Why chase one deep-pocketed backer when you can rally thousands of supporters to fund your dream? That’s the promise of crowdfunding—a grassroots financing model that has been gaining traction among indie producers looking to bring projects to life.
But while the concept sounds simple—pitch your idea, attract backers, watch the money roll in—the reality is far more complex. Launching a successful campaign requires months of preparation, from audience research and crafting pitch materials, to designing meaningful backer rewards.
And the stakes are high. For indie studios without a built-in fanbase or major online following, hiring a marketing agency may be necessary just to get the word out. And that upfront cost, which is often in the tens of thousands, won’t be recouped if the campaign falls short.
Still, when crowdfunding works, it offers more than funding. It can build an audience and spark momentum like no studio pitch meeting ever could.
At its best, crowdfunding allows creators to maintain ownership, prove demand and connect directly with fans. But success doesn’t happen by accident. Behind every breakout campaign is a carefully crafted strategy that combines creative vision with business planning, marketing savvy and relentless community engagement. For creators considering this path, understanding what works (and what doesn’t) can make the difference between a celebrated launch and a costly misfire.
Kickstarting your next big hit
There are several platforms that support crowdfunding campaigns, including Indiegogo, Patreon, Seed&Spark and others, but Kickstarter has emerged as the dominant player. Since launching in 2009, Kickstarter campaigns have raised more than US$600 million for film and video projects—the fourth-largest category on the platform in terms of total money pledged, says Taylor Shaw, senior outreach lead for Kickstarter’s film division.
Kickstarter operates on an all-or-nothing model, requiring projects to either earn the money they set as a goal or give back whatever they’ve raised if they fall short. That structure can feel risky—but it also helps build trust with backers, ensuring creators are fully funded before they start production.
But in the past year, Kickstarter has rolled out new tools to make it easier for backers to support projects and for producers to run campaigns. This includes a “pledge over time” feature that lets backers split up their investment, and a pledge management system that was introduced in May to let creators streamline post-campaign logistics like shipping and tariffs.
“The film [and TV] industry is in flux,” Shaw says. “Studio consolidation, budget cuts and shifting distribution models have made it harder than ever for both veteran and emerging filmmakers to get their projects greenlit. When traditional industry pathways say no, Kickstarter offers an alternative way to get your work made and seen.”
Crowdfunding the dream
Things continue to look grim for kids media funding; market research firm Ampere Analysis expects the overall investment in kids content from both commissions and acquisitions to decrease yearly over the next five years, from roughly US$74 million in 2025 to US$67 million in 2029.
One answer to this depressing business reality could be crowdfunding—especially since the total funding generated by the global crowdfunding market is expected to more than double in the next five years, from US$2.14 billion in 2024 to US$5.53 billion by 2030, according to an outlook from Research and Markets.
When a project can’t gain traction with buyers—because it’s niche, or too ambitious, or because traditional broadcasters lack the budget—going straight to the audience might be the answer. This was the situation Shining Isle Productions’ COO and EP Brock Starnes and CEO and EP J. Chris Wall found themselves in when they looked at turning Andrew Peterson’s four-book series The Wingfeather Saga into a 2D/CG-animated series.
Since 2016, Shining Isle (also known as Toothy Cow Productions) has US$7 million through crowdfunding for three seasons of the epic adventure series The Wingfeather Saga.
The books have sold more than 1.5 million copies in the US, but the duo wanted to turn them into a seven-season epic—and it was difficult to get support for such an ambitious plan. So in 2016, they launched their first campaign on Kickstarter. Since that time, Shining Isle has crowdfunded more than US$7 million for three seasons of the tween-targeting series (and raised over US$13 million in total towards production). Season three debuted this fall, with season four currently in development . The Wingfeather Saga is available on Apple TV, Google Play, Prime Video and Angel Studios’ SVOD, with Angel Studios and Lion Forge Entertainment handling distribution and Licensing Works! managing consumer products in the US.
With broadcasters becoming increasingly risk-averse, crowdfunding is a more and more attractive financing option, says Wall, especially when campaigns lead to licensing and distribution deals. “For those of us who are telling stories that are maybe a bit risky, I think crowdfunding is the way that’s going to get done.”
As any producer knows, though, finding an audience is almost never an easy feat. When Shining Isle kicked off its crowdfunding campaign, the company spent roughly US$150,000 to hire an ad agency to make a compelling promotional video, among other things. The team also did market research to find out what it was that fans of the books actually wanted from an adaptation.
