In this guide:
Two types of crowdfunding in a nutshell 🥜
Get inspired by others
Blog: How do you know you’re ready?
How to prepare
Crowd Coaching course
Education Guides
Crowdfunding Canvas
Get ready to fund your plans in 2025 ☀️
Crowdfunding can be a great way to fund your plans - especially if you have a clear idea of what you can offer in return (rewards or shares) and a community that supports you already (customers, friends, fans, even your Nana or great nephew). Over 50% of people that launch crowdfunding campaigns succeed - which is a much higher success rate than creative grant applications or angel investment pitches in Aotearoa.
We’ve created this summer reading pack for you to get inspired over the break on how you might fund your next steps!
Two types of crowdfunding in a nutshell 🥜
Equity-based crowdfunding 📈
An equity-based campaign allows companies to raise investment by offering shares to their customers, family, and friends online. Best for growth plans eg. building a new factory or launching into a new market.
Average funds raised: $400k
What you offer in return: Shares in your company, as well as potentially shareholder benefits like discounts or product. You need to be careful not to be false or misleading your positioning.
Rewards-based crowdfunding 🎁
A rewards-based campaign is for anyone looking to raise money to make a project happen! Perfect for funding your product launch, or a very clear plan.
Average funds raised: $10k
What you offer in return: Rewards - this could be your product, experiences, digital content, or anything really. The more creative the better.
Get inspired by other wāhine
Rewards-based campaigns
Jenny and Sue from Dunedin Craft Distillers crowdfunded to buy a 1000 litre kettle so they could brew their bread-based mash, faster. In 2019 Dunedin Craft Distillers was designed from the ground up to tackle bakery waste that ended up in their local landfill each year. They brew and ferment alcohol from surplus bread and bakery products and then distill it into award-winning spirits. They raised over $27,000. They offered rewards such as gin workshops, spirits, and a cask of whiskey. Check out their campaign here.
Alli Kennedy from Sharenanigans is on a mission to empower future investors, via her board game. After two years of development, she crowdfunded to manufacture the minimum order quantity so she and her team could launch it into households and retail stores. Rewards included caps, the board game, becoming a central character in the board game, and getting businesses on the board. Alli raised $48,689. You can check out her campaign page here.
Erika and Neville from Volition crowdfunded to launch their app Volition. Volition app is designed to record the personal preferences of disabled people, so they don’t need to keep explaining them to carers. Users can take notes, pictures, videos, or record audio of what they like and how they want to receive support. Then they can choose what information they share and who they share it with. Erika and Neville raised $43,779 for marketing, app design, tech development, and to improve accessibility. You can check out their campaign page here.
Equity based inspiration
Grace and James from Natural Paint met their minimum target of $300,000 within the first 24 hours of going public. They went on to raise $827,685 from a passionate crowd of investors. See their campaign here.
Alice from Angel Food has raised a few times. She started with a rewards-based campaign to launch a new vegan meringues product and then ran three equity crowdfunding campaigns to fund different stages of her growth plans. Read her case study here.
Steph from Bonnet raised $161,903 to expand her app into the UK and the US. BONNET transforms vehicle fleet management with seamless government integration, simplifying compliance and connecting drivers and fleet managers in real-time. Check out her equity crowdfund here.
How do you know you’re ready?
Crowdfunding expert, Kat Jenkins, who has supported many successful crowdfunding raises wrote this article on how to know if you’re ready to crowdfund. Many campaigns fail to ask a few simple questions before launch. So here are five to ask yourself before you hit the “launch” button.
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You need to be able to explain this in 2 sentences or less. Some people call this an “elevator pitch”. You won’t be able to answer all the questions in those two sentences, but they should be designed to peak a person’s interest. To get them asking “oh yes, tell me more…” Without it, you won’t hold the attention of viewers long enough to convince them to pledge.
