Crowdfunding through Distrify players
Case study: Development and application of innovative crowdfunding and donation tools inside a video player that can be embedded anywhere
A complete and flexible fundraising toolset
- Partners: Scottish Documentary Institute, Distrify
- Funding: Nesta R&D Scotland Fund
- Project leader: Ben Kempas
- Technology development: Peter Gerard
- Legal research and coordination: Stephen Green
As producer of marketing and distribution at the Scottish Documentary Institute and together with their technology partner Distrify, Ben successfully applied for Nesta funding for the development of a fundraising toolkit that
- can be universally embedded as part of a video player,
- features a sliding scale in an easy-to-use interface,
- offers incentives to partners,
- also works on mobile devices and tablets, and
- can be flexibly customised for at least five different use cases (see below).
Pre-existing crowdfunding intermediaries did not offer this functionality, were expensive and labour-intensive (for example, rewards needed to be handled manually). Their static widgets were designed to draw users to a portal and didn't invite instant interaction at the point of contact.
The Portable Fundraiser toolset was launched in several stages coinciding with the global release of the documentaries I AM BREATHING and FUTURE MY LOVE, preceded by extensive outreach work.
The five use cases are:
1. Sliding-scale donations
Before and after a film, supporters are invited to top up their purchase with a sliding-scale charitable donation to a related cause, acknowledging that issue-driven documentaries often leave people deeply moved and motivated to help.
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