How we raised £141,000 in 8 weeks

When crowdfunding, you only collect your funding if you reach your target. We reached ours with 6 hours to spare. It was a result so hair-raising it looked like a publicity stunt. Albeit one that hasn’t yet received much publicity. The Line successfully crowdfunded close to £120,000 in the final week and £62,000 in its final fundraising day.

 

We announced the campaign in the press prior to securing any funding – admittedly a slightly unconventional approach, but hindsight is a wonderful thing. From a standing start we had less than 8 weeks to raise over £140,000.

Danny Boyle talking about the project

The press support for the project was fantastic and the democratic approach to fundraising did appear to strike a chord. The Line shared its ambitions with the public and asked for help to realise these ambitions. Without any public funding available, the appeal was make or break.

Nick Curtis writes about ‘The Line of beauty in The Evening Standard

The Line on The Art Newspaper

Rather than using one of the big American crowdfunding platforms that are essentially based on a commercial exchange (I give X, I receive Y), we opted to use a British site and the first civic crowdfunding platform in the world – Spacehive.

On this site, pledge amounts are discretionary and the ‘reward’ is theproject’s realisation – a philanthropic, as opposed to commercial, approach.

Suggs Talks about The Line on BBC News

Crowdfunding is still a relatively new concept and the novelty of our fundraising method helped to capture people’s imaginations, as well as the attention of the press. The Mayor, Boris Johnson, even got behind us, wishing the campaign “every success”.

View over Bow Locks and the Lea Valley

The Mayor of London Boris Johnson backing the project

It fast became clear that the timing of our campaign was a crucial factor. But the difficulty was knowing how it influenced behaviour – would a longer campaign make the goal seem more realistic and motivate people to pledge? Or was urgency more important?

The optimist in me thought that we would share our idea with Londoners and be hailed on with £2 coins… Of course life doesn’t work like that and an extraordinary amount of hard work goes into making things happen.

Olympic athlete Christine Ohuruogu, born locally in Newham loves the project. Watch the video

Throughout the campaign, everyone, including ourselves, talked about The Line as if it were happening, when in fact nothing would have been possible if we hadn’t reached our target. A really difficult balance to strike.

Some of the events, talks and walks organised by the team to promote the campaign

Interview with Tessa Jowell, MP at Westminster Council

You need to have the confidence to lead a project and for people to believe it’s possible, but not so much confidence that people think you don’t need their help!

When you receive lots of positive press for a project, people can easily assume the project is going to happen and the incentive to give money is then lost.

Architects Richard Rogers and Ivan Harbour supporting The Line. Watch it here

Despite the project being new, with a multitude of unknowns, the idea garnered considerable support, quickly. We raised £27,000 in the first couple of weeks, but the funding then plateaued for nearly a month, so to anyone watching the campaign – the target felt increasing unrealistic.

Milepost signalising the Meridian looking South to Canary Wharf towers

Charlotte, who is The Line’s project coordinator, is like sunshine. Only with her support and hand-holding was it possible to make it to the deadline. Around £30,000 of the total funds raised came from pledges from individuals and organisations who wanted to support the project.

Charlotte McGuinnes, Project Coordinator

In the 7th and final week, through The Line’s partnership with the Canal & River Trust, both the Garfield Weston Foundation and Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners Charitable Foundation (the architects who have supported the project by producing The Line’s visual material) generously pledged.

An American supporter, Todd Ruppert, made a donation of the remaining balance, which took The Line to its target.

Project Funders tab

There were big tears when we succeeded and Clive Dutton, The Line’s co-founder, received the first phone call of excited squawks!

In spite of all the trials and tribulations, I’m really pleased we chose to fund the project this way. Londoners and London-lovers had an opportunity to be a part of this ambitious plan.

Megan Piper spots a commuter reading about The Line in the Evening Standard

Project Promoter Megan Piper with David Bailey

Spacehive were brilliant to work with and checked in regularly to lend their support and enthusiasm. As a team we felt hugely appreciative and extremely encouraged that people shared in our vision and wanted to be a part of it – people were willing to part with their money and demonstrate their belief in the project whilst it was still at a conceptual stage.

The Funders’ overview crowdfunding campaign on Spacehive

In our final week, we switched to a new hashtag (#lookingforawhiteknight). People tweeted to say that they’d sacrificed their morning coffee to support the campaign, a journalist signed off his article saying that he was chipping in himself, and we even had a New Yorker tweeting his support.

Our final day was spent refreshing The Line’s campaign page on Spacehive… You have to believe that, in theory, everything is possible. In the 11th hour, with 6 hours to spare, it was!

Elation on Social Media for the success of the campaign

We want to say a huge thank you to everyone who pledged. Plans have been progressing at a pace; artworks have been selected and updates will follow soon!

Follow The Line on Twitter and Facebook to keep in the loop of the project development.