Put simply, crowdfunding involves setting a funding goal and persuading your project’s target audience to contribute money in order to reach it. But have you heard of stretch goals?
Stretch goals create an extra funding target beyond your campaign’s original funding goal, to give the project an added boost.
Like the sound of that? Well, here’s how you can use stretch goals to really maximise your crowdfunding campaign.
Stretch Goals – a Definition 
A stretch goal is an added target that you can create to show backers that, so long as the original target is met, any extra funds received will automatically unlock additional incentives or rewards for them to enjoy.
The Benefits of Stretch Goals
The greatest incentive for you to add a stretch goal to your campaign is that it is an effective and straightforward way to raise more money.
Also, while you are raising more funds, your backers will also receive additional rewards or incentives, inspiring them to be even more excited about the project and more inclined to support it long-term.
Fortunately, unlike the primary funding goal that must be reached in order to make the campaign successful, if the stretch goal is not met, then you as the campaigner will still be able to keep all funds received through the campaign. Plus, offering the extra incentives may even increase your chances of reaching your main funding goal.
The Strategy Behind Setting Stretch Goals 
As with everything in crowdfunding, planning is a must.
Your first priority is to gain an understanding of how stretch goals work and decide whether or not to add them to your campaign, long before it has been officially launched.
Rather than springing a stretch goal on your backers without any prior warning, they should be part of your project story from the campaign’s launch. Not only will this reassure your potential backers that you are organised and forward-thinking, but it lets them know that, with more money, they could receive more from the project. Likewise, it encourages them to share your campaign to help you reach the stretch goal so they can achieve the added incentives.
Next is to establish that you will be able to deliver on the offered incentives. It could cause problems later on if you promise your backers something that you lack the resources to deliver.
Finally, select your stretch goal. Your selected stretch goals should add value to the campaign, while at the same time complementing your overall vision for the project.
Avoid choosing an over-ambitious stretch goal that will be out of your reach, and make sure that the figure is proportionate to any incentives you are offering.
You might even use a stretch goal as the ideal tool to budget your primary funding goal, starting with the barest minimum needed to achieve your idea and then creating funding steps via stretch goals to improve your project. This strategy is only for the brave however: you must make sure you can still deliver your project, and any promised rewards, on the original funding goal.
So why not use stretch goals to stretch the success of your crowdfunding campaign? Chat to us for ideas about how this, and other campaign ideas, could work for you.