using the “all-or-nothing” crowdfunding model.

2. You're inviting people to be a part something

You should never feel awkward, afraid or shy to ask someone to support your creative project or idea. You are not a charity and you are not begging for money. You are inviting people to be part of something great. A life experience they should appreciate.

3. Collaboration

Look around you. Is there someone who might be able to help with your crowdfunding effort? We're not talking about financial support. Is there someone or some organisation with the creative skills or expertise to compliment you and your project, giving your project the best chance of success?

4. Influencers

People tend to follow a trend. So imagine how valuable it would be to have a celebrity, respected industry leader or publisher endorse your project. You should exploit any exposure and endorsement you receive for your project because this builds credibility. This is a key focus.

5. Learn from others

Do some research before you start your crowdfunding effort. Crowdfunding has become a point of discussion online. There are loads of articles and advice from people who have been successful and more importantly, from people who have been unsuccessful.

6. Be Sociable

Make the most of every opportunity to tell people about your project. This might take you out of your comfort zone, but you will never know who you might meet. Put yourself out there and meet new people. Learn about upcoming events, festivals and local community activities – find as many ways to talk about your project and idea.

7. Share and connect online

Crowdfunding platforms have been developed to integrate with your online social networks ie. Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, etc. Be active on your personal page and constantly remind people about your project. Give people updates about your project and always encourage friends to share your project. Try not to sound needy.

8. Another day, another dollar

No one said raising funds for your project was easy and it takes passion and commitment to be successful. Don't expect your project to reach its funding goal the very moment you tell the world. You need to build momentum for your project and this takes dedication. Keeping in constant contact with your audience demonstrates your determination. People appreciate this and typically more people will support your effort.

9. Say thank you

This might seem obvious, but never forget to show your appreciation. A personal message of thanks and recognition can go a long long way.

10. Without an audience, you’ve got very little.

Without an audience you've next to nothing, so take an interest in them and get to know them. It's worth your while. Simply, ask your supporters and followers what they would find most valuable in helping fund your project. This might simply be a signed album or postcard.

11. Reward your supporters

Be creative with the tangible and intangible perks your supporters receive in return for funds. These are incentives for people to support your project and can be tailored for different groups of people. eg. A $5 postcard reward for a friend or a $30 signed copy of the album reward for a passionate fan.

12. A story to tell

So, what makes you're project different from the next one? Explain to your audience what makes your project unique and share where the idea for your project came from. Everyone has a story to tell and believe it or not, people want to learn about your stories. People need to connect with you and this is one of the most important ways to do this.

For more information on how to set up your crowdfunding campaign, check out our Pozible Handbook!

Miss Australia

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:57:25 EST

Natasha Dwyer’s dazzling costume for the national costume portion of the Miss Universe event was revealed the other day with mixed responses from the critics.

Today Tonight invited the viewers to compare former costumes to Dwyer’s, trying to figure out what is Australia’s national costume. Initially they labeled Dwyer’s costume a ‘true blue shocker’. They paired this with snippets from interviews with a single ‘commentator’ (with no specification of their specialized area) calling the costume a “real national embarrassment”. Although, this ‘commentator’ continued to further express their lack of enthusiasm for all of the other Miss Australia costumes worn in previous years. Even though Jennifer Hawkin’s costume helped her win the 2004 pageant.

However, towards the end of the segment the tone seems to change. With Jesinta Campbell, Miss Australia herself expressing her upmost confidence in the costume saying, “I really love it and I’m proud to wear it” as the catalyst. Even the Australian Director of Miss Universe stated that the harsh criticism is “mean”.

Today Tonight finished the segment with the relatively optimistic conclusion that the more memorable the costume, the greater the success. Dwyer’s costume will certainly be memorable from all the confusing hype the media has drawn to it - which ultimately seems to be a tribute to Dwyer’s ability to incorporate all the elements that make Australian culture.

