This is the second of our two-part series on crowdfunding. Published yesterday, part 1 focuses on how indie producers can get their projects off the ground by giving fans what they want. 

One of the most common refrains in the kids industry today is how there’s so little money going around. At its best, crowdfunding can be both a fresh approach to getting financing and also a way to create a built-in audience for a dream project.

But even crowdfunding isn’t immune to market challenges. It’s been more than a decade since Frederator Studios’ viral Bee and PuppyCat IP raised more than US$872,000 for a collection of YouTube episodes in 2013 and then spawned a Netflix series.

Producers admit that it used to be easier to raise funds from online fans, since today’s consumers can be just as cash-strapped as broadcasters—and there are plenty of projects vying for their money. Only 38% of the film and video projects on Kickstarter are successfully funded—and if they don’t hit their goal, they don’t get anything.

But there’s still a lot of potential in the approach, whether it’s to keep a property alive after a cancellation or to close a key financing gap. Crowdfunding might not be the silver bullet for every financing strategy, and it won’t always get your next project over the line and into production. But it can be an effective tool in a producer’s toolbox that can complement other funding approaches.

Topping up financing

When Aardman Animations was looking to bring back its classic character Morph (pictured at top) in a YouTube series, the studio set out to establish a sustainable funding model for the IP.

The Wallace & Gromit studio had half the funding it needed for some new online content, so it turned to fans to bring the project to life, says managing director Sean Clarke. “The idea of bringing back Morph—one of the very first characters ever created by the studio—by crowdfunding offered us the perfect opportunity to establish a direct line with our fans and collaborate on something truly special together.”

To drum up this interest, Aardman produced a three-minute campaign video featuring Morph alongside creator and company co-founder Peter Lord, and then promoted it on social media. The studio offered Aardman clay, crew t-shirts and executive producer credits as rewards to its backers.

A Kickstarter campaign ran for 28 days with the goal of raising enough to make 12 x one-minute episodes, but it took Aardman just eight days to reach its initial US$99,000 goal (£75,000). And by the end of the month, the company had raised roughly US$147,000 (£110,648) from 2,654 backers.

Aardman’s campaign also led Sky Kids to commission new Morph content, including The Epic Adventures of Morph and three seasons of a Morph preschool spinoff called The Very Small Creatures. 

The key to success, Clarke says, is keeping fans updated regularly and being transparent about the creation process—such as how long the animation takes, and what stage production is at.

Crowdfunding worked for Morph, and it’s an option that Aardman is open to trying again in the future. “As an independent studio, we have the freedom to work in whatever ways we feel will best serve a project,” says Clarke. “And we have an even bigger fanbase [now], so the potential is huge.”

Keeping the lights on

When Nickelodeon canceled The Tiny Chef Show in June, creators and producers Rachel Larsen and Ozlem “Ozi” Akturk turned to crowdfunding in a bid to keep the property going.

The live-action/animated series, which ran for three seasons, focuses on stop-motion character Tiny Chef, a little herbivore who creates dishes in his tree-stump home. Whereas it typically takes a month for the producers to make a one-minute video, they fast-tracked a new video in just two weeks—a heartbreaking story in which Chef finds out about the show’s cancellation and cries—in order to quickly get the word out about the crowdfunding effort.

The producers are using the money they raised to go independent and create new content for digital platforms. Making the live-action sets and props and animating the videos costs US$120,000 per month for a crew of six, says Larsen. And going directly to the fans was a way to get at least a piece of the financing required to keep making new videos.

The team was able to raise enough money from the audience to keep the lights on until the brand starts earning revenue on YouTube. It doesn’t have the same popularity there (487,000 subscribers as of press time) as it does on other social channels like TikTok (5.8 million followers), but the goal has been to build that audience.

Crowdfunding helped keep this adorable chef cooking after the Nickelodeon series was canceled.

The producers have raised a total of US$130,000 in one-time donations, with 10,500 people joining a fan club and paying monthly to keep Chef content coming. Subscribers aren’t currently getting any additional rewards because the creators didn’t want to overpromise and underdeliver, says Larsen. But the money raised through crowdfunding means the company doesn’t have to scramble to find brand partnerships to stay afloat—instead those kinds of deals serve as a supplement.

The creators have big ambitions for Tiny Chef and see potential for a movie, more TV episodes and a cookbook—and crowdfunding was the first step in making all of that possible. “This opens up a world where we can control our own future more,” says Larsen. “Chef’s best chapter is coming up.”

A leg up with studios

In 2017, director Matthew Cherry set out to crowdfund US$75,000 to make a six-minute animated short about a dad helping his young Black daughter style her hair. The campaign went viral, and he ended up raising almost US$300,000—a record amount for a short film, according to Kickstarter.

Thanks to the campaign’s runaway success, Lion Forge, Sony Pictures Animation and 6 Point Harness got involved in the project, and Hair Love went on to win the 2020 Oscar for Best Animated Short Film. HBO Max then expanded the IP into a long-form animated series called Young Love that premiered in 2023.

Cherry first started crowdfunding in 2012, raising financing to finish his first feature film, The Last Fall. He’s since raised money for several other projects. His latest campaign, which kicked off in May, is for an animated musical short that serves as a proof of concept for a feature film called Time Signature, about a teen who uses a magic piano to travel through time and rekindle her mother’s love of music.

Matthew Cherry raised more than US$88,000 for Time Signature. A small piece of the funding he needs, but a great way to get started and prove audience interest to buyers, he says.

Within a week of launching the campaign, Cherry says he surpassed the project’s US$25,000 goal—all told, the effort earned close to US$89,000 from more than 500 backers. But Cherry deliberately set the bar low because of Kickstarter’s all-or-nothing model. And the amount raised is just a piece of the US$1-million budget the 10-minute short requires—which is just fine, he says.

As with Hair Love, Cherry plans to leverage the momentum and money generated by the crowdfunding in meetings with studios. Being able to say that he can cover some of the budget and that there’s already an audience for the film can go a long way when it comes to convincing studio partners to sign on, he says.

“I think the current challenges with traditional funding and distribution will start to shift how [creators] view crowdfunding,” Cherry says. “It’s not a donation. It’s not charity. It’s an opportunity to put your vision into the world and give your audience a chance to respond. When someone backs your campaign, they’re saying, ‘I want this to exist.’ That’s a powerful kind of greenlight.”