funding - What are some tips for crowdfunding science off websites like PetriDish?

What are some perks that would increase the amount of dollars that people spend on a venture? And what level of transparency would be useful?

Petridish is a recent KickStarter-like startup for crowdfunding science.

Answer

These funding mechanisms are in their very infancy, so I don't know if there will any "tried and true" techniques for a few months, assuming the funding model proves to work at all. That being said, it will be very similar to that on Kickstarter:

• Advertise in numerous channels. People can only support you if they know about you. Getting the word out is the primary goal in the beginning.


• 
  
  

  Provide an engaging, easy-to-understand description of:

  
  
  
  
  1. What you want to research
  
  
  2. Why you want to research it
  
  
  3. How humanity will benefit from your having researched it
  
  
  4. 
     

     What success will look like

     
     

     (Note: This last point is often ignored, but it's crucial for the lay-audience. They may expect a particular cancer research project to end with a cancer cure, whereas in reality it will end with the identification of a particular protein responsible for a particular mutation. Stating this will avoid making you as an individual and scientists as a whole from looking stupid in the eyes of the public.)

     
     
  
  
  
  
  


• 
  

  Offer a constant (strictly defined, e.g. "weekly" or "biweekly") updates to backers

  
  

Regarding useful perks, I've noticed that a few of the successful drives offered things such as:

• Engrave the name of the backer or a loved on the instruments being used


• Paintings of the organisms/landscape/imagery being studied


• Naming a star/organism after the backer/loved one

The final topic, transparency, is more difficult. On the one hand, you will need complete transparency. On the other hand, there is such a thing as too much transparency. In brief, your updates should serve to inform the backers about your work, while simultaneously and more subtly serving two other goals as well:

1. Convince your backers that you're actually doing work


2. Maintain their confidence in your ability to do the work

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tl;dr -

1. Make everything - everything - about your proposed project crystal clear for the layperson



2. Make the prizes cutesy and attractive, but not too lavish; they're investing for science, and secondarily maybe a little gift


3. Your updates should, in order: (1) inform about your research, (2) convince the reader of your scienceness