One key aspect they discovered through this process was that the fans had an appetite for “Game of Thrones, but for kids”—complete with all the detailed world-building and interesting characters, minus the sex and violence. That was something the studio tapped into in its marketing and pitch video.
Studying other successful crowdfunding efforts, Starnes and Wall determined that the ideal length for a campaign is between 30 to 45 days. “This timeframe is often long enough to build momentum and nurture community engagement, but short enough to create urgency,” says Starnes. A strong project page is critical to the success of any campaign, he adds. Shining Isle built one that featured artwork, an introduction to the team behind the series, and investor-focused messaging that focused on growth potential and long-term plans for the franchise.
Email and social media outreach were also key to drumming up interest, Starnes says, and having the marketing agency share the pitch video on social media platforms helped drive awareness. The studio focused first on reaching fans of the books before appealing to a wider audience, which helped build momentum early.
Many crowdfunding campaigns also offer various reward tiers, offering physical gifts or digital perks to backers who give a certain amount. The bigger the contribution, the better the reward—and poorly planned or overly ambitious physical rewards can become unexpectedly onerous on creators. So Shining Isle made sure to offer rewards that were realistic while still giving value to backers, like having their names in the show’s credits and giving them access to exclusive behind-the-scenes updates, as well as special invitations to the premiere. Regular online updates including livestreams, Q&As based on fan questions and videos celebrating milestones kept backers engaged and also attracted new ones, Starnes says.
“This steady communication reinforced the truth that backers weren’t just supporting the project—they were bringing it to life,” he adds.
Starting a slate
Former Disney animator Tom Bancroft (The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast) decided to appeal directly to animation lovers when he started Pencilish Animation Studios as CEO in 2020.
Using WeFunder, a platform that gives investors an equity stake in a project and welcomes both casual fans and venture capitalists, Bancroft raised US$3 million from around 5,000 investors. Going this route helped build a community around the company—and it was less risky than spending all of his own money to launch a company, he says. To try and quickly deliver return on investment to those 5,000 backers, Pencilish started right away on developing and producing three different animated series concurrently: Bjorn the Last Unicorn, Mind over Murphy and JuJu Brain.
That drained funds fast, though, and two and a half years in, Bancroft realized the company didn’t have enough money to keep up its feverish pace of releasing multiple short episodes monthly on YouTube. So the company took what it had made—about 15 to 20 minutes of animation for each show—and combined them into pilots that Bancroft could bring to markets.
Seeing growing demand for animated kids films, the company also pivoted to produce its first feature: My Hero (pictured at the top), a 2D-animated comedy/adventure about a superhero from the 1940s who teams up with a present-day teenager to save the world. Pencilish got funds from Dell to make a one-minute proof-of-concept teaser. And the plan is to make the entire film on a US$20-million budget.
Crowdfunding is a challenging route, but it’s helped Tom Bancroft get to a place where he can work on his dream project, My Hero, he says.
Bancroft has since put the film into another crowdfunding platform, the Angel Guild, run by the same company that operates faith-based streamer Angel Studios. This subscription platform has 1.5 million members who vote on their favorite projects to decide which ones get funding and a spot on the SVOD. A few projects that have made their way through the Angel Guild include controversial box-office hit Sound of Freedom. And Angel recently acquired the David franchise from Slingshot USA, with plans to expand it into more content after the series Young David scored high with its members.
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Despite there being plenty of platforms and money out there for creators to tap into, Bancroft says it pays to remember that crowdfunding is not an easy road. “It is tricky. It’s not free money,” he says. “The struggle to make TV and films has gotten harder, but we’re still out here trying to keep the flame alive, especially for 2D animation.”
What funders want
As they pursue crowdfunding options, a key consideration for creators of kids media is: What sorts of projects will actually appeal to investors—who are presumably adults, and not kids? Are backers looking more to support gentle series for preschoolers or action-adventure shows for older kids that parents might want to watch, too?
Bancroft says that Pencilish has two clear types of investors—fans of 2D animation who want series and films that feel like a ’90s Disney movie, and ROI-focused investors who want to see the studio do what’s on-trend and popular. The animation fans outnumber the investors, Bancroft says, but producers can target both groups.
Shining Isle, meanwhile, found that its first backers were families who loved The Wingfeathers Saga books. So for creatives thinking about crowdfunding, it’s helpful to start with a property that has an established fan base, Starnes says. From there, success comes from tapping into those fans’ desire to see their favorite property grow.
“I think the audience’s appetite is there,” says Wall. “You just have to get to them.”
Come back tomorrow for part two of this series on crowdfunding, looking at how crowdfunding can be integrated into a larger funding strategy.
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