Kenosha Festival of Cartooning organizer (founder, director) Anne Hambrock has announced that her Kickstarter project to raise $10,000 for festival expenseshas been fully funded with another 24 hours to go. As of this morning, I reported that the project was $3,693 short of the goal. In just the last 6-8 hours, the project has doubled donation amounts to total over $13,000.
On the Kickstarter blog, Anne wrote the news:
Thanks to the generosity of all our backers (You’re the best!) and also the support of the National Cartoonist Society Foundation (They’re the best, too!) we have made our goal and then some!
This means that, not only will the festival happen this year – it will be even better than last year!
The extra money will help me make it a truly stellar event and give me a publicity budget as well (which I did not have last year)
The pledge drive is still officially open until tomorrow at 5:00 pm CST and any more money I receive in pledges will go toward festival expenses I may not have anticipated. If there is any money left over, it will be banked for another festival.
Congratulations Anne!
Congrats to Anne & Co. sounds like a great event.
Congratulations to you, Mrs. Hambrock. Having been a guest of last year’s wonderful event, I know how much work and personal expense went into pulling it off. I am so very glad you’ll be able to organize the second festival without the stress of worrying about how to pay for it! I know everyone in attendance last September, guests included, had a blast and thought you and John were amazing. If I can figure out a way (financially speaking) to get up there come this September, I’ll damn sure join the fun.
Congratulations to Mrs. Hambrock and also to Alan Gardner who very likely played a role in helping her Kickstarter campaign get the final $$ – it’s great to see the generosity of the cartoon community!
A huge thank you to you, Alan, and to all the other folks who helped spread the word, whether by blog or social networking.
And a ginormous thank you to Tom Racine! Without his help on the video and without the podcast, I am very doubtful I would have made the goal!
And thank you to everyone who has extended good wishes for the festival – it has made me proud to know all of you!
A word to anyone planning to use Kickstarter to fund a project – Kickstarter has name recognition and gives backers a sense that your project has been vetted and is legitimate. That helps get you needed publicity. But you have to get that publicity through your own channels. Kickstarter itself is so loaded with projects, you should not count on their publicity machine to be adequate.
When all is said and done, probably 80% of my backers are folks I either know personally, or professionally through cartooning circles. There were very few donors that came from Kickstarter itself or magically appeared out of the blue.
Awesome line up and Hilary’s the icing on the cake! Great job, Anne and everyone involved.
This is fantastic. Great to see such a worthwhile endeavor get the support it deserves via Kickstarter. Way to go Anne!
Perhaps special thanks are also due to NCSF President Rick Stromoski? As I understand it, the offer to have the National Cartoonists Society Foundation double any funds raised came directly from him.
Aw shucks…happy to help out! I can’t wait to go…you need me to balance out all that talent, to keep the karmic balance! 🙂
Steve,
Yes, you are correct! I also don’t think I would have made it without Rick Stromoski! My apologies for not singling him out!
I could not be more thrilled to have the NSCF involved and that is due to Rick believing that the NSCF and the Festival have similar goals and would be a good match.
Thank you Rick!!!!!
And thanks to the other members of the NCSF board who unanimously agreed with him!!