Listen to this post:

Many of you visiting this blog helped fund “Who Am I To Stop It” by donating to USA Projects back in the early days when the film was called “The Art of Brain Injury.” We had such great success with the campaign that USA Projects asked me to make a brief testimonial video about my experiences. Here it is in case you want to watch some weird goofing off for the camera. This video is not about the documentary. It really is me giving thanks to the organization for organizing my fundraising campaign. There is a cameo appearance of a plastic skull, though.

Sorry about the fact that you can’t actually hear my voice. Someone else added the music after it was out of my hands. Transcript is below!

More goofy films are on the horizon. So stay tuned!

My project’s working title is “The Art of Brain Injury.” It’s a feature length documentary on artists with brain injury living in the Pacific Northwest.

Now, you won’t be able to tell just by watching this, but I’m living with traumatic brain injury myself. And because of it, I can’t organize a thing to save my life!

USA Projects was so wonderful because of the organization and support they provided me. They didn’t give me support because I’m brain-injured. They gave it because they support artists.

USA gave me every detail I needed down to when to send emails to potential donors, what to say in those emails, and how to set up a live fundraising event where money collected onsite was tax deductible too. Without that kind of support, I would not have been able to carry a crowd-funding campaign on my own at all.

My goal was $9000, just enough to get started shooting initial interviews and arts exhibitions. I walked–or rather jigged–away with just over $14,000!

We took great advantage of setting up our own matching funds to entice donors, and it worked.

I’ve now nearly finished recruiting featured artists for my film, and we just began filming our first interviews. Next up: grant writing, grant writing, grant writing to fund the rest of the film.

I love that I can still send updates to my whole donors base through my USA Projects profile page even though my campaign has ended. It provides a quick, accessible, and professional looking way to not only reach people but remind them of how their donations aren’t just money. They’re a form of participation in my art project.

Crowd-funding is daunting your first time through. Since the USA Projects folks love what they do, they’ll walk you through every step and make sure you don’t lose your balance.

So don’t delay another minute. Go get some art funded!