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Put in the research, get quotes. Know how much you need. Forget about the PledgeMe fees and rewards costs just for now, and make sure you know the number you need to make the thing you want to do happen. Many crowdfunders have come to me with an “approximate”. When I really push them, that approximate number can vary hugely from the actual number they need. Your chances of success are influenced by how high your target is, so make sure you’re going for your minimum – and be sure of how much that is.
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If you want a crowd to support you, then you need to make them care. What problem will you be solving for your pledgers? Why should they help you make this thing a reality? What’s in it for them? It helps to think about who is likely to pledge to your project. Knowing what kind of person might pledge on your campaign makes crafting your video, description, rewards, and promotion so much easier. Many people who fail, fail to stop thinking about that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and consider why someone is supporting them in the first place.
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Here’s a hint: it won’t be out of thin air. Your crowd is already made up of so many people. Your family, friends, old workmates, and internet friends are often the first members of your crowd. Then if you are a business or creative, you might have a secondary layer of fans or customers. Perhaps they live on a social media account or email list. In an ideal world, these two layers will get you funded. But sometimes you need to find the third layer: everyone else. That’s when being clear about the type of person you think will pledge to your campaign will come in helpful.
Look at the kind of traditional and social media they pay attention to and pitch your story to them.
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The thing is, a crowd can be a pain in the bum. They have high expectations and they’re not afraid to have a moan when things don’t live up to the hype they bought into. When things go wrong, sometimes they turn into an angry mob. But gosh, when they move they can do some truly awe-inspiring things.
So you have got to want that crowd. If you just want the money, then there are other less-intensive ways to get it. The bank is an option. So is a family friend, or saving. Or selling everything to scrape it together. For crowdfunding to work at its best, you have to love your crowd. You need to appreciate every word of feedback, and to genuinely want the support of those people.
You need to want to communicate with them. In fact, I would go so far as to say that for you, the crowd should be more important than the money.
How to prepare
Equity-based crowdfunding 📈
Start pulling together all of your documents (business plan, financials, forecasts - more info in our education guide). Figure out what you’re raising for, how you’d value your company, and start checking in with your crowd. Are they keen? If so, you should think about progressing.
You can gauge their interest by talking to people directly, or posting on social media. Here are some more ideas around how to check.
Want more support?
PledgeMe runs a six-session preparation programme for those planning to equity crowdfund. This can be up to half funded by your local Economic Development Agency. Learn more here.
Rewards based crowdfunding 🎁
Read our education guide to get all the tips and tricks.
Fill out this canvas and get started - figure out your goal, your pitch, your rewards, and who can help you along the way. Comms is Queen, so be ready to share what you’re up to with your crowd in a bunch of different (and engaging) ways. Emails? Yep. Social posts. Of course. Special run of your product to promote your campaign? Why not!
Want to learn from someone who recently succeeded?
Watch Erika’s top crowdfunding tips here. She and her team raised over $43,000 to launch their app Volition - designed to support disabled people by recording their personal preferences.
Want to talk to someone?
Book in with our projects lead Charlotte here.
Some more blogs for inspiration…..
See more from the PledgeMe Alumni here →
Crowdfund with us this International Women’s Day - 11 March 2025!
Funding is one of the most significant hurdles women face when scaling their businesses. In partnership with Ministry of Awesome, we're changing that.
We’ve helped nine women-led companies successfully raise just under $700k across our two previous events, with a 75% success rate of those that launched. We want to do it again for International Women’s Day in 2025.
The teams behind Ministry of Awesome and PledgeMe have joined forces again to launch a group of women-led crowdfunding campaigns on Tuesday, 11 March, and we invite you to join us live as we celebrate, support, and fund these remarkable women.
How’s it going to work?
This is an online event where we'll be unveiling and celebrating some exceptional campaigns throughout the hour, ranging from investment rounds to rewards-based crowdfunding.
By crowdfunding at this event, you will be in the “room” with other inspiring women, sharing your story, hearing theirs, and learning a bit as well.