1. Engagement Leads to Crowdfunded Science
Jarrett Byrnes and Jai Ranganathan
University of Massachusetts Boston &
National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis

3. Science Funding Rates Declining
stimulus
#SciQuester = 1000 NSF grants not funded this year
Data from:
http://dellweb.bfa.nsf.gov/awdfr3/default.asp
http://report.nih.gov/success_rates/Success_ByActivity.cfm

4. Public Science Literacy Needs Work

5. Scientist's Attitudes Towards
Outreach Not So Good
In scientists’ own words, science outreach is a bleak
prospect with limited room for improvement. Seventy-four
percent of respondents list one or more significant
impediments to their ability to do science outreach, yet less
than half have concrete ideas for how science outreach
could be improved.
Ecklund et al. 2012 PLoS One

6. Little Reward Structure for Outreach
Scientists also perceive that they are rewarded little for
science outreach work, especially in the tenure process.
Ecklund et al. 2012 PLoS One

7. Science Communication Exploding Online
scienceseeker.org blogs.scientificamerican.com

8. Science Communication Exploding Online
sciencepond.com twitter.com/jebyrnes/eemb

10. 135% of goal!!

11. #SciFund & Engagement
• What is Crowdfunding?
• Engagement & Outreach: The Keys to the
Crowdfunding Kingdom
• The #SciFund Challenge
• Lessons and Benefits of Engaging via
Crowdfunding

12. What is Crowdfunding?
The solicitation of small donations from a
large number of people for specific targeted
projects.

13. Anatomy of a Crowdfunding Proposal
1. Goal
• accomplishment
2. Time Limit
• urgency
3. Proposal
• clarity is key
4. Video
• accessibility
5. Rewards
• engagement

14. Huge Universe of Crowdfunding Site

15. A Few Dominant Platforms

16. Arts Crowdfunding Exceeds
Government Funding
>

17. Many Crowdfunding sites JUST for
Science

18. #SciFund & Engagement
• What is Crowdfunding?
• Engagement & Outreach: The Keys to the
Crowdfunding Kingdom
• The #SciFund Challenge
• Lessons and Benefits of Engaging via
Crowdfunding

20. The future?
doctorzen.net

21. How did Palmer Do it?
twitter.com/amandaplamer
Wikipedia.org
http://www.ted.com/talks/amanda_palmer_the_art_of_asking.html

24. It Takes Time to
Crowdfund a Discipline
Waananen 2012 NY Times

25. Millions of Dollars Are
Possible…
Waananen 2012 NY Times

26. Built-in Audiences are
Crucial
Waananen 2012 NY Times

27. The future?
doctorzen.net

28. NGOs can Crowdfund Science at
High Levels
Organization with a long history of Outreach

29. Is it the Project or the
Audience?

30. How can Science Make
Crowdfunding Work?
Engagement is key If you build it, they will
come.

31. #SciFund & Engagement
• What is Crowdfunding?
• Engagement & Outreach: The Keys to the
Crowdfunding Kingdom
• The #SciFund Challenge
• Lessons and Benefits of Engaging via
Crowdfunding

32. An experiment: can scientists use crowdfunding
to communicate their science and to raise money
for their research?

33. The point is not just cash, but engagement.

34. How did #SciFund
work?

35. Training via scifundchallenge.org

36. Community Helps Shape Proposals

37. Online Engagement &
Community Building
Twitter: #SciFund
Facebook Page
SciFund Google group

40. Projects Percent
funded at funded at Total
Round Days Projects 100% 100% raised
1 45 49 10 20.40% $76,230
2 31 75 33 44.00% $100,345
3 33 35 16 45.70% $75,978
Overall 159 59 37.10% $252,811

41. Post-#SciFund Data
1.Rockethub server logs
2. Public web statistics (e.g.Youtube hits)
3. Survey of participants (80 questions)