Proof of this is the sudden increase in demand for the high-heel Ugg boots featured in Dwyer’s costume, which also happened to be the main focus of criticism by skeptics.

http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/fashion/miss-australias-crazy-costume-20100729-10xbg.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/fashion/fashionnews/7916564/Miss-Australias-fashion-Whats-all-the-fuss-about.html

Obviously all of us here at the FundBreak team are massive fans of Natasha's talent. We think that any harsh criticism from random 'commentators' will only bring a bigger fan base together for our lovely Natasha. Rather than jumping out of the windows of the dislike-Miss-Australia’s-costume-because-a-‘commentator’-said-so bandwagon as it crashes and burns, when Miss Australia wins this years pageant!

Congratulations Natasha on such a remarkable costume! Keep up the good work!

http://dressingmissuniverse.fundbreak.com.au

New Functions - “Start Date” & “Follow”

Sun, 18 Jul 2010 20:04:18 EST

In response to the feedback we received over the last 2 months, we have released two new functions on FundBreak today. The information below describes the very useful functions and why we added them.

Project Start Date

This allows all future project creator to set a start date for their project. The project creator can still start the project immediately but we also allow a future date to be selected. Prior to the project launch, the project can be viewable by the public and registered members have the opportunity to “Follow Project” (see below for further details).

We choose to add this function after receiving feedback from project creators regarding the 50 day funding limit. Below are the main reasons we chose to allow project creators to set a future project start date:

1. Build up interest, exposure and awareness of the project prior to project launch and during launch.
2. Encourage larger projects to use our platform.
3. Gauge demand prior to project launch (see function “Follow Project” below).
4. Give project creators time extra time to prepare and upload a video.

Prior to project launch, the public will not be able to view the funding goal but they will be able to see all other projects details (including rewards).

Follow Project

Prior to project launch, all projects with a future date will have a button named “Follow Project” (instead of “Support Project”. Registered members will have the option to follow a project and receive project updates, notifications and reminders about the project and its launch.

The “Follow Project” is not available after the project is launched but members still have the opportunity to “Unfollow” the project.

Below is a few of the main reasons we added this feature:

1. Help engage with the public prior to project launch
2. Gauge demand for the project
3. Learn about your first supporters

Crowdfunding Advice From Daz Chandler

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:21:00 EST

Daz is the project creator of ‘RadioLajee’, and successfully raised $4603 from 85 supporters. I caught up with Daz a few days ago at a really nice Cafe in Darlinghurst and we talked about her crowdfunding experience. I asked her if she had any tips she could share with current project creators after her great success.

She responded, "there is a lot of potential in the concept of crowdfunding but you really have to work hard". Daz delicated an average of 3 hours per day during her campaign and spent much of her time communicating with people to get the project out there. She found personal emails work really well. Writing even a single personal paragraph is very inviting and is much more engaging.

Daz Chandler's top seven tips.

1. Record a video specifically for your campaign, explain what the project is about and exactly what you are doing.

2. Start the campaign with the people around you first, so friends and family are very important at the start. At a certain point strangers will start to support the project.

3. Post Facebook and Twitter updates regularly and let people know how the campaign is going. The crowd tends to follow the trend.

4. It is helpful that people around your network start to put your widget up and share your page on Facebook.

5. Rewards. Project creators should just assume you are going to meet the goal and start preparing their rewards. Don't wait till the end - it will become a huge job.

6. Put a cost estimate in your project description to simply let people know where the money is going to be used.

7. Get connected with your community and your industry offline. Participate in local events and find as many ways to tell people about your project as possible. Always ask people to spread the word for you - people are more willing to help if you ask them to.

