For what it's worth, I have a bit of experience with Kickstarter campaigns, where a similar pattern is often alleged. The sense there is that the "last minute push", while it does happen sometimes, is not guaranteed, and you shouldn't rely on it - instead, the conventional wisdom is that you shouldn't even start your campaign until you've built a bunch of hype with the relevant people and have a strong initial push all but locked in.
This allows you to begin the campaign with a strong signal of interest and buy-in; some Kickstarters are planned/calculated to fully fund on day one and immediately start going for stretch goals. I'm not sure if a similar pattern would be effective for nonprofit fundraising, but it seems perhaps worth trying.
Good point. I think Kickstarter campaigns are gamified in all sorts of ways. For example, having a limited number of certain kinds of backing options that are extra good. People want to grab those before they run out.
Agree this is a problem, but also part of a broader coordination problem in the community and which we should solve. Solutions proposed by 80K here.
For what it's worth, I have a bit of experience with Kickstarter campaigns, where a similar pattern is often alleged. The sense there is that the "last minute push", while it does happen sometimes, is not guaranteed, and you shouldn't rely on it - instead, the conventional wisdom is that you shouldn't even start your campaign until you've built a bunch of hype with the relevant people and have a strong initial push all but locked in.
This allows you to begin the campaign with a strong signal of interest and buy-in; some Kickstarters are planned/calculated to fully fund on day one and immediately start going for stretch goals. I'm not sure if a similar pattern would be effective for nonprofit fundraising, but it seems perhaps worth trying.
Good point. I think Kickstarter campaigns are gamified in all sorts of ways. For example, having a limited number of certain kinds of backing options that are extra good. People want to grab those before they run out.
I think this should be a claim.
I would add an "I assume" here in parentheses, so you're not putting words in their mouth, or projecting feelings into their heads.