2012 Fundraiser Scorecard

[trilobyte]

The 2012 event saw more fundraisers (parties, kickstarters, indiegogos, etc) than ever before. Now that the dust has settled (or is in the process of settling) on the 2012 event, tell us about your experiences as a supporter of a project. Did the completed on-playa project meet or exceed your expectations…or leave you wanting? Many of those asking for money offered rewards for contributions at different levels - have you received what you were promised? Are you glad to have been a supporter, or wish you had supported another project instead? Would you support them in a future project next year? Who was awesome? Who wasn't?

[veleda]

Well.. Sacred Spaces Village supported the Tuna Guy Cap'n Jim Memorial. I never got to see it but I am sure it was awesome and I did it for cap'n jim anyway. Our own kickstarter was a dismal failure. We completed our project anyway and it was fantastic.

[theCryptofishist]

I didn't contribute to anything, in part because I have an uneasy relationship with kickstarter. (Thanks for the BRC Weekly rant, "Shutterslut".) I sort of regret it now, because I like feeling that I've given away a chance to have a more connected, intimate relationship with some projects.

I don't know what the upshot is.

[CarrieSnarf]

I sorta kinda did some fundraising on the side for the sammie wagon. NO kickstarter or auction or anything fancy- just a blog with a donate button- which made one whole american dollar
It was a small project, so it wasn't hard to shoulder the expense on our own between a group of 5 friends. Well worth the time, money and effort.

[Lonesomebri]

I had a relationship with Anubis, totally satisfactory.
Watching the big stuff burn up, and thnking I played some small part was worth everything.
Got some ice cream off of Freezer Burn, knew I would enjoy some on the playa, and the guy is a regular. Friendly, welcoming, generous, very nice. The dude is still contacting me now trying to send me even more on dry ice....
Really liked the French Quarter set-up from last year, hooked up a crawfish meal with them this year that was great.....but......that gumbo they were serving out front sure looked as good, and without the "donation". So, as a greedy bastard, i wish I would have just hit the free food line out front, but as a great patron of the finer things Black Rock City has to offer.....no complaints. Nice spread.
But, yeah, some of the perks and all sure do bump right up with commerce and the like.....

[inthecolumbiagorge]

I donated to 6 different kickstarter projects. The projects turned out OK as far as I know although some of them I did not see and have really no idea. Not one of them delivered on the shwag they promised (although that is not why I donated) but I do think you should not offer gifts if you are not going to fulfill them because all of their stupid follow up emails and alerts just bug me when nothing came anyway. I would prefer to just donate and not hear from them again then constantly hear from them about how they forgot this, lost that, and that is why they did not fulfill their promises. I will still probably donate, but more carefully and not to any groups that promise stuff that never appears.

[theCryptofishist]

Thank you gifts are part of the kickstarter model.

[trilobyte]

We received just about everything we were promised, with tuna guys being the exception. We contributed quite a bit and were to have received goods plus an invite or camp location info so we could participate in a potluck dinner on Monday night, but got nothing. My girlfriend had also volunteered on their FB page to help with fire safety for the boat burn late on Friday night, but nobody followed up with anything either via FB or email. I eventually found the boat on the playa the morning after it was to have burned, but by the time I got my gf over there that night it was gone. We still would have donated had it just been a donate button, the making but not keeping promises just kind of soured the experience.

Anubis, Otic Oasis, Starlight, Your Funeral, and a number of regional effigies, all awesome stuff on the playa and they followed through with what they promised. I may have forgotten a couple things, I'll try and poke Pandorra to either remind me of the other projects or to post herself.

[trilobyte]

They are, Fishy, but people set what rewards they want to offer at each dollar amount. Plus people don't have to use kickstarter, there are other sites/services for taking donations.

[theCryptofishist]

I know that. And I was disappointed that Indie a-Go-Go was using them, too.
For good or ill, Kickstarter was the most used of the crowd-sourcing websites, so their policies probably shape the market to some extent.