And the survey says…

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 15:55:14 EST

And the survey says… We recently conducted a survey to gauge peoples opinions on crowdfunding and their experiences with Pozible so far. We didn't expect the level of participation we received and it has provided Pozible a very valuable insight into how people have adopted the model (particularly in Australia) and how it's perceived in the industry. We'd like to take this chance to thank each and every person who participated in the survey. You will realise the value of your feedback when you start reading the responses we share with everyone. We have tried to split the responses into a series of blog posts to make it relevant to different people. The first article in the series will cover "What i like about Crowdfunding" [from a project creators perspective] So……"What i like about Crowdfunding" [from a project creators perspective] "Tell me whether or not a project has 'legs'". I like the idea of getting people involved, and they seem to like it too. Feel like it is time for me to find other ways to fund projects, freeing up grant money for new artists. Bypasses the grant funding cycles which are out of our control. More flexible and responsive than gov funding, easier than chasing corporate sponsors! Effective way to raise small amounts of investment great way to essentially pre- sell the album through pledging and rewards. As a solo performance artist, generate some income that i cannot cover out of my own pocket I'm not eligible for grants, scholarships, etc due to visa. Also, finding a job is made doubly hard. Great idea for emerging artists to gain funding. I am still studying so it is hard for me to live and pay for art materials at the same time My project doesn't fit in their funding structures of the arts funding bodies. I have heaps of online marketing ideas, but I can't afford the risk of trying all of them out. If people commit in advance to buying the product, then I know there is a market. Funding from financial sponsorship creates an unreasonable expectation by 'consumers' of the arts who expect to have their access or ticket prices subsidised by these considerable financial sponsorships I like that you can quickly turn a project around, and it doesn't have to fit the agendas of a funding body. The lag between having an idea and (successfully) funding it means that a lot of projects never come to light. I like the fact that people just give because they like an idea I love the idea that our people can be a part of my dream. I need to supplement my own paltry income with support from my friends in order to tell my stories. Opportunity to produce work on their own terms as well as simultaneously gauge audience response I'm not into the idea of corporate sponsorship A way to acknowledge people in a different way It gives me the opportunity to make work which will show funding bodies etc that I am worthy of funding and a capable artist. Keep the momentum going Provides an indication of possible support and audience numbers for the project/event It's a way of topping up, or polishing off projects My projects are too small for gov funding bodies to care about. There is virtually no funding assistance for artists who want to study overseas. Crowd funding is a means. Avoid the three ring circus of government funding Want to own control of projects, also tired of chasing money from companies When your a struggling artist and you have a dream, it's nice to get people interested and invested.. It gives more connection to the art.. "What i like about Crowdfunding" [from a supporters perspective] I can participate in other peoples projects by showing support. Seeing outcomes larger than my contribution. Gives the audience a stronger voice and enables them to support the kinds of work they wish to see more of. Help out individuals like myself. Can quietly go about helping who i think deserves it. I want to help other people get there when they're trying to do interesting and cool stuff. Crowdfunding for me is a way of helping (even if only in a very small way) to make exciting things happen in my home town (Perth). Crowdfunding seems more personal; it gives the personal touch. Friends using it. Investigate options for my own projects and friends' projects in future. Good karma and awareness of worthy causes I am a supporter - not a creative but I like the idea of not being the only one I believe it is philanthrophy in the 21st Century I enjoy being able to help others achieve their goals and to facilitate the creation of new work through only a small contribution. It feels great to know that my small donation has made something come to life. I like the idea of individual philanthropy. Being a part of the creational process and making it possible for bonds between fan and artist. It ensures the projects that people actually want, get the funding and not what advertisers want us to want. I like that the support is tangible, both for me and the project creator. Like supporting local initiatives For me it's about supporting things I'm personally interested in rather than giving to some cause and not knowing what the funding is actually going to accomplish. It is a user-pays option for supporting projects - unlike council rates etc, which may support projects I don't agree with. I enjoy helping others fund their dreams and projects. Great way to help creative people get past that financial barrier! I like the fact that I can give small amounts of money that I can afford to a much bigger project. The fact that you can fund something you actually like, or would want to see. Benefits to the wider community Those who don't necessarily go to the theatre etc or who can't attend a performance can contribute this way. ** we had a few responses that fall under either supporters or creators so we've added these in at the bottom. It is very liberal It's what the arts in Australia has needed for years. I like the collaborative elements Like the idea of testing the waters for my own creative projects and gaining support without having to invest a lot of money upfront. Market work to people via a central location. That rocks! Offers a real and viable alternative for the right projects. Provides the opportunity to see what the creative industry is aspiring to achieve, and what obstacles are being faced. And then to help transcend those obstacles. There is a serious exclusivity in the sense that only a number of people get to consume, appreciate and be part of whatever the project. View opportunities available to use crowdsourcing for technology development Based around what communities and individuals want. Brings the ability to create something that is maybe not otherwise possible. Community power is strong - all it needs a focus, and the practical means to make a difference – crowdfunding provides this. Enables artists to build a more involved community of fans/supporters Get a community behind our next game before we release it. Giving the opportunity for people to start, establish and grow their ideas from the ground up. Help to build my fan base. I can inform others (I work in the arts) of an alternative I love the fact that it's democratic. I'm interested to see what the creative community is like, and this is an easy way to get involved without already knowing "the right people". It enables projects by connecting them with individuals who are willing and able to fund their projects It is a sustainable way of getting funding for any project. It is new and exciting. The music industry is changing all the time and I like to follow new things like this.

