Setting Your Goal & Budget
Your goal is the most consequential number in the campaign. Set it too high and you risk getting nothing under all-or-nothing; set it without accounting for fees, taxes, and reward costs, and a "funded" campaign still leaves your film short. Here's how to get it right.
Your funding goal is the single most consequential number in your entire campaign, and getting it right requires balancing two opposing dangers: set it too high and you risk missing it (and, under all-or-nothing, getting nothing); set it based only on what your film needs — without accounting for fees, taxes, and the cost of fulfilling rewards — and even a "successful" campaign leaves you short of what you thought you'd have. The goal isn't simply "my film's budget"; it's a carefully reasoned number that (a) you're confident you can actually reach given your audience, and (b) accounts for everything that will eat into the raised amount before it becomes usable money for your film. Get the goal right and a successful campaign truly funds your film; get it wrong in either direction and you either fail to fund or "succeed" into a shortfall. This chapter is about setting that number correctly — the achievability side and the budgeting side.
Setting the goal and budgeting for reality
What goes into the right goal:
- Start from what you truly need. Determine the minimum sum that meaningfully advances your film (the whole budget, or a specific portion) — the floor the goal must cover.
- Account for platform & processing fees. The platform and payment processor take a percentage, so gross the goal up so the net still covers your need.
- Account for reward costs & shipping. Fulfilling rewards (producing and shipping perks) costs real money — budget it, or it eats into your film funds.
- Account for taxes. Crowdfunding income may be taxable depending on your situation — factor this in (and consult a tax professional).
- Check it against your audience. Cross-reference the goal with a realistic estimate of what your network can raise — the goal must be reachable, not just needed.
- Set the minimum, let overfunding be the bonus. Under all-or-nothing, set the goal at the reachable minimum and treat everything above as extra, rather than aiming high and risking a miss.
Getting the number right
The way to set your goal correctly is to work from two directions at once — up from what you truly need (grossed up for fees, rewards, and taxes) and down from what your audience can realistically raise — and land on a number that satisfies both. From the needs side: don't just set the goal to your film's cost, because a chunk of what you raise won't reach your film. The platform and payment processor take a percentage; fulfilling rewards costs money to produce and ship; and the income may be taxable. So if you truly need, say, a certain amount for your film, your goal has to be higher than that to net out to what you need after all these deductions — a "funded" campaign set at your bare need will leave you short once fees and reward costs come out. From the achievability side: the goal must also be a number you're confident your audience can actually reach, because under all-or-nothing, an unreachable goal means zero. So you cross-check the grossed-up need against a realistic estimate of your network's capacity, and if the honest achievable number is below your full need, that tells you something important — maybe crowdfund for a portion, or reconsider the scope, rather than setting an aspirational goal you'll miss. The right goal lives where "enough to matter after deductions" meets "reachable given my audience." A few honest points. First, your goal must net out, not gross out — because fees, reward costs, and taxes come off what you raise, the goal has to be set high enough that what's left covers your need, and forgetting this is how filmmakers "succeed" into a shortfall. Second, under all-or-nothing, reachability trumps ambition — since missing means nothing, the smart move is a goal at the achievable minimum with overfunding as upside, not an ambitious number that risks the whole campaign, reinforcing the model lesson from the mechanics chapter. Third, rewards cost money — budget them as expenses — perks aren't free; producing and shipping them is a real cost that must be in your budget, or fulfilling your rewards will eat the funds meant for your film (the rewards chapter designs perks with this in mind). Fourth, get tax advice — crowdfunding income can have tax implications depending on your situation and location, so consult a tax professional rather than assuming, because a surprise tax bill can turn a successful campaign into a loss. Setting your goal and budget correctly — grossed up for fees, rewards, and taxes, and cross-checked against what your audience can reach — is what makes a successful campaign actually fund your film. With the goal set, the next chapter designs what you'll offer backers in return: the rewards. Next, rewards and incentives.
I set my first campaign's goal to exactly what my film needed — and hit it, and celebrated. Then reality arrived: the platform and processor took their cut, producing and shipping the rewards cost more than I'd guessed, and there was a tax implication I hadn't planned for. By the time all that came out, I was well short of what I'd "raised" for the film. I'd hit my goal and still couldn't afford the movie. Next time, I grossed the goal up for every deduction and cross-checked it against what my audience could realistically give. It netted out to exactly what the film needed. The number you set has to survive fees, rewards, and taxes — not just look right on the page.
Funding Strategy helps you map where your film's money will come from — and where crowdfunding fits alongside grants, investors, and your own resources — so your campaign is one piece of a plan, not a shot in the dark.