Documentary Funding: The Fundraising Secret That Will Take You From Zero to $50,000 (and Beyond)

Let's be actual. Fundraising is hard. No matter how very good or negative the economy, no matter how wealthy the person or how massive the documentary funding pool for grants, folks, foundations and organizations Never aspect with their revenue conveniently.

So how do you inspire folks to give up their cold tough revenue? Ah, the million dollar query!

Here's the secret that inspires providing and gets individuals to take action.

Ask for the quantity you have to have, state as soon as you will need it.. and build urgency!

Filmmakers normally have the fantasy that one particular large wealthy donor or a large foundation will create a single large fat verify to cover the complete price range of the film. Never get me incorrect. It can come about. And it absolutely does not hurt to ask, having said that here's the tactic that will most probably operate most effective for you, in particular if you're a new filmmaker.

1. Ask for compact, precise amounts of dollars from considerably of distinctive individuals and set deadlines for after the funds is required. Even if your documentary funding price range is $250,000, Never ask for that complete quantity all at when. It is a daunting quantity that will intimidate most individuals.


2. Raise cash in manageable chunks primarily based on how considerably you want at that specific moment and how a great deal you feel your donor can give. Say you require $5,000 in documentary funding at the pretty starting to film your very first ten interviews. Inform individuals that is what you are carrying out and that you happen to be raising cash for that specific objective.


3. Generate trust and self-confidence. This is Crucial to fundraising. Make positive to report back to your donors once you have raised the income and performed what you stated you have been going to do. They may perhaps be prepared to give once again or at the incredibly least be prepared to fundraise on your behalf!


4. Use crowd funding. If you're a initially time filmmaker with no track record, you happen to be going to require to embark on a grassroots fundraising campaign amongst men and women you know. A very good spot to start is with on line fundraising hubs such as KickStarter or IndieGoGo.


5. It really is undoubtedly Important as soon as fundraising for a documentary to make the finest trailer probable. Folks need to have to see what you happen to be attempting to achieve and they want to assume inspired to assistance you. You will have to convince folks you've the passion and the determination to pull off your project.


6. Try to remember that results follows achievement. If you can raise the 1st $5,000 - $ten,000, it provides you a lot more credibility (specially with bigger donors) after asking for the subsequent $ten,000, $20,000 or $50,000.


7. There is no substitute for choosing up the telephone, pitching your thought and producing the ask for a distinct quantity of funds for a particular goal. Filling out types for a grant can take days, at times weeks and you happen to be competing with who knows how several other projects. A passionate ten-minute individual plea to an person who is currently pre-sold on your documentary thought will generally yield far better and more quickly good results.


8. As a general rule, cold calling doesn't perform with fundraising. For a brand new make contact with, exactly where there is no prior partnership or credibility established, send a letter of introduction initial (hopefully along with your trailer) and THEN call and follow-up as necessary.


9. Do your analysis and tactic men and women at their level. Just before asking a person for dollars, make confident your project is a all-natural match for them and that you've a general concept of what they may perhaps be in a position of providing. Your college buddy may be able to pitch in $20 whereas your businessman uncle may be able to pitch in $1,000.


10. Final but absolutely not least, communicate excitement and urgency. Producing a actual individual-to-individual ask is 1 of the hardest points you are going to ever do, but It really is 1 of the most highly effective and highly effective strategies to get documentary funding.

Faith Fuller is an Emmy-winning documentary producer and Editor-in-Chief of Desktop-Documentaries.com, an on-line resource guide for documentary filmmakers. Get a complete packet of documentary fundraising tools at http://www.desktop-documentaries.com.