Here are the slides to accompany the video of me talking at the NCEAS EcoLunch about the results from round 1 of #SciFund. The video can be found at http://youtu.be/SWWFwZfBiqM

1. Engagement Leads to Crowdfunded Science
Jarrett Byrnes and Jai Ranganathan
National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis

3. Science Funding Rates Declining
stimulus
Data from:
http://dellweb.bfa.nsf.gov/awdfr3/default.asp
http://report.nih.gov/success_rates/Success_ByActivity.cfm

4. Public Science Literacy Needs Work

5. Academy's Attitudes Towards
Outreach Not So Good
In scientists own words, science outreach is a bleak
prospect with limited room for improvement. Seventy-four
percent of respondents list one or more significant
impediments to their ability to do science outreach, yet less
than half have concrete ideas for how science outreach could
be improved.
Ecklund et al. 2012 PLoS One

6. Little Reward Structure for Outreach
Scientists also perceive that they are rewarded little for
science outreach work, especially in the tenure process.
Ecklund et al. 2012 PLoS One

7. Science Communication Exploding Online
scienceseeker.org
blogs.scientificamerican.com

8. Science Communication Exploding Online
sciencepond.com
twitter.com/jebyrnes/eemb

10. 135% of goal!!

11. #SciFund & Engagement
• What is Crowdfunding?
• Engagement & Outreach: The Keys to the
Crowdfunding Kingdom
• The #SciFund Challenge
• Lessons and Benefits of Engaging via
Crowdfunding

12. What is Crowdfunding?
The solicitation of small donations from a
large number of people for specific targeted
projects.

13. Anatomy of a Crowdfunding Proposal
1. Goal
• accomplishment
2. Time Limit
• urgency
3. Proposal
• clarity is key
4. Video
• accessibility
5. Rewards
• engagement

14. From a Simple Proposal Springs
Hundreds of Millions of Dollars

15. Huge Universe of Crowdfunding Site

16. A Few Dominant Platforms

17. Arts Crowdfunding Exceeds
Government Funding
>

18. Many Crowdfunding sites JUST for
Science

19. #SciFund & Engagement
• What is Crowdfunding?
• Engagement & Outreach: The Keys to the
Crowdfunding Kingdom
• The #SciFund Challenge
• Lessons and Benefits of Engaging via
Crowdfunding

21. The future?
doctorzen.net

22. How did Palmer Do it?
twitter.com/amandaplamer
Wikipedia.org

25. It Takes Time to
Crowdfund a Discipline
Waananen 2012 NY Times

26. Millions of Dollars Are
Possible…
Waananen 2012 NY Times

27. Built-in Audiences are
Crucial
Waananen 2012 NY Times

28. Science Can be Crowdfunded at High
Levels
Organization with a long history of Outreach

29. The future?
doctorzen.net

30. Culture of Science Fears Outreach
I m not sure you want most of the people that I know here
to go out and try to talk to the public. They re [the public]
gonna say stop spending my tax dollars on this person!
Yet only two respondents (2 percent of the sample)
suggested training scientists how to be better
communicators.
Ecklund et al. 2012 PLoS One

31. Starting at Ground Zero with the
Public
"When somebody doesn t believe what you are doing is true
or has any value, then trying to explain to them what you are
doing, you re starting from this cultural foundation that is a
complete disconnect."
Ecklund et al. 2012 PLoS One

32. How can Science Make
Crowdfunding Work?
Engagement is key
If you build it, they will
come.

33. #SciFund & Engagement
• What is Crowdfunding?
• Engagement & Outreach: The Keys to the
Crowdfunding Kingdom
• The #SciFund Challenge
• Lessons and Benefits of Engaging via
Crowdfunding

34. An experiment: can scientists use crowdfunding
to communicate their science and to raise money
for their research?

35. The point is not just cash, but engagement.

36. Who: 49 scientists crowdfunding for their science
When: November 1 - December 15
How much: $3,500 (median ask), $500-20,000 (range)
Where:

