Baby steps for crowdfunding: ToGather.Asia raises US$2,555 for Indonesian band The Tree & The Wild

It’s one small step for crowdfunding in Southeast Asia as Singapore-based site ToGather.Asia has today concluded a campaign that raised US$2,555 for Indonesian band The Tree & The Wild (TTATW).

The money helps fund a mini-European tour in Finland and Estonia, which they will embark on after performing at the Reeperbahn Festival in Germany.

The amount isn’t much — especially when compared to American sites like Kickstarter, which can sometimes raise millions in a campaign. But for a region that remains largely unaware about the possibilities of crowdfunding,  a minor success is a giant leap.

(Read: Overview of crowdfunding pioneers in Asia-Pacific)

To grease the wheels a bit, ToGather.Asia has adopted a “keep-what-you raise” fundraising model as opposed to the “all-or-nothing” approach used by Kickstarter. The reason for this less punishing approach is because the company wants to lower the learning barrier for individuals who are trying out crowdfunding for the first time.

“We have been actively advising our project creators to set realistic funding goals. We feel that until the scene is ready for the ‘all-or-nothing’ funding model, we will be sticking with the ‘keep-what-you-raise’ funding model for now,” said Bryan Ong, founder of the crowdfunding site.

The platform has several other projects that are raising funds concurrently, although a lot of them haven’t received a single cent. For Bryan, hopefully, the publicity generated through the TTATW campaign will raise more awareness about crowdfunding, leading to bigger and more successful projects.

Crowdfunding is a new concept in Asia. What are the challenges faced in educating the market, and what strategies did you employ?

Bryan: Much effort and time is needed to reach out to the different communities in the region, such as design, technology, music and films and so on. It is only until a certain juncture where a critical mass of projects getting funded is reached that the mass media’s attention will be raised.

Until then, we will have to educate our project creators and backers in industry-specific communities. However, despite his challenge, we are heartened to know that news of our platform had came full circle back to us and we are currently the preferred crowdfunding platform in Singapore.

The second most major challenge in educating the market is in active campaigning. Most of our project creators are unsure of how to campaign after their crowdfunding campaigns have started. This is a challenge for us because while we are able to help campaign and market their campaigns for the project creators, much of the campaigning is still required from themselves as they are the ones who require the funding.

For projects based in Singapore, we will meet up with the project creators to understand about their projects and brief them about active campaigning. We will then follow up with emails to guide them on the process. For projects abroad, we will usually brief through Skype calls and email.

We have prepared a crowdfunding guide on “what works” and “what doesn’t” as well as an infographics to ease the process.