Who’s going to win the £5000 Creatives Grants?
There are 42 days left to go before the 12 winners of the PleaseFund.Us Creatives Grants are announced on the 23rd February. That still leaves plenty of time for new projects to be uploaded and join some of newest projects that have only recently embarked on their campaigns. The Geographical Times, BrainBart, Give-A-Limb, Vinki Websotre, Fandom Is A Way Of Life and Sam Rose In The Shadows have all been uploaded over the last week or so. One project in particular has been ticking all sorts of boxes with regards to the criteria for the Creatives Grants.
“Marko Baloh’s RAAM “ the book
Within 5 days of his project being uploaded to the PFU platform, Marko’s project has been shared 399 times on Facebook and 106 times on Twitter directly from his project page. As a result of this harnessing of social media networks, Marko already has 10 backers who have pledged a total of £745 towards his book campaign. Marko hopes to share his story of his six participations at the World's hardest cycling race, The Race Across America (RAAM), which consists of 3000 miles, 13 US states and 105000 feet of climbing. In the last 11 years, Marko Baloh has set 14 World Records and is one of the best ultra-cyclists in the world. Who knows, perhaps his crowdfunding project can break some sort of record as well?!
Marko’s campaign has already shown that a project can be just as eligible for some of the Creatives Grants as projects that have been campaigning for one, two, tree, or even four weeks longer. This is the joy of the grant’s criteria. It means that a project can be eligible for one of the grants, regardless of how long it has been uploaded to the platform. However, it is important not to leave things too late, or else you might be giving yourself a slightly too high a mountain to climb.
As well as looking ahead to new projects, it’s important not to forget those that have already been campaigning and whose funding deadlines allow for them to contend for one of the 12 winning grants.
Laughter Lines / Leeds Comedy Festival 2012
Patrick and Natasha have also been working away at their social plugins. Their project has been shared 257 times on Facebook and Tweeted 76 times, both directly from their project page. With 60 days still left to go, they are definitely in contention for one of the Creatives Grants awards. So far 8 people have pledged a total of £105 towards bringing 15 more shows with numerous alternative comedy acts at an affordable price to the North's 'best city' over 8 days this Spring.
Mission: Explore Food
This project was uploaded mid early December and has sparked a real interest within its own target audience. Mission: Explore Food is the latest in a series of children’s books that “encourages children to explore the world around them, developing their curiosity, confidence and courage along the way”. The series plans to be a revolutionary cookbook, guide, field book and atlas to what we grow in the ground and how to find, eat and dispose of food.
The project page itself has been shared 87 times on Facebook and has had 117 tweets. 19 people have pledged a total of £1580 so far, and what we love about this project is the interaction it has had with its followers/backers. If you look at the bottom of the project, you’ll see various comments and posts from followers with replies from the project owner. This is great to see, and ideally what every project should have. The more interaction a project can have with its followers, the more personal it becomes and the more chance it will have of enticing more backers.
Providing this great work is kept up (and providing it hasn’t already reached its target by the 23rd February), a grant from PleaseFund.Us in the final week of its campaign could be the icing on the cake.
When Jaws Came To Visit - One Final Push
Whilst it’s exciting to be eligible for any grant, it’s important not to forget the crowdfunding aspect. We may have combined the two (grant giving and crowdfunding) but this won’t always be the case. We want the Creatives Grants to act as a helping hand to ideas that need that extra little push. The rest of the work has to be done by you, the project owner.
Rufus Elliott is one project owner that has been campaigning remarkably hard.
We love Rufus’s project; so much so that we pledged £1000 of our own money towards his project back in November. When Jaws Came To Visit was the winning project of the previous Creatives Grants, and it’s still alive and ‘swimming’. Rufus has done an amazing job so far and has raised just under £5000. In total, 26 people have pledged a total of £5887 towards his project, and with only 15 days to go, Rufus’s campaign is just entering into the final push.
Nearly every project will receive more interest at the beginning and final stages of it’s campaign, and we hope that people will get behind Rufus and help him reach his funding target, because remember… it’s all or nothing!
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