We are now three weeks into #SciFund Challenge projects going live on RocketHub. Where do we stand?
Astonishingly well! As of this morning, #SciFund projects have together raised $49,294. Incredible. And if you look at the figure above, you can see that contributions are rising steadily.
What ‘s amazing here is that this steady rise shouldn’t be happening. The crowdfunding site Kickstarter recently did an analysis of all of the projects running on their site.
They found that pledges to Kickstarter projects tended to occur when projects launched and when they ended, with not very much going on in between. That’s not what is happening for SciFund projects – plenty of contribution action in the middle – so we are really breaking new ground here.
In really fantastic news, four projects have already blown right past their funding targets.
- Artificial Photosynthesis at NCSU by Walter Weare
- Ancient Roman DNA by Kristina Killgrove
- Support Zombie Research! by Kelly Weinersmith
- Turtles in the Deep by Lindsey Peavey
What about dollar amounts raised by individual projects? All but four projects have raised at least one hundred dollars. Twelve projects have already raised at least one thousand dollars. And our standout success so far, for dollars raised, is Ancient Roman DNA (there’s that project again), with $9,281 raised in about two weeks.
So keep up the incredible work #SciFund people! Keep spreading the message of your wondeful science. And if you are looking for some advice on how to make your project even more successful, there is some advice on this blog from some of the most effective SciFunders (the advice is here, here, and here).
The team at SciFund Challenge and RocketHub have achieved a groundbreaking accomplishment. Keep up the good work and good luck to all Scientists.
BD