Every retail sign company, whether they have one storefront or a thousand, have customers whose need for an outdoor messaging sign is larger than their allotted funds. Many of these customers are non-profit organizations such as churches, civic groups, or community-focused clubs. They need to be able to share their message, reach their congregations, and promote their events and services, many times without the bank account to “make it happen”.
Until now, many have relied upon donations, bake sales, car washes and raffles to raise funds, but no longer! The days of volunteers counting nickels and dimes on the home kitchen table are finally over.
Crowdfunding, also called crowd-financing or crowd-sourcing, is the collective effort of individuals who network and pledge their money, using the Internet, to financially support efforts initiated by other people or organizations. In the case of SignVine™, they are specialized in raising funds for important changeable messaging signage, such as LED or reader board, for deserving non-profit organizations within the community.
Paul Martin, Project Director, and Mike Prongue, SignVine™ Campaign Director, provided feedback regarding the SignVine™ launch and the mission of the website.
“This Internet crowdfunding phenom has existed for about 15 years,” stated Mike Prongue, “We’re just the first to adapt it to charitable fundraising to provide outdoor message signs for deserving nonprofit organizations.”
A church, for example, needs a LED display to replace their old monument sign. A church representative would enroll on SignVine.org and initiate an electronic fund-raising campaign to capture donations by supplying details about themselves and their outdoor messaging sign requirements. The church then works closely with a local sign company, part of the SignVine™ Builder network, to define the costs and technical requirements of the project.
“Our sign company partner will provide a quote,” Prongue said, “And that dollar figure will be the target for the campaign."
The specifications for their sign project are entered into their online profile, a financial fundraising goal is set and the campaign begins. The church promotes the SignVine™ website which provides visibility to the donation campaign locally, on social media, and other venues to raise the required money. Monies are pledged by interested parties and their fundraising goal is met and their sign project becomes a reality.
“Using the SignVine™ website and by providing a little bit of information, a church or club can make it’s wishes come true by accessing its greatest resource- it’s people,” Prongue said, “Once they connect to people and tell their story, electronically or otherwise, people rise to the occasion and support them with donations.”
“Contributors are motivated by more than just altruism,” Prongue said, “Each donation level has a reward associated with it. It could something like a commemorative e-medallion or a T-shirt or a more substantial gift at higher donation levels- that’s pretty cool!”
SignVine™ will provide donors many “thank you” rewards from a “Golden Shovel” to the previously mentioned online medallions for proud displaying on the donor’s Website. The non-profit organization enriches the SignVine™ rewards with their own offerings to say “thank you” to every donor.
“We want to have fun with this,” Paul Martin, Director of Marketing for SignVine, Inc. commented, “ We employ a ‘Garden’ theme, and state that we’re ‘growing’ a sign. The campaign coordinator for the non-profit is a Gardener and all contributors are “Viners”.
“Also, we will work with individuals and companies who are benefactors contributing money and services to promote the success of our overall efforts,” Martin said, “We call these people or groups ‘Patrons’.”
The first Patron that has pledged to support every campaign is Spectacular Media, an Austin, Texas based digital signage cloudware company - pledging a Copper-level content creation subscription of their SM Infinity™ cloud-based software residing on the internet, allowing their clients to securely login from any PC or MAC connected to the internet and request content for their display. Spectacular Media will provide free Copper Level service to any LED sign purchased through the SignVine™ donation campaign. This means free professionally produced content to the non-profit. You can review the Spectacular Media™ company at their website- www.spectacularmedia.com.
The SignVine Website and campaign efforts will debut in March 2014 but several non-profits organizations have volunteered for early beta-testing and are currently working with SignVine™ to refine financial collection systems and procedures.
"We’re excited to launch this SignVine™ service,” Martin declared, “It’s an efficient and easy system for deserving community organizations and we feel it’ll be a fantastic solution for them.”
For additional information on outdoor messaging sign campaigns currently being funded, or for more information on SignVine please visit their Website at www.signvine.org.
These comments are my personal perspective and do not reflect the
opinion of Vantage LED, Inc. or SignVine, Inc. or any other person or
organization. If you have constructive feedback please email me at
michael@signvine.org.
- Mike Prongue
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