Australian References - Tax Acocunting Legal

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 15:55:13 EST

Pozible provides the following information as a reference for anyone using our service. Pozible cannot and does not offer Tax-related advice to any Members of the Site, Application and Services. Additionally, please note that each Project Creator is responsible for determining local indirect Taxes and for including any applicable Taxes to be collected or obligations relating to applicable Taxes in Listings. As agreed in our terms and conditions, you understand and agree that you are solely responsible for determining your applicable Tax reporting requirements in consultation with your tax advisors.
Australian Business Number (ABN) Entitlement The information below is referenced directly from the Australian Business Register website at http://www.abr.gov.au.The section below refers to individuals but there is more information for companies and partnerships in the web link below: http://help.abr.gov.au/content.asp?sid=42&doc=/content/16985.htm&usertype=BC - Individuals (sole traders) If you are an individual applying for an ABN, you should check your entitlement to register here. You are entitled to an ABN if all of the following statements are true. Your activity is carried out in the: form of a business nature of trade, or form of a regular or continuous grant of a lease, licence or interest in property. Your activity is carried out in Australia or you make supplies that are connected with Australia. You have a reasonable expectation that a profit will be made from your activity. You are not entitled to an ABN if any of the following statements are true. Your activity is carried out as an employee or in connection with earning payment as a company director, office holder or under a labour hire arrangement. Your activity is a private recreational pursuit or hobby. Your activity is conducted as a member of a local government body, for example, as an elected member of a city, town or shire council.
Australian Tax Office Pozible Members should refer to the following link for information on Australian Tax obligations: http://www.ato.gov.au Contact Details: http://www.ato.gov.au/corporate/content.aspx?doc=/content/40936.htm&mnu=42683&mfp=001/001
GST Policies Due to government enacted legislation, from 1 July 2000 items bought and sold by Australians may be subject to a goods and services tax ("GST"). Pozible strongly suggests that members contact the Australian Taxation Office ("ATO") or their taxation advisor for information on the GST. The Australian Taxation Office can be contacted at the following address: www.ato.gov.au The following is provided for information purposes only. If you require advice in relation to GST issues, Pozible strongly advises you to seek the services of a tax or accounting professional. You might also like to contact the Australian Taxation Office (“ATO”) (www.ato.gov.au) and/or the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (www.accc.gov.au).

FundBreak at Creative Sydney Event

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 15:55:14 EST

With a great atmosphere and multitudes of fuelled creative persona's, FundBreak successfully participated in the Right-Brain Business Models last night for the Creative Sydney Festival.

Located in the Museum of Contemporary Arts, Alan Crabbe (along with other creative and innovative speakers) brought the FundBreak dream to life, by displaying the fundamentals of crowdfunding and the synergy these fundamentals have with Fundbreak.

