Congo Unites Movie Update
January 23rd, 2014First things first – Thank you to all of you who have sent nice notes, “liked” the Congo Unites Movie Facebook page, and have contributed to the campaign. We now have 18 days left to raise as much awareness and as much funds as possible. Right now we have raised $3,100 through 50 different backers and just over 100 likes on our Congo Unites Movie Facebook page. That may or may not seem like much money to you, but it is great to us, we are excited and grateful for every person that gets involved.
So, where are we now? Well, if you compare our IndieGoGo campaign to some others, you may see that some (very few actually) get all of there funding very quickly through thousands of backers. These situations normally happen when an organization already has a very strong “following” through social media. For example a large Facebook or twitter presence. We, on the other hand, are trying to raise awareness and build a following at the same time that we are trying to raise funds. That makes the job a little harder, but not impossible.
One of the main reasons we chose IndieGoGo as opposed to Kickstarter is that Kickstarter is “all or nothing”. Meaning that you either raise all of your funds and meet your goal or you get nothing. With IndieGoGo, we get whatever money we raise. So with that in mind, our goal is $50,000 – but what do we really need to get started? About $15,000 will allow us to take our first trip to Congo to meet with and film on location some of the students who’s story we will be sharing through the film. We would then come back with that footage and edit an even more compelling “trailer” of what this movie could become to ramp up the fund and awareness raising process.
So, can you help us? As I said we have just 18 days left and we are asking for anyone that is able to help us financially with $20, $50, $100 – whatever you can to help us get this project off of the ground. If not financially, please “like” the movie web-site and help us spread the word. Share the links below with all of your friends and family and let them know about this great opportunity to be involved in bringing peace and reconciliation to an area of the world that desperately needs it.
Links:
IndieGoGo Page – Donate to the Campaign
Congo Unites Movie Facebook Page
I will be sharing more about this soon, but we had our first “casting” meeting via SKYPE with 5 students from Congo yesterday morning. These students may end up being some that we will be filming and sharing their stories. It was amazing to hear their stories, many that had a common theme of fleeing war with their brothers and sisters to try and find safety somewhere other than their war-torn village. I can’t wait to meet them in person and for you all to meet them through this film. Thank you again for anything that you can do to support our project.