Ballet scholarship for Melissa & Giovanni

The Dutch National Ballet is always looking for new ways involve their audiences and in May 2016 they launched their first crowdfunding campaign. Their goal was not only financing a unique project and making dreams come true, they also wanted to create a group of involved crowdfunders and engage/connect them in a unique and special way.

Name of project: Ballet scholarship for Melissa and Giovanni

Funds collected: € 10,300 and 10,285 respectively

Number of projects backers: 84 and 100 respectively.

Sector: Arts & Culture

Country: Netherlands

Platform: Voordekunst (Netherlands)

Type of crowdfunding: Reward crowdfunding (All-or-nothing)

The Dutch National Ballet is always looking for new ways involve their audiences and in May 2016 they launched their first crowdfunding campaign. Their goal was not only financing a unique project and making dreams come true, they also wanted to create a group of involved crowdfunders and engage/connect them in a unique and special way. Crowdfunding was seen as the perfect way to combine fundraising and marketing. Through the platform Voordekunst (For-the-art) the public could directly invest in scholarship of the ballet dancers. Both campaigns for Melissa and Giovanni were successful allowing them to join the two year scholarship program run by The Junior Company. To interest various levels of investors both Melissa and Giovanni offered a wide ranging reward structure, leading to numerous €10 investments up to three investments of €1,500 where the investors were shown around backstage at the National Ballet arena, including lunch with the performer and their name in the program.

The varying reward structure allowed for a wide range of investors to donate, showing their support. Was the campaign a success? The project was a huge success, another round of crowdfunding is being scheduled. This model can be replicated by other performers and institutes in other creative industries
The campaigns were a great success, within two weeks of launching both projects had reached their funding goals. This was thanks to successfully marketing the campaign at those with an interest in ballet.
Non-financial results: • Giovanni and Mellissa’s successful scholarship to the program • Increased publicity of both performers and the Dutch National Ballet company • Ability to train and perform alongside professionals.