Sometimes, the ideal crowdfunding audience is highly niche and requires time and effort to find—but when you do find it… well, we’ll let Zandra explain!
Seasoned crowdfunders have slogged through the mess of what works and what doesn’t to hit consistent success. In this case study, we follow a creator along her seven-campaign journey from platform to platform.
Alex Zandra Van Chestein (“Zandra”) is a game designer, writer, artist, and podcast host. Amongst many other things, she writes “wholesome, queer light novels full of gender feels.” And she does what many of us would love to do – she supports herself through her creative works!
The Crowdfunding Stats
Zandra completed her first crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter in early 2018. Then, she did her second in mid-2018… aaand a third in late 2018 because why not?? Today, she has seven crowdfunding campaigns under her belt—six on Kickstarter and the most recent in 2023 on Crowdfundr.
She’s at the point now where her campaigns run like clockwork: finish a book, release the digital version to her online audience, then crowdfund when it’s time to do the print run.
But let’s start where it’s usually helpful to start – at the beginning.
Finding a niche
By the time she launched her first crowdfunding campaign, Zandra already had a small audience. And she worked for it—after she transitioned and became comfortable with herself, Zandra stepped out into industry events to get her name and face ‘out there’ (and to make friends!).
Because of her background in game development, Zandra’s community started in the indie gaming space. She’d done enough art and game design to attract commissions, beginning her foray into a micro-niched realm.
“Light novels” are the halfway point between novels and comics that started and grew in popularity in Japan. Zandra entered this realm by doing some fake covers of the Switch game ‘Splatoon 2’ that some friends asked for. When Nintendo forced her to delete it (No advertising your book on the game! But it’s clearly a joke? No!), she went, “Fine, then. I’ll make it and publish it elsewhere.”
She self-published this first story on Itch, printed a few copies, and then sold them on her own or gave them away at events. Her efforts snowballed into a career as an author.
Don’t underestimate the little things
Everything Zandra creates (no matter how small) grows her audience. Her first creative work made waves through the video game circles she was in on Twitter (and unfortunately, that reach left with the Elon takeover). She credits this to her particular and unique trope – trans-positive fiction with long, silly titles (her Crowdfundr campaign light novel was titled “My Friends And I Were Turned Into Catgirls But That Was Just The Beginning Of Our Cat Wishes Stories”). Her works are short and cute and not very expensive.
Many of her current offerings are $5 ‘impulse buys’ and work wonders for introducing people to her work. One brilliant way Zandra puts these samples into supporters’ hands is through online collaborative and charity bundles that reach thousands of people. While not everyone chooses to download every item in the bundle, Zandra can notify those who do about her crowdfunding campaigns via Itch’s platform, with one click of a button.
TL;DR: Create small things in your niche often and get them out in any way possible. It’s a slow growth process, but it needs some sort of inertia to kick off.
Hitting the crowdfunding stride
After seven campaigns, Zandra found promotional efforts that worked for her. She doesn’t have one master email list as she tends to bulk her emails into who has supported what campaign. Instead, she shares new campaigns mainly on the social media platforms she frequents (Cohost and a little on Mastodon).
With her Crowdfundr campaign, she wanted to see how well she could do with just her social media reach. And, while her goals are small (this last was USD 500) and can be funded with just that outreach, the most significant jump in funds came from when she messaged all of her Kickstarter backers to tell them she was now on Crowdfundr. This trend aligns with what crowdfunding data tells us about how your email lists are the biggest converters.
Waiting to promote elsewhere also helps with the ‘mid-campaign slump’ we often discuss at Crowdfundr and our donation-based platforms. Campaigns tend to see a dip in support after the first couple of days and before the final push. By waiting to tell previous backers, Zandra boosts her engagement and can drive bigger stretch goals.
Stretch goals for the win – within reason
Once she completed that first, relatively simple campaign in early 2018, Zandra explored more complicated features, like stretch goals. However, she soon found that it’s easy to promise something but not always easy to fulfill that promise.
“This [Crowdfundr] campaign was the first that I’ve run and fulfilled to completion within a year because I didn’t go overcomplicated,” she says. “Only promise what you can deliver!”
Having stretch goals in a crowdfunding campaign is not mandatory, but they are valuable tools. Zandra tracked many aspects of her campaigns (cheers to data nerds!) and noticed that stretch goals helped boost funds. They provide fodder for sharing by supporters who have already contributed (i.e. help my friend reach this goal, and we all get this thing). But they also encourage a sense of accomplishment in helping your fellow creators.
“I had a lot of general shares—like, ‘help my friend’ type of thing—but also a lot—equal if not more—helping push for these stretch goals and other milestones. I even had a media outlet reach out to me because one of my stretch goals was raises for the team,” Zandra said.
So, to keep things simple, stretch goals can be for self-benefit and extra perks or products for supporters. Many creators balk at this idea, worrying that it’s – for lack of a better word – selfish. Remember, though, that you provide entertainment and a sense of community to your supporters, and they WANT to see you succeed! One of Zandra’s stretch goals for “Cat Wishes” (that she was just shy of hitting) was to replace her aging drawing tablet. Imagine what more she can create for her supporters with that!
Final words
Zandra and her “Cat Wishes” stories teach us something invaluable about crowdfunding—your ideal audience is out there, and there are creative ways to reach them. It just takes time and effort. Plus, with her collaborative and charity bundles, she’s promoting the type of creator community we love to see. This is a world of mutual support that lifts others alongside individual success.
