Crowdfunding Cosplay

Even just beginning to think about how cosplay has changed in the past 10 years sends me into a tailspin. If you had told me that in 2015 people would be arguing over strangers donating money to cosplayers, I would have called you crazy.

But really, how crazy is it?

I fully understand why many people are rubbed the wrong way by Indiegogo, Gofundme, and most recently Patreon. It's not something that many people are comfortable with, you're just giving money to a practical stranger for something that up until recently was just considered a fringe hobby. Cover your own expenses and practice some financial responsibility, I get it.

However, there are so many reasons why it's perfectly feasible for someone to use crowdfunding, and the cosplay community is constantly evolving to accept new things. Like Martin Wong said in a GREAT recent blog post, people didn't want to accept prints and booths when they were first introduced into the community, and now to a certain extent conventions wouldn't be the same without us. It's just a new thing for us to adapt to, and just like tables at conventions, nobody is forcing anyone to put money down.

I think that the key at this point in crowdfunding's acceptance is in appearance. In certain circumstances, I feel like it can be “done right” so to speak, and there are great examples of cosplayers making crowdfunding platforms that make sense. I'm not talking an underwhelming lingerie Princess Peach shoot, or tiers of rewards that never come, etc, but those creators that can consistently create quality work and who can have rewards appropriate to the donation tiers. Lara Lunardi, Cara Nicole, and Li Kovacs are all friends of mine with Patreon accounts that I think are done really well. I personally will probably never have a Patreon, as I don't feel like my work is consistent enough both in quality and time it takes to produce (I'm a pokey little puppy!)- plus, this isn't my full time job, the marketing side of it is! However, I do have an indiegogo coming up for a business venture/help me recover from being scammed, and I'll have the reward tiers to make any donation worthwhile.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on crowdfunding, if you've ever contributed or who you're a patron of, and anything else you'd like to add! Look forward to my own Indiegogo (and the long, arduous backstory) coming soon.