Bedlam Theatre took a big step forward in its $400,000 capital campaign this week when it racked up $47,318 in crowdfunding and matched donations. Bedlam, which opened a new space last year in St. Paul’s Lowertown, raised the money through the crowdfunding service Indiegogo.

Besides publicity and attracting interest, there are three major factors in crowdfunding initiatives:

• Choice of crowdfunding tool,
• Stretch goals, and
• Appealing, tiered rewards.

By selecting Indiegogo, which funds projects even if they don’t hit their stated goal, Bedlam insulated itself against the campaign fizzling out and not yielding any returns – a frequent problem with overly ambitious Kickstarters. This step also guarded against the campaign concluding while still under steam – a not small concern, given that a donor offered to match all donations up to $35,000. In the end, Bedlam accrued $23,659 in Indiegogo pledges, a number that fell well short of the official goal of $75,000, but when combined with the match totaled $47,318. At 12% of the $400,000 capital campaign target that Bedlam set for December, that’s not at all a bad first step.

Some of the more interesting tiered rewards selected were:

• 1 hour of DJ privileges (11 takers, $35)
• A pie baked by Bedlam’s Managing Director Andi Cheney (12 takers, comes with a party invite, $75, the only reward category to sell out)
• Naming rights for a drink (8 takers, comes with a party invite, $200)
• A 2-hour booking slot at Bedlam (5 takers, comes with a party invite, $500)
• Free beer for a year (1 taker, comes with a party invite, $1000)

There were no takers for taco party and custom song options, but an extra $950 was raised through various pledges for Remixin Vixens Cupcakes.

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Basil Considine

Basil Considine is the Editor of the Twin Cities Arts Reader. He served as Performing Arts Editor and Senior Classical Music and Drama Critic for the Arts Reader's first five years before succeeding Hanne Appelbaum. He was previously the Resident Classical Music and Drama Critic at the Twin Cities Daily Planet and remains an occasional contributing writer for The Boston Musical Intelligencer and The Chattanoogan. He holds a PhD in Music and Drama from Boston University, an MTS in Sacred Music from the BU School of Theology, and a BA in Music and Theatre from the University of San Diego.

Basil was named one of Musical America's 30 Professionals of the Year in 2017. He was previously the Regional Governor for the National Opera Association's North Central Region.

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