S1/E4: Frontlines Fundraising

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Season 1 / Edition 4

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TimeGhost History produces “historical documentaries in real time” - chronicling major periods of history day-by-day and week-by-week, as if you were living through them yourself.

After a successful series on World War I (of which Vice News wrote: "slowly but surely, "The Great War" on YouTube is becoming the most expansive repository of World War I knowledge ever produced.”), TimeGhost History was born: launching a series on World War II in September 2018 which has run “in real-time” since (they’re now entering 1945, the final year of the war).

The channel has a significant following: boasting over 171M views and more than 800,000 subscribers on YouTube.

And, despite what you might think of a YouTube channel, the project is no small endeavor – TimeGhost employs an international team of passionate historians and documentary makers in these deeply researched, TV-quality productions.

How are they funded? Director of Fundraising Ian Sowden told me that the vast majority of their income comes not from YouTube monetization, but individual contributions: on Patreon, they have ~8,500 donors generating close to $1M in revenue per year.

• Patreon is a key cog in the modern creator portfolio, where fans support creators through monthly or annual donations, charged automatically via a credit card.
  

• Timeghost’s giving tiers run from $3 and $9/mo. on the low end, to $100 or even $250 per month at the higher end.
  

• These givers are highly loyal – with an overall renewal rate equivalent to 80% annually – impressive when compared with Association of Fundraising Professionals’ donor retention benchmark of just over 40% (2022).
  

• This is supplemented by one-off fundraising around specific “moments” (e.g. the Normandy Invasion aka “D-Day” was used in this way).
  

Ian points out that because this membership is so core to their survival, building community is a core strategy – accomplished via having talent & experts interface directly with fans through comments, emails, and live chats around releases, as well as special videos dedicated to fan questions.

This focus, he says, has resulted in donors having a strong sense of co-ownership – a feeling they’re joining a cause rather than making a contribution.  That’s echoed in TimeGhost’s purpose: “We want to …co-create our documentaries together with our community members and experts from over the whole globe.”

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OBSERVATIONS

• An organization, dedicated to engaging visitors with history, supported by donors. Sounds familiar… though show me a history museum with the kinds of visitation rates (and weekly repeat attendance) TimeGhost has.
  

• Sky-high renewal rates like this make me question why we don’t push monthly, opt-out giving more. On his side, Ian says most creators are underutilizing Patreon as a “tip jar”, typically only having $1/$2/$5 per month tiers – they’ve focused on much higher tiers and seen great results. Also: is Patreon et. al. helping prime giving behavior for younger demographics?
  

• For me, Ian’s explanation of how they engage with their community demonstrated a blurring of lines between our silos of artistic/curatorial and fundraising – donors are donating to Timeghost because they’re interested in the subject matter, and they’re rewarded with direct engagement with subject matter experts, deepening their “fandom.” I feel like we may over-engage our “fans” with fundraising professionals. Could we find better ways of “deepening fandom” through the subject matter / artists?
  

• Members of TimeGhost have a strong feeling of co-creation. This is partly due to the serialization of their “product” (a built-in reward cycle for those who give). But it’s also an explicit aim – their PURPOSE is to co-create with their community. Are there ways we could better build this sense of co-creation? Most cultural organizations have an ongoing stream of “product creation” too…

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