[knowmad]

When I thought I wasn't going to burn this time round, I started to Give out my burn Money, $20 here, $20 there, and a few $5 Ticket Raffels (one of wich I won) all of those Projects Including Burn Wall Street met and exceeded my expectations.
After Being lead Admin on a major Project I would add; We need more overlap on Project construction, pooling Resouses is vital to cutting cost, and geting more out of donated money.
also; Thank you Salvagery of Reno. big love to Risky and Irish and all the others there.

[fresh]

Hey Trilo, sorry to hear about the lack of communication on the Tuna Guys. I think they might have had some issues between the organizer of their kickstarter and the core camp members. I too gave them my largest donation (out of about 10 total). I am friendly with one of the camp members, so I knew there location and picked up my schwag and had dinner on Thursday. I too was gonna volunteer for the perimeter of their burn, but I believe it was cancelled for Friday night and maybe done sometime on Sunday afternoon. I can get you a contact if you want and I am sure they will send your gifts.

I did receive pretty much everything I was awarded. The one patch I did not get, I contacted the organizer and he is sending to me.

It was great to see the projects that I helped fund. Will do this again next year, but will make sure that i visit ALL of the projects I donate too...

[Machina]

I donated to three projects. Two of them (Pier 2 and the Temple of Juno) totally surpassed all expectations, in terms of the projects themselves. I also donated to the SpinCycle camp, and when I first saw their structure on Wednesday, their camp was a disaster/construction zone still. I felt a little bit disappointed. I've since heard that the camp organizers were short on help. I stopped by the camp again on Friday, and they finally had the shade up and things cleaned up a bit.

I only received my "thank you" gift from one campaign, and that's because I picked it up on-playa. I have no clue when/if the others will arrive; I don't really care, I guess. Though I hope that the Pier swag does eventually make its way to me!

Long story short: I'll donate again next year to select projects. The Temple, for sure.

[linds_e]

I contributed to the Pier 2 on Kickstarter, they exceeded all my hopes of how it would turn out, and I got a thank you card and stickers from them in the mail right before I left for the burn.

I liked feeling like I had a teeny tiny contribution to it happening and will hopefully do more of that next time.

[Risky]

When I thought I wasn't going to burn this time round, I started to Give out my burn Money, $20 here, $20 there, and a few $5 Ticket Raffels (one of wich I won) all of those Projects Including Burn Wall Street met and exceeded my expectations.
After Being lead Admin on a major Project I would add; We need more overlap on Project construction, pooling Resouses is vital to cutting cost, and geting more out of donated money.
also; Thank you Salvagery of Reno. big love to Risky and Irish and all the others there.

Thanks knowmad.
It was a busy summer with setting up Salvagery and working with Burn Wall Street and Pier 2 crews.
Having Misa and a few of the CORE crews land here was amazing!
Along with the FractalNation Area 51 Alex Gray project thru International Arts Megacrew.

We were able to get private funding that paid our rent and utilities for Salvagery for the summer so had no need to charge anyone rent for their builds.
That scores a solid 10 on my scorecard.

[nilasnake]

wow, that's fabulous, risky, i didn't know.

[Candybox]

I made the Anubis pendants out of our leftover wood for the IndieGoGo fundraiser. They're actually made from sliced up 2x4s that we've probably used as bracers during construction. We didn't have time to send most of them out before we left for the build, but they should be out now.

[dragonpilot]

In my opinion I thought the blue lights marking the porta potties was the most directly beneficial project...I mean when ya had to go at night a quick scan of the horizon on the playa would reveal those wonderful soft blue lights indicating the reward awaiting beneath.

I've had others say that those lights have always been there, but for the last 7 years I never noticed them on the open playa or anywhere else...why else would they have asked for a Kickstarter donation this year (to which I gladly contributed)?

There are lots of other interactive arts, for sure, but you can't beat this kind of interactivity!

