Could A GoFundMe Campaign produce a broadway show

[Theatrefanboy1]

Posted: 9/27/20 at 10:36pm

Im curious if a GoFund Me campaign would garner enough attention and donors to produce a Broadway show. I know the revival of Godspell did something with public producers.

Im curious to know your thoughts.

[itsjustmejonhotmailcom]

Posted: 9/28/20 at 1:55am

Theatrefanboy1 said: "Im curious if a GoFund Me campaign would garner enough attention and donors to produce a Broadway show. I know the revival of Godspell did something with public producers.

Im curious to know your thoughts."

It's very unlikely for many reasons. First, you probably wouldn't be able to raise enough money through crowdsourcing. Even on Godslepp, only a fraction of the total capitalization came through that way. Second, you'd have to find a lot of people willing to give money to a Broadway show. They wouldn't see any profit - GoFundMe doesn't allow Equity investments, and they also wouldn't get a tax write-off since the show likely wouldn't be a non-profit endeavor. 

[darquegk]

Posted: 9/28/20 at 9:53am

In my experience, a GoFundMe can’t even fund a demo recording.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 9/28/20 at 10:07am

Plus, ain’t nobody investing in anything they’re not receiving credit for or getting a perk back on their investment. Also, once you get something going, it takes more money to keep payroll going until ticket sales cover those costs, which most shows never achieve which is why shows close. Producers found the funds to produce the show then any additional money was used to keep the show running. Once that money runs out, show closes and no one is going to invest more money on something that couldn’t generate profit.

[HogansHero]

Posted: 9/28/20 at 10:10am

no, for a million reasons. 

can I make a suggestion? why don't you spend a little time thinking through the process of producing a broadway show and then of financing a show through gofundme? i think even without any detailed experience you will see why this is a hard no. If you go though that process and want to run your analysis by us, feel free. 

[JBroadway]

Posted: 9/28/20 at 10:17am

It certainly CAN be done: all you have to do is be willing to exploit a bunch of naive people who don't understand how the business works. Bonus points if you also exploit your cast (full of actors from underrepresented groups, of course) by using them to gain sympathy/guilt points with potential donors. 

[Matthew Davies Stockton]

Posted: 9/28/20 at 10:21am

If you are asking for yourself, I think you would be better off with other sources to be honest. Try looking at Kickstarter.

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 9/28/20 at 11:50am

That's now how Broadway shows work. Also, if a show is any good, they'll be plenty of people wanting to back it. Why would anyone be interested in a show that can't get any real funding? 

[MadonnaMusical]

Posted: 9/28/20 at 11:54am

Honey, every single producer is just running a go fund me campaign on a much “richer” scale. That’s the secret of producing... only difference is minimum buy in is a lot higher (usually 25k) and the perks are just shares of profits, produced credits, tickets, red carpets, and bragging rights.

Putting it on go fund me would just mean that it would have to be run as a non-profit (like several broadway shows already are) with a lower minimum... and it would be public. But honestly this is basically what Roundabout, MTC, and Second Stage already do.

Updated On: 9/28/20 at 11:54 AM

[JSquared2]

Posted: 9/28/20 at 12:44pm

JBroadway said: "It certainly CAN be done: all you have to do is be willing to exploit a bunch of naive people who don't understand how the business works. Bonus points if you also exploit your cast (full of actors from underrepresented groups, of course) by using them to gain sympathy/guilt points with potential donors."

In other words -- do exactly what Ken Davenport tried (and failed) to do on Godspell.

 

[JBroadway]

Posted: 9/28/20 at 1:18pm

JSquared2 said: "JBroadway said: "It certainly CAN be done: all you have to do is be willing to exploit a bunch of naive people who don't understand how the business works. Bonus points if you also exploit your cast (full of actors from underrepresented groups, of course) by using them to gain sympathy/guilt points with potential donors."

In other words -- do exactly what Ken Davenport tried (and failed) to do on Godspell."

 

Exactly. That was what I was getting at. I was also making reference to his similarly exploitative stunt with the Spring Awakening Tony Performance, for which he trotted out all of the show's deaf actors and pleaded with the fans to let them perform on the Tonys, because of how rare it for deaf actors to get such an opportunity. 

 

[Moreski93]

Posted: 9/28/20 at 3:04pm

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/glitchedout/yiff-the-musical/?ref=kicktraq

Just gonna leave this here, as an answer to your question.

[msmp]

Posted: 9/28/20 at 10:51pm

Would it even be legal in NY? I seem to recall there is a limit to how many "non-qualified" investors you could even have.

[HogansHero]

Posted: 9/28/20 at 11:39pm

msmp said: "Would it even be legal in NY? I seem to recall there is a limit to how many "non-qualified" investors you could even have."

people who donate to a gofundme are not investors. just like people who donate to the public theatre are not investors. If they get something back in exchange for their donation (sketchier than with the public) they would not be entitled to a tax deduction to that extent.

[msmp]

Posted: 9/29/20 at 5:39am

HogansHero said: "msmp said: "Would it even be legal in NY? I seem to recall there is a limit to how many "non-qualified" investors you could even have."

people who donate to a gofundme are not investors. just like people who donate to the public theatre are not investors. If they get something back in exchange for their donation (sketchier than with the public) they would not be entitled to a tax deduction to that extent."

Makes sense--thanks HH!

[raddersons]

Posted: 9/29/20 at 4:45pm

Straight to Broadway? No.

A small off-off Broadway or out of town show that can gather a following and slowly work its way up to Broadway? Possible, but still not very likely. 

[Phantom of London]

Posted: 10/1/20 at 6:32pm

The best way to do GoFundMe is to put your hand in your pocket and buy a ticket when Broadway resumes, then it will need all the love and support it can get, after such a terrible time , it would be horrendous when theatre restarts for shows to then close because they’re not making any money. A dreadful double whammy for our artistes.

 

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 10/1/20 at 6:41pm

Once again this message board has caused me to develop a headache.