Voordekunst
Most successful crowdfunding platform in the Netherlands with €42 million in donations
Voordekunst is the platform for crowdfunding in the creative sector. The mission is to stimulate entrepreneurship in the creative and cultural sector. To date, Voordekunst has raised more than €42,814,174 by connecting 5,651 creators with 430,017 donors.
The challenge
Our approach
Through customer journey and service blueprinting workshops, we explored where the biggest bottlenecks within the organization were. It turned out that the most room for improvement was in automating the registration process. How do you combine the unique personal guidance of voordekunst with the necessary automation to ensure a smooth registration process? To test this, we created a prototype of the entire registration process for creators and voordekunst. Almost all actions were automated – even the signing of contracts by creators is handled digitally within the platform.
Based on the insights that followed, we started designing and developing the new platform. We adopted a mobile first approach, choosing a smart card system to easily scale projects to different screens and devices. We also refined the donation process for mobile, reducing it to minimal actions – the majority of donors came through social media on their phones.
We focused on platform branding, which is crucial for a brand like voordekunst. The strong and positive brand image of voordekunst had to be clearly reflected in the platform. This is evident, for example, in the custom video player, the confetti for successful campaigns, and the ability to create your own art on the 404 page.
After the launch of Voordekunst 2.0 in 2014, we started improving the platform monthly. By analyzing the data and statistics together, we continuously implement improvements to the platform. Each year, we conduct a number of sprints to add new features to the platform.
In 2016, Digital Natives and voordekunst created, among other things, the new voordekunst academy. Through personal campaign guidance, voordekunst has a wealth of data, knowledge, and insights. We translated this acquired knowledge from data and insights into an educational environment for creators. This way, the creator always sees the information that is exactly relevant at that moment, instead of being overwhelmed from the very first step. Moreover, this adds a game element, a stimulus to keep progressing step by step.
The results
With the renewed voordekunst, Digital Natives developed a donation platform where more than 4000 creators successfully launched campaigns. The success rate of the campaigns is over 80%. Automating the registration process played an important role in this. Additionally, the number of unique sessions on the platform increased by 42%, mobile conversion by 18%, donations by 43%, and we achieved 41% revenue growth.
Through the smart combination of automation and personal guidance, and data-driven optimization, the platform is more successful than ever 10 years after its inception. About €28,800,000 has already been donated. Voordekunst thus remains the largest donation platform in the Netherlands, with over 275,000 donors and more than 4,000 creators.
Every quarter, Digital Natives and voordekunst review the data together and analyze the results. This way, we determine how to further develop and where the greatest impact can be achieved. Together, we think about the future of crowdfunding and gradually move towards crowd engagement.
In 2020, during the COVID-19 crisis, Digital Natives and voordekunst devised action campaigns to continue enabling art and culture. Unlike standard campaigns, action campaigns offer artists a chance to raise money in the short term without a concrete goal or fixed duration. In recent months, we raised over €135,000 to support creators affected by the corona measures.