[Timezone LaFontaine]

I'm not sure how far back they go, but I first noticed the blue lights about four years ago. At least for the portapotties in the open playa... maybe they were adding them to the ones inside the city streets this year?

[MacGlenver]

I contributed to the Black Rock Bijou. Got some notices from Kickstarter to send my address so I could receive my schwag. They said they'd deliver in September. Havent gotten anything yet, but not sweating it either way. Didn't actually make it out to the Bijou this year, but glad to see pics of it for 2012

[Bexx]

I donated to the Pier 2, and El Pulpo - which I loved!! I wish I'd seen the starlight kicker.. I would have gave $ to that too, as it was amazing

[trilobyte]

I wanted to post an update regarding the tuna guys, they did eventually reach out to us and got everything sent out. Thanks guys, while we missed you on the playa we were happy to help with Cap'n Jim's Memorial.

dragonpilot - the small blue lights have been at either end of the porta-potty banks for years, and were not part of the fundraiser you contributed to. The kickstarter was to fund separate Vegas style signage on some of the portos on the open playa.

[jcliff]

Hmm....I'm on the fence on how much to share here, but I'll go ahead and share fully.....with the stipulation that it's still early.

First off, I think all the art was amazing. I did get to see most of the art that I contributed to. The exception was Black Rock Bijou. That was just my own fault. It's tucked away on deep playa and I just didn't make it out to it. Everything I saw was amazing and well worth the contribution.

The follow-up on gifts:
I donated to Anubis and got a wooden pendant as promised.
Black Rock Bijou was supposed to gift a sticker, pin and a framed print of the art. I got the first 2 but an empty picture frame. Nice frame, but I was really hoping for the print. Probably just an over-sight.
Bottlecap Gazebo I didn't get anything from (August delivery.) Was supposed to be a beer kozie, bumper sticker and bottlecap pendant. Maybe it's still coming.
Temple of Juno promised a poster print suitable for framing (Aug delivery.) Haven't got anything. Hoping it will come because I'd really like to have it. They were still working on the Temple when I arrived on Friday Aug 24, so I would guess the print will show up eventually.
The Pier 2 was supposed to send a hoodie (August delivery.) Didn't get it. Would have liked to have it for the Burn.
The Journey Home Project will not send their gifts out until they complete the project (November.)
I also donated to my Great Lakes C.O.R.E. which didn't offer any gifts. No problem with that! Their train engine was awesome and I was happy to be a part of it!

My feeling on gifts for art Kickstarters is that they are an incentive to get people to donate at a higher level than they would have without the gifts. I found myself in this situation with several of the above Kickstarters. I believe in contributing to art regardless of any gifts that I am going to receive. However, I believe in doing what you say you are going to do, especially when you are taking money from people.

I enjoyed all of the art I contributed to. I don't regret the money spent at all.

[JStep]

1) We're late sending stuff out too, glad to hear we are in good company.

2) We are sending out the perks, so if you gave to Missed Conceptions, you will receive your persk, all of them, in fact several of you already received postcards from the playa. W are fulfilling the rest, our sticker order was delayed, our apologies.

[Elorrum]

I have yet to receive any rewards for donations. waiting on a t-shirt and a sticker.

[jcliff]

Just following up.....I received my Pier 2 hoodie and I love it!

[MacGlenver]

Received my BR Bijou frame, sticker & pin. Nice stuff!

[moonrise]

I donated some $ to Pier 2 (didn't sign up for any gifts) and yep, well worth it!

Anubis sent me a beautiful amulet. Watching it burn was fantastic!

[knowmad]

My name Is now tattooed on Simon of the Playa's arm as promised. Got some Bonus booties as well.
His heart is also on his sleeve. Dog Bless that post Human degenerate!

[Candybox]

So glad people like the Anubis pendants!

I'm really looking forward to flexing my fabrication muscles to make perks swag for whatever our project is next year.