Some lessons from an indie TTRPG zine fundraiser

I printed an indie TTRPG zine! And raised $3,600 for legal aid with it. Here are some takeaways about running such a project, with an emphasis on fundraising and project management.

Photo by Virginia Taylor.

The project is called HELLO//GOODBYE and it is an anthology of indie TTRPG material, written by my friends in response to collage art of mine. We started it at the beginning of April and worked on it through April, did layout and printing in early May, and then fundraised through June. We printed 100 copies and raised $3,600, selling via our personal networks and then donating to two very special legal aid organizations based in Virginia, where I'm from.

If you're interested in a digital copy of the project, it's available here: https://swanandravenstudio.itch.io/hellogoodbye. All money goes to the Legal Aid Justice Center and the Central Virginia Legal Aid Society.

Some thoughts on...

...fundraising (with a focus on peer-to-peer fundraising):

1. Set a concrete, ambitious but achievable number to work towards. People are more likely to give and will give higher amounts when there is a concrete goal to reach. How big of a goal should you set? Depends on the structure of your fundraiser. If you can only set one number (for example, an online fundraiser that doesn't allow editing once it's made), go higher. If you're just raising money within your peer group, however, and are nervous because you've never fundraised before, you can set it to something more achievable and then always have stretch goals once you've hit the first goal. I set my goal to $1,000 since it had been a little while since I'd done any fundraising. In retrospect, I could have set it to $1,500, but overall, I was content with that goal because it took hard work to reach, but didn't overwhelm me.

2. Know the fundraising culture of where you are and the people you want to ask to donate. This gets into generalities, as a warning, but it can still be useful. Americans, for example, are used to donating to non-profits. Since the social net isn't very strong here, a lot of redistribution happens privately through individual giving. They are more comfortable, therefore, with being asked and with giving larger gifts. This doesn't mean that Austrians, for example, won't donate, but as a whole, they might give less. You may want to tailor the way you brand the fundraiser depending on the audience you are trying to raise funds from. Working-class people are sometimes more willing to give to mutual aid-branded projects, while wealthier people are more willing to give to projects branded as charity. 

3. Make a direct ask. Know things about the people you're asking for money and base your ask on what you expect they might be able to give. Ask for $20 from a student, $50 from someone who is in a full-time job and childless, and $75-100 from people you know are financially comfortable. But make a direct ask with an amount (or at least a range). People will give within their limits and may surprise you with more, but it helps for them to know what you're expecting of them, and you'll raise significantly more money than just via an open ask. (Direct asks, by the way, are much more effective than just sharing on social media. Don't wiggle out of doing direct asks because you're shy or embarrassed. You're asking for a good cause!)

4. Matching gifts! A great way to drum up donations is to first raise a set amount that only gets donated if a matching amount is raised. For this project, I raised $500 that would only get donated if another $500 was raised. People respond well to stakes like that, and it's a great tool for morale when that goal is reached. Thrillingly, one of the organizations we donated to, Legal Aid Justice Center, had a 4x matching gift program. We donated about $700 to them, and it got quadrupled! Very, very exciting stuff.

5. Reach out to the non-profit before you start your fundraiser. You'll need to speak directly to their fundraising personnel, so call them if you don't hear back via email. If they're in the US, they're probably dealing with a lot right now, so be persistent and gracious, and try to ask as little from their end as possible. Show them you're a real person who can be trusted (a video call can help a lot with that, or connecting via LinkedIn or a mutual connection if you have one).

...general project management:

1. Deadlines matter! Tell people they matter, then make them matter. No one gets anything done otherwise. Sometimes, people still won't get things done. Still, you have to have those pesky deadlines.

2. Be extremely persistent. Annoy people. Follow up. Give them reminders. People are busy, so give them grace, but also give them reminders.

