Crowdfunding for satellite development: ESTCube-2 case

Here we present a successful crowdfunding campaign, which raised more than €38.7k (≈$45.8k) for ESTCube-2 satellite development. Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people who each contribute a relatively small amount, typically via the internet. ESTCube-2 is a three-unit CubeSat which will tests technologies for future interplanetary nanospacecraft missions. The campaign was launched on March 13, 2017 with the goal to fundraise €30k. Within the first day, the campaign raised €6.1k. Over a week before the end of the extended campaign, the project was still missing thousands of euros that were successfully collected and even exceeded expectations following by networking at a startup conference in Tallinn - Latitude59. More than 500 backers supported the campaign, contributing from €1 to €3k during a 2.5-month period. Pledges of €100 and more made half of the total amount collected while around a half of all backers chose to pledge between €10 and €50. This paper goes behind the scenes of preparing and running the campaign. We present a list of specific activities and corresponding weekly donations, as well as the final sprint which raised €8k over the goal. We discuss the fulