Working with Hui O Wa'a Kaulua Voyaging Society Leader Kimokeo ("Kimo") Kapahulehua, staff & “Friends of” folk, to create the fundraiser project, involved the following steps:
● Artwork Permissions: Kimo hooked us up with local Maui artist Loren Adams who gave us permission to us his "Herb Kane like" painting of Mo'okiha. Kimo also knew Herb Kane & contacted Herb's Family Trust for permission to use some of Herb's art for the project
● Fundraiser Accounts & Project Updates: Toni created a Kickstarter account, as well as, met with NGO Accountant Melanie Alapai to setup the project "back end" operation (Kickstarter uses Amazon for receipt of donations, so an NGO Amazon account also needs to be setup). Mel will also act as a liaison between Toni and the canoe crew, making sure Toni gets the information she needs to create regular updates to the project that will be sent out to all subscribers
● Project Album & Donation Gifts: Toni & I put up a Mo'olele & Mo'okiha photo album & worked out a roster of "thank you gift in return for donation amount" (inspired by PBS TV "Pledge Night") which includes the book "The Last Navigator", DVD "The Navigators", Mo'okiha postcard/painting, Mo'olele style hand carved wooden paddle & tickets for voyages on Mo'olele & Mo'okiha
● Project Prototype Webpage: Toni prototyped the Kickstarter project page by mocking it up in Google Docs & setting up share authorizations for NGO members to comment/edit/markup content (pdf). After this process completed, we got a “thumbs up” from Kimo to go ahead with the Kickstarter project
● Canoe Voyage & Video: I took a several hour voyage with Captain Gilliom & crew on double hulled voyaging canoe Mo'olele. I shot HD 1080p video of the experience & posted to YouTube for linking to from Kickstarter, so donors may preview the adventure & be encouraged to contribute the donation amount associated with that thank you gift (video)
● Project Overview Video: Toni & I created a Kickstarter Mo'okiha Fundraiser Overview video, as most successful Kickstarter pages include a very short project intro/overview/summary video which we're advised to include. A popular recommended format is a very brief slide presentation, with impressive graphics & soundtrack, arranged as a slide show & played as a video, resembling a movie trailer. Inspired by the Maui Theater 'Ululena play Kimokeo treated us to, Toni (utilizing her Google training video production experience) & I storyboarded a 7 slide animation. The soundtrack utilizes a royalty-free song (culled from our subscription to Killer Tracks), while the graphics variously come from photos we shot at Mo'okiha's construction site, artist Loren Adams' Mo'okiha painting &, for historical context, 4 depictions from Herb Kane (video)
● Fundraiser Account Verification (Manual Step): Toni & Mel struggled over several days with this step, required before project submission for the review/approval process. Toni writes:
[a] Biggest problem was getting the Amazon account verified. That seemed to be a screw up on the Amazon side. Mel had faxed them an account statement, but the return email referred to a different bank account number. She tried it again and got the account hooked up to her personal Amazon account. She also had to enter credit card information for the Hui's credit card
[b] On the Kickstarter verification page for the bank account/Amazon account, you need to enter and validate a phone number and an email. The email must be the one associated with the Amazon account
[c] The Kickstarter account should be registered (created by) someone who had the ability to link their own Amazon account to the bank account of the Hui. [note: this was actually a requirement contradicting what Kickstarter Help indicated, which caused major problems, in that Toni would not be able to finish & submit the project webpage under the account she created, (it can only be submitted by the Hui/Amazon account holder), which ended up requiring a complete “Re-Do” of the project site: Toni had to tear down all her work on the site & delete her Kickstarter account, then Mel had to create a fresh Kickstarter account for the project, then Toni had to use Mel’s Kickstarter account login info to login to the new account & rebuild the site from scratch
[d] Kickstarter requires a bio from the person who sets up the account. This helps provide a voice and persona for the project. Since Melanie became the Kickstarter account owner, I asked her to add her picture and bio. Instead, we wound up getting a picture and info from Tim, the captain. That was a better choice, due to his long involvement in building the canoe. Subsequent newsletters should probably come from him for consistency of communications with the Kickstarter fans of the project
● Project Production Webpage Submission: Toni, having completed the Fundraiser Account Verification (Manual Step), submitted the production Kickstarter project webpage to Kickstarter, which must 1st be subjected to a review/approval process before going live (note: as Kickstarter & Amazon both tack on a few % fees, we needed to add that into our original need of $41K so will be asking more like ~ $60K)
● Kickstarter Project Decline: Kickstarter declined the fundraiser citing “this project does not meet our guidelines”
● Fundraiser Webpage Relocation Planned for Hui website: Toni recommended alternately setting up the campaign on the Hui web site, using its Pay Pal account and doing the fundraising emails as planned to drive traffic to the Hui site instead of Kickstarter. Advantages to this approach are that money received comes to the Hui immediately, there’s no artificial time limit, no all-or-nothing funding, and the only costs are Pay Pal fees which are considerably less than Kickstarter fees. Additionally, Toni (who works at Google) & I met with a fellow Googler friend named Laura (who has several years experience working Google community fundraiser projects), who pointed out offering gifts for donations actually can be disadvantageous for several reasons: donations are not tax deductible, some donors are employees of companies that will offer matching funds (like Google) but won’t when a gift is involved, & donation amounts are significantly reduced from having to deduct the cost of purchasing & mailing the gifts – consequently we’re advised to drop the donor gift component to rake in more money
● Fundraiser Pitch Emails: I created an email with pitch content, available in 2 flavors, “for folks not familiar with the voyaging canoe story” & “for folks familiar with the voyaging canoe story”, that folks can use to send out. To distinguish which is which, I created a simple website named Friends of Hui O Wa'a Kaulua to store this project’s working documents, & copied the emails content to the site’s webpage named Fundraiser Project Pitch Emails
● Notable Donor Candidates: I also created specially tailored versions of the “for folks familiar” fundraiser pitch email, for a short list of unique Voyaging Canoe folk, which includes Voyaging Canoe documentary filmmakers Sam Low (“The Navigators”), Eric Metzgar (“Spirits of the Voyage”) & Na'alehu Anthony (“Papa Mau: The Wayfinder”) - from & with all of whom I occasionally purchase media & enjoy email exchange - as well as Polynesian Voyaging Society (PVS) Co-Founder Dr. Ben Finney (“Hokule'a: The Way to Tahiti ”), elected Living Treasure of Hawaii 2012
● Deeper Google Involvement Exploration: Toni & I further brainstormed & followed up with fellow Googler Laura on Google fundraising opportunities. Laura mentioned avenues worth pursuing are Google Alumni group(s) & other potentially related “Groups@Google”, which include the Sailing Group & may include additional Groups devoted to, for example, Indigenous Culture, Ancient Technology & the like. She also suggested considering additional Silicon Valley tech company execs with related interests as possible project sponsors, citing, for example, database giant Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, because of his major interest in Yachting (including placing in the America's Cup) & purchase last month of Maui’s neighboring island Lanai (story)
● Fundraiser Webpage Rebuilt on Hui website: Mel worked on getting the Hui website login info to Toni &, after a few problems & tries, Toni was able to login & rebuild (for the 3rd time) the fundraiser webpage on the Hui website
● Fundraiser Webpage Launched on Hui website: Toni finished the fundraiser webpage around midnight Sunday, July 8, & emailed an announcement that read “Tonight I uploaded a revision to the donate page that basically contains the content that we originally developed for Kickstarter, but without all of the "rewards" for donations”. The donation site webpage is now live at “Building a Hawaiian Voyaging Canoe”