3. Gratitude, gratitude, gratitude. Highlight people's contributions to the project. Compliment them. Thank people both publicly and privately (although do double-check if donors want their donation to be anonymous). This is especially important for an all-volunteer project, because the fuzzy feeling in their heart for their good work is why they're doing it. So make sure they get to experience that fuzzy feeling.

4. You have to delegate. Most projects worth doing require some level of teamwork. If you founded the project, then it is your job to find people to handle the work you cannot do. Find them, brief them, set deadlines with them, entrust them with their tasks, and then check in with them in a few days to make sure things are going smoothly.

5. Have an overview and timeline of the project. Depending on project scale and complexity, this might be a project management software, a spreadsheet, or just loose thoughts in your head, but you need to know what needs to be done and when.

6. Marketing matters! Tell people what's happening, both online and in the real world. Good graphics matter. If you don't have a good eye for design, find someone who does. Give presentations about your project at events if someone lets you. If it makes sense for you, buy advertising.

7. Holiday seasons are a bad time for group projects. You will be waiting a lot. Keep people updated if you run into delays.

...charity/volunteer projects more generally:

1. People are much more willing to help you for free if it's for a good cause, so make sure it's clear that it's not for your personal enrichment. For example, our project description includes the phrase "All proceeds to legal aid." This was relevant when recruiting skilled/professional volunteers for tasks like marketing or zine layout, which they would normally charge a lot of money to do. Also, on a related note, feel free to reach out to people whom you admire and respect for help with promotion! People say yes to things! Even people way bigger than you! Charity projects are a great way to connect with people you admire.

2. Know the skillsets of the people in your community. If you don't know, then ask around. Who has free time? Who likes to be involved with things? Who is a professional photographer or graphic designer? Who is outgoing and willing to do public speaking? Know who you know.

3. Remember that you're doing this for a cause greater than yourself. Don't let yourself get pulled into conflicts. You are asking people to do things for you for free for a cause that matters a whole lot more than your ego, hurt feelings, or anything else. If you do run into conflict, just keep it moving and be the bigger person. You have work to get done.

...indie TTRPG zines in particular:

1. It's easier to get someone to donate the costs to cover a print run than it is to get a print shop to print for free. Also, it was easier for me to raise the money to print professionally than it was to organize volunteers for a DIY print job. Know your skillsets and the resources at your disposal.

2. On the topic of licenses, do your research! Look at other games for examples. If you're publishing homebrew for a pre-existing game, be very meticulous in your research; think about how long your zine is and if you want to do a print run. You will have to include that game's license at the beginning of your zine, and while some game licenses are only a sentence or two, others can be several pages long. If your aim is, therefore, a very short, printed zine, maybe don't explicitly write homebrew for a game with a very long license. You can always keep your homebrew's branding more generic.

3. We made most of our sales at a video game development meet-up where we gave a presentation. It turns out game designers like games, even if their specialty is normally video games. We also sold a few copies at a zine fair, a few at a culture center event, and then a lot of copies within our own personal network, both gaming and otherwise. We printed 100, set aside 60 for contributors and donors to the project, and sold the other 40 quite easily. We didn't even end up selling via game stores.

 4. Print slightly more copies than you think you'll need. We originally planned on printing 50 or 75 copies, and I'm very glad we didn't. Because so many people were donating their time and talent or giving towards the matching amount, we ended up setting aside way more copies than originally estimated for that "friends and family" category.

5. Don't eyeball your shipping budget. We set aside €100 for shipping without doing any research into potential shipping costs (thank you, past self, very sensible), and it just wasn't enough. We only shipped to people who were contributors to the project, and we still needed probably double that amount. 

...and finally:

1. Own your project! This is cool! You are talented! It's a good cause! You're making something happen! Don't be shy or self-conscious about it. There's no point.

So yeah, in conclusion: my friends are very talented and wonderful people, and this project would not have been possible without them. A project of this scope was time-consuming but meaningful, and very, very cool. We will be coming out with a digital fundraiser next, so keep your eyes on this space!