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FEBRUARY 18 . 2 0 «
•artistsonline'
P o rtla n d fe m a le im p e rs o n a to r
Robert Drake is using k ic ks ta rte r to
g en era te fu n d s to w a rd e d itin g c o s ts
on his a s-y e t-re le a s e d e ffo rt v
Aka “B o b b i A Documentary.
the entire process a more intimate one—sort
of like virtual busking.
Portland author/journalist Ariel Gore
needed help to publish her book All the
Pretty People and to pay her illustrator for
the project. She’d been turned on to Kick-
starter by a friend and later saw local press
Microcosm Publishing fund a book through
the site.
“I’d been waiting around until I had
enough money to print my novella, and the
day didn’t seem to be coming that quick,”
explains Gore. “So [Kickstarter] seemed like
a good opportunity.”
Gore was right. She set her fundraising
JOEL HAMLEY
Principal Broker. ABR
goal low, knowing that on Kickstarter, if
your goal isn’t reached by the final day of
fundraising, you get nothing and your do
nors don’t pay. Within the first day of her
Kickstarter campaign, she’d raised almost
$3,000. Gore says she thinks the reason her
goals were met so easily is due to the fact
that she’d never really asked people to help
her out. Add to that the incentive rewards
offered to those who donate, and the symbi
otic pull of the process becomes clearer.
“You want something for your money!”
exclaims Gore. “You at least want a copy of
the finished product, but lots of people want
other little pieces of the artistic process, too,
or to be acknowledged for their support.
One or two of my backers didn’t want any
thing, but most people want a token—an
artifact to show they are a part of
something.”
“No one likes asking for money,” explains
Terry Bias, who recently funded the printing
costs of his web comic Briar Hollow through
Kickstarter. Bias included incentives like be
ing drawn into his comic for those who
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contributed a certain amount.
“This way, the donations become more
like purchases and those donating feel like
they are a part of your project,” he says.
Portland female impersonator Robert
Drake—better known by his stage name,
Bobbi Drake—is generating funds toward
editing costs on his as-yet-released effort
AKA “Bobbi": A Documentary. For Drake,
raising funds through Kickstarter has thus
far been a challenge, if only because the pool
of folks he’s seeking donations from happens
to be less than trusting, and not all that on
line donation savvy.
“What I’m finding out is they go to the
site and they don’t read it,” explains Drake,
laughing. “I’ve gotten so many emails from
people saying, ‘God, it really looks wonder
ful. Good luck!’ I can’t help but write them
back, ‘Oh, I’m sorry, did you not see the part
that said you can pledge $1 to show support?’
Then I never hear from them again.”
Drake says his documentary will get fin
ished regardless of whether or not his $7,500
goal is reached. If the metrics from Kick-
starter headquarters are any indication, odds
are in his favor. Kickstarter support special
ist Michael McGregor reports that the total
number of successfully funded projects sits
at 3,910, with total dollars pledged to date
reaching $27,638,318. The site has more
than 50 million page views, 15 million total
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To learn more about and to donate to Robert
Drake's documentary project, search “Bobbi
Drake” at Kickstarter.com. To learn more about
and to donate to The Portland Free Music
Project, visit gofundme.com/PFMPWiki.
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visits and more than 8 million total visitors.
Kickstarter isn’t the only game in town,
however. Samuel Thomas’ nonprofit collab
orative archive effort, The Portland Free
Music Project, is a constantly running en
deavor, dissimilar to a majority of projects
on Kickstarter that operate on a completion
date. As such, Thomas chose GoFundMe.
GoFundMe allows people to donate im
mediately and see the progress their support
is lending, with all donations going directly
to the recipient’s PayPal account.
“When you run a business, even a nonprofit,
and are passionate about the mission, you ask
everyone and everywhere for support,” says
Thomas. “Facebook has been a great tool to
get people knowledgeable about the project
but not necessarily to raise funds. People want
to see how their money is impacting some
thing they are involved with. The ability to see
progress and possibility of receiving some
thing in return is spectacular.”
Whatever the medium, thousands of proj
ects that may have never been are now seeing
daylight. W hat have you done for art lately?
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