ROB HORNSTRA & ARNOLD VAN BRUGGEN
07.04.12. 10 AM

On 1 April The Sochi Project entered its fourth year. Time to take stock of the first three years. Rob has converted all the available statistics into tables and graphs.


Amount of money donated to The Sochi Project, divided in Gold, Silver and Bronze.

€73,036 donated
Since the start of the project in 2009, 582 people have donated to The Sochi Project. About a quarter of those has donated every year. In total we have received almost 1,000 separate donations, which have generated €73,036 – an incredible amount. Of this amount, almost 40% is from gold donors, 45% from silver donors and 15% from bronze donors. About 30% of the silver donations goes back to the donors, in the form of annual publications, postage costs and extras. For gold donors this is around 10%.


Number of donors of The Sochi Project.

Interestingly, the graph shows that we have passed our peak number of donors. A year ago it looked like we were set to reach 500 donors. Currently, some 300 people still support our project. The main reason for this is a 25% drop in bronze donors. These are donors who donate between €10 and €100, which only gives them access to our website. In contrast, the number of gold donors has stayed the same and the number of silver donors has increased. Moreover, more and more donors are inclined to slip us little extras. A bronze donor may suddenly give us €50 instead of €10. A silver donor might transfer €250 instead of €100. One of our best gold donors recently gave us €1,234.56.

Although the vast majority (170) of our donors is still bronze, it is our silver (117) and gold (10) donors who cover our travel and publishing expenses. During readings or workshops we give on crowdfunding that is often our advice to people considering crowdfunding: small donations are good for building momentum and creating a following, but administering them is a hellish job that costs more money than it generates. In our case this is also due to our project’s five-year nature: every quarter, we ask the people who have donated for a year to renew their support, a process that entails numerous reminders and mounds of paperwork. This is why we are increasing the bronze donation to €25.

Dreaming of 753,000 ambassadors
In March 2010 – our project had been online for a year – we started our Facebook page and Twitter feed, where we posted free stories, photos and of course requests to donate. Facebook is a blessing for our project. It fits perfectly with our idea of remaining independent and attracting our own supporters. Our ambition is to get our Facebook followers excited about our work in the hope that they will want to find out more and buy books, visit exhibitions and perhaps become a donor. Facebook statistics tell us that we can reach 753,000 people through our 2,400 'likes' – a number dreams are made of. We do, however, wonder whether our Facebook page isn’t cannibalising our own donors. Why become a donor if you can be kept informed for free?

We mainly use Facebook to tell followers that our project is going well, that we have created interesting new stories or won awards. Positive information, in other words. We don't think Facebook is the medium to bother people with endless administrative or purchasing issues. That policy seems to have a downside. Within half an hour of announcing that Sochi Singers had won a World Press Photo award, two donors cancelled their membership. A project that is already successful doesn't need more money, seemed to be the thinking.

But momentum is one of our goals: by the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, we hope to have a large, loyal base of people who act as ambassadors for our project and spread our alternative story about the far less glamorous side of the Games. So we are trying to retain our donors, who will enable us to keep the project afloat, and are working towards a number of hopefully impressive final publications.


Demographics of donors and followers of The Sochi Project.

Approximately 70% of our donors comes from the Netherlands. That percentage has changed little in recent years. After the Netherlands, the most donations come from Germany and the United Kingdom. The spread on Facebook is more international. Around a third of our followers comes from the Netherlands and a third from European countries where we have exhibited our work (Germany, Italy and England). The rest is from all over the world, with a recent fairly rapid increase from Russia (about 5% of our followers).

Current financial situation
We took a big financial risk with the release of our latest annual publication, Sochi Singers. We had to sell part of the print run as quickly as possible to be able to pay the printer. Although we were successful, in part thanks to the prizes that Sochi Singers won, there was no money left for a subsequent trip. We were able to finance our most recent visit to Dagestan with support from the Sem Presser Foundation. At the moment we are working on our second Sketchbook. Once again we don't have the money to pay the printer. Anyone hoping to get rich would do well to avoid starting an initiative like The Sochi Project. Even so, we are thrilled to be able to throw ourselves into each stage of the project, which continues to exist largely thanks to our 582 donors.