Alan chose 4 key factors in running a successful crowdfunding campaign:

1. True Fans - the importance of identifying your 'dedicated fan-base' and getting to know them. True fans will spread the word and get the momentum started.

2. Engage your supporters - keeping your profile, projects, rewards and ultimately project updates interesting and alive, shows supporters your commitment and dedication to your project.

3. Exposure - tell the world about your project, send out press releases and take advantage of any media coverage.

4. Community - Whether it's your students union, your local pub or Saturday knitting group, communities play a vital role in your project. Getting your online networks involved, and telling every Facebook friend and twitter follower to support your project. "Remember your not asking them for money your inviting them to be part of something awesome!"

There is still one more open opportunity for people interested to catch up and say "Hello" to the FundBreak at Creative Sydney 2010 and of course gain some valuable information about using crowdfunding in creative ways. See details below.

Date: Saturday 12 June 2010
Time: 11AM - 5PM
Where: Museum of Contemporary Arts, The Rocks.
Price: FREE

For more infomation, just follow the link http://www.creativesydney.com.au/events/creative-connections/creative-connections

NOTE: If you do not register yourself for the event, you won’t be allowed entry. Follow the above link and register!

To be part of this experience is a blast and the FundBreak Team endeavour on more creative opportunities in the future.

There are still some more fantastic events being held on behalf of Creative Sydney, Check out the link
www.creativesydney.com

Pozible Network Collaborator

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:21:00 EST

Aims Pozible Network Collaboration is a non financial relationship aiming to build a thriving community for creative projects and ideas.
Objectives Our objective is to develop the Crowdfunding process specifically for the creative industry and provide tangible benefits to creative individuals, groups and organisations. We offer this to creative groups and organisations who share our vision and want to encourage local creative talent. Pozible is Australia's first and only crowdfunding platform for creative individuals and organisations, we provide an alternative funding method for the creative industry. We have been operating for a year and we have provided the platform for 130+ creative projects to raise funds for their projects. Amounts varying from $24 to $175,000.
What do Network Collaborators get out of this? * Free presentations / talks / round table events about crowdfunding, microfinancing and how these can be used in the creative industry. * Dedicated section on our platform once you reach a certain number of projects ( if required ) * Logo listing exchange and appear under the 'Profile' page * Easy platform access for your organisation & your members and a discounted service fee of 5% (typically 7.5%) * Free Pozible platform support and project consultancy service * Preapproved NC's will be able to generate invitation codes What does Pozible want in return for all this? * Logo listing exchange * An introduction to your members about Pozible & Crowdfunding (ie. through an article / blog on your website and/or newsletter. Currently our Network Collaborators include Vibewire, ANAT, Crafts Victoria, Melbourne Fringe, Metro Screen, Brisbane Creative, Information Culture Exchange, YPAA, Sydney film school. Please visit the link below to find out who has come on board recently: http://www.pozible.com.au/index.php/help/profiles Please contact rick@pozible.com if you would like to become our Network Collaborator or if you would like to find out more.

WHAT.HOW.WHO - About Pozible

Sun, 02 May 2010 13:13:14 EST

What is Pozible?

Pozible is a crowdfunding platform and community for creative projects and ideas. Developed for artists, musicians , filmmakers, journalists, designers, social change makers, entrepreneurs, inventors, event organisers, software developers and all creative minded people to raise funds, realise their aspirations and make great things possible.

How does Pozible work?

Pozible provides project creators with a platform to present their ideas to a worldwide audience. If anyone likes the idea, they can support it by pledging money to the creator's project. In return for support, the project creators will offer rewards depending on the level of funding; essentially differentiating itself from the normal funding process.

Who is the Pozible team?

The Pozible team is made up of four energetic, tech-savvy, eccentric team members, situated in both Sydney and Melbourne.

Whether you are a part-time photographer or an inspiring xylophone musician, Pozible is here for you.