I spent the weekend (and change) collecting my thoughts and deciding where to go forward with Dinthwaite.
One of the important things to do in this situation, once the sulk is over, is to thoroughly evaluate the experience for information on how to improve. There was always going to be a disconnect between what people want and what can be offered at these initial stages. I am not prepared to abandon the goal of making the village low-to-no cost. However, the money still has to come from somewhere. While I hope to engage sponsorship and grants for a majority of it as much as possible, those can only be pursued after the incorporation stage.
The investment based self-funding model is a goal, but perhaps cannot be a fundraising goal. I am not sure enough people understand how it can work, or don’t believe it can. In the interim I am developing a membership component which will help to build said nest egg. But, as I joked a bit during the campaign, there’s nothing sexy about spreadsheets. Everything is on paper, it’s conceptual, it’s all that work that goes into doing something well before the effects are visible. It’s why people quit work out programs and taking up new artistic hobbies, because they want the fun, the cool, the effects – now. Delayed gratification is not in vogue, and while I value the support I did receive for this stage of the project, the wider appeal was clearly lacking.
And so I mulled for quite a while on what I could achieve within the constraints of the resources available to me at this stage. It is appealing to look at what I raised on Kickstarter and assume that’s a reasonable “budget.” Of course, it is unreasonable to assume I can expect a dollar for dollar equivalency. It’s the same fallacy as assuming if there are 10,000 reenactors in the world, then I should be able to rely on a certain percentage of them to give a certain dollar value and spit out an assured amount of financing on the other side. This Kickstarter is enough to prove the math doesn’t come out so clean. Scale is also against me, as many pledged expecting rewards which are more difficult to fulfill at the same price point when working with a tenth as many people. And I am not sold on using Kickstarter again. But, over the weekend only about a third of the people who backed on Kickstarter have migrated in some way or another to Facebook or the email list.
Brace yourself for some math. I went over my plans to see what could be trimmed down to make the first step, already a small step, even more of a baby step. The funding goal on Kickstarter was $24,450. Abandoning Kickstarter already saves their fees and taxes and built in “margin of error” calculations which added thousands onto the original funding requirement and brings me to $20,000. While I think it is ultimately a superior compartmentalization of projects to get Dinthwaite its own web-space, I already have the Turnip of Terror website, and Dinthwaite can have a web presence there for a while, dropping the goal down to $10,000. A post office box is a need, but also something I can remove today, bringing everything down to $6,500. This is officially under what was raised on Kickstarter.
While I think it is important for the business to be able to stand on its own feet and cover its only essential expense, the annual filing fee, if being completely cutthroat I am happy to donate that, leaving only the cost of estimated legal fees, which I was told would not exceed $5,000. This also inherently cuts out any funding for printing the Letter Patent. But, incorporating the foundation is still the necessary first step, which cannot be ignored as it is the gateway to money which are not crowd-funded related. And while it is easy to balk and say it does not cost that much to incorporate a business (many have already said that) trying to do something unusual, from a legal standpoint, is not. It means bespoke legalease and examining obscure areas of the law. I cannot rely on boilerplate forms copied from templates online. Codifying the correct culture into the incorporation documents will take time and attention in an area which no one has prior experience.
Once incorporated, I will have access to grants, sponsorships, and I can pursue non-profit status which would make donations tax deductible, effectively a requirement for future fundraising efforts. If I can get the attorney to do this under budget, then everything left over goes towards printing the Letter Patent, all the goals I’ve had to cut, and towards getting the land. And once incorporated, that sets the gears in motion for fundraising, grants, and program efforts.
For the next two weeks I am accepting donations toward the incorporation legal fund. I am limiting the time frame because those who are committed enough to support at this early stage still deserve their exclusive recognition and praise. The reward will still be similar: immortalization as a founding member on the website, record in the village’s histories, physical display on site when built, lifetime membership to the Confraternity of the Star (which will ultimately become the paid membership aspect of the site referenced earlier,) and the Letter Patent as soon as I can get it printed.
Kickstarter, Alternatives, and the Future