37. Who is #SciFund?

38. scifund.wordpress.com

40. Other Means of Engagement
& Community Building
Twitter: #SciFund
Facebook Page
SciFund Google group

43. Post-#SciFund Data
1. Rockethub server logs
2. Public web statistics (e.g. Youtube hits)
3. Survey of participants (80 questions)

44. #SciFund by the Numbers
• Covered by CNN, Forbes, Scientific American, New
Scientist, MSNBC, and many other news outlets in US
and internationally
• $76,230 raised
• ~1200 donors
• 10 projects fully funded
• average project yield: $1556
• max project yield: $10,171(170% of original goal)

45. Round 1: $76,230 over 45 Days

46. Small Donations Drive #SciFund

47. The #SciFund Numbers Game:
Contributors
R2=0.86

48. Two Roads to Success
R2=0.85
1. Friends & Family
2. Eyeballs
• Pre-goal (size)
• Post-Goal (color)

49. Your Scientific Fanbase and
Project Views
R2=0.78

50. Creating Content  Fanbase
R2=0.34

51. The Secret to #SciFund: Engagement
Online
Scientific
Project
presence
fanbase
views
1 blog post / 1 Twitter
110 project
month follower
views
53 Twitter 1 project
1 contributor
followers
view
Donor Money for
Funding
contributions research
target met
Average Average 20 project
contribution raised views
$55
$1,600
1 contributor
Friends and
family
50 Facebook
friends
1 contributor
You need to build a scientific fanbase!
It is not possible to be an overnight success!

52. #SciFund Engagement
• What is Crowdfunding?
• Engagement Outreach: The Keys to the
Crowdfunding Kingdom
• The #SciFund Challenge
• Lessons and Benefits of Engaging via
Crowdfunding

53. If you build it, they
will come

54. If you build it, they
will come

56. How Can I Crowdfund my Science?
• Build an audience for your work
- Crowdfunding, Blog, Tweet, Science Cafes, etc.
• Get trained in outreach
- Media social network training
• Work to change academic culture policy
- Hiring promotion practices
- Collaboration with media arts departments

57. A version of the 1000 True Fans Model
Interest in your research
Super-engaged fans that
contribute $ to your research
Larger number of fans that don’t contribute, but
are still impacted by your science message
Number of fans

58. Larger Benefits to Crowdfunding
• Build bridges between science society
• Enhanced science literacy
• Science incubator for new projects
• Metric to assess scientists' ability to connect
• Look at it as funded outreach training

59. reaching out with science
message for its own sake
Broader
Scientists
public
research cash
via crowdfunding

60. Collaborators: Barbara Walker, Zen Faulkes
Participants in Round 1: Aditya Rao, Ali Swanson, Andi Wolfe,
Andrea Lucky, Barbara Walker, Breanna Putman, Chip Cochran,
Daniel Karp, Daniel Mietchen, Debi Kilb, Diane Kelly, Eric Abelson,
Eric Basham, Holly Menninger, Jarrett Byrnes, Jeffrey Bodwin, Jennifer
Schmitt, Jessica Carilli, John Gust, Jorge Mederos, Kalani Kirk
Hausman, Katelyn Cavanaugh, Kelly Lyons, Kelly Weinersmith, Kevin
Fomalont, Kristina Killgrove, Lee Worden, Levi Lewis, Lindsey Peavey,
Luis Valledor, Luke Frishkoff, Marisa Alonso Nuñez, Marisa Tellez ,
Matthew Hutchins, Matthew S. Leslie, Melia Nafus, Rebecca Rashid
Achterman, Robin Freeman, Ross Whippo, Scott Chamberlain,
Shermin de Silva, Steve Herbert, Susan Tsang, Timothy Bonebrake,
Walter Weare,Yoav Ram, Zen Faulkes

61. Round 2 is Ongoing!
Projects: scifund.rockethub.com
Blog: scifundchallenge.org
Twitter: #SciFund