42. #SciFund Round 1 by the Numbers
• Covered by CNN, Forbes, Scientific American, New
Scientist, MSNBC, and many other news outlets in US
and internationally
• $76,230 raised
• ~1200 donors
• 10 projects fully funded
• average project yield: $1556

43. Round 1: $76,230 over 45 Days

44. Small Donations Drive #SciFund

45. The #SciFund Numbers Game:
Contributors
R2=0.86

46. Two Roads to Success
R2=0.85
1. Friends & Family
2. Eyeballs
• Pre-goal (size)
• Post-Goal (color)

47. Your Scientific Fanbase and
Project Views
R2=0.78

48. Creating Content  Fanbase
R2=0.34

49. The Secret to #SciFund: Engagement
Online Scientific
Project
presence fanbase
views
1 blog post / 1 Twitter
110 project
month ≈ follower ≈
views ≈
53 Twitter 1 project
1 contributor
followers view
Donor Money for Funding
contributions research target met
Average Average 20 project
contribution ≈ raised ≈ views ≈
$55 $1,600 1 contributor
Friends and
family
50 Facebook
friends ≈
1 contributor
You need to build a scientific fanbase!
It is not possible to be an overnight success!

50. #SciFund & Engagement
• What is Crowdfunding?
• Engagement & Outreach: The Keys to the
Crowdfunding Kingdom
• The #SciFund Challenge
• Lessons and Benefits of Engaging via
Crowdfunding

51. If you build it, they
will come

52. If you build it, they
will come

54. How Can I Crowdfund my Science?
• Build an audience for your work
- Crowdfunding, Blog, Tweet, Science Cafes, etc.
• Get trained in outreach
- Media & social network training
• Work to change academic culture & policy
- Hiring & promotion practices
- Collaboration with media & arts departments

55. A version of the 1000 True Fans Model
Interest in your research
Super-engaged fans that
contribute $ to your research
Larger number of fans that don’t contribute, but
are still impacted by your message
Number of fans

56. Science Projects with Community
Engagement Bring in $$$
http://www.indiegogo.com/ubiome

57. Scientists Improving!

58. Larger Benefits to Crowdfunding
• Build bridges between science & society
• Build investment in an NGO's science program
• Enhanced science literacy
• Science incubator for new projects
• Look at it as funded outreach

59. reaching out with science
message for its own sake
Broader
Scientists
public
research cash
via crowdfunding

60. Collaborators: Barbara Walker, Zen Faulkes
Participants in Round 1: Aditya Rao, Ali Swanson, Andi
Wolfe, Andrea Lucky, Barbara Walker, Breanna Putman, Chip
Cochran, Daniel Karp, Daniel Mietchen, Debi Kilb, Diane Kelly, Eric
Abelson, Eric Basham, Holly Menninger, Jarrett Byrnes, Jeffrey
Bodwin, Jennifer Schmitt, Jessica Carilli, John Gust, Jorge Mederos,
Kalani Kirk Hausman, Katelyn Cavanaugh, Kelly Lyons, Kelly
Weinersmith, Kevin Fomalont, Kristina Killgrove, Lee Worden, Levi
Lewis, Lindsey Peavey, Luis Valledor, Luke Frishkoff, Marisa Alonso
Nuñez, Marisa Tellez , Matthew Hutchins, Matthew S. Leslie, Melia
Nafus, Rebecca Rashid Achterman, Robin Freeman, Ross Whippo,
Scott Chamberlain, Shermin de Silva, Steve Herbert, Susan Tsang,
Timothy Bonebrake, Walter Weare, Yoav Ram, Zen Faulkes

61. Round 2&3 now complete
Blog: scifundchallenge.org
Twitter: #SciFund
Wheat, R.E., Wang, Y., Byrnes, J.E.K. &
Ranganathan, J. (2012). Raising money
for scientific research through
crowdfunding. Trends Ecol. Evol., 28, 71–
72.