How to Crowd Fund Your Trip Abroad

Couple weeks ago I wrote a piece on some easy ways to live abroad for a year. One of those options was crowd funding. With a bunch of crowd funding websites on the internet, having others help you out is definitely the easiest way to fund your trip. But you can't just post your trip up on GoFundMe and expect great results right away. You need to optimize your content and make people fall in love with you in order for the campaign to be successful. But don't worry I'm here to help you.

First, you will need to choose a crowd funding website and create your profile. If you are not planning on starting a business while traveling, I wouldn't use Kickstarter. Kickstarter is more focused on products and services, and is your best bet if you want to create a new travel magazine or a new backpack while traveling. Otherwise, there are better options. Indiegogo for example, let's anybody start a crowd funding campaign and allows users to crowd fund for whatever they wish. GoFundMe is another option but your campaign will not be easily found so this option if better if you just want your family members and friends to support you. If I were you, I'd use Indiegogo.

Now that you chose a website, you need to focus on the content of your campaign in order to get people to donate. You need to make people fall in love with you. Talk about all the hardships and work you put into making this trip happen; how bad you want it to happen. Think about the amount of choices people have to donate money to—make yourself stand out from the crowd. Give the donors something tangible to donate too. Write thank you notes for $15, and if you have a particular skill, use that skill to make something for them if they donate a big enough amount. Be creative and be concrete. There need to be lots of details about the trip, and yourself. People do not give money to vague ideas. If you are able to hone in with concreteness and stand out from the crowd, your crowd funding campaign will be a success.

If you have any specific questions please let me know by commenting below. Good luck!