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Bedlam Theatre Raises $47k Through Crowdfunding

by Basil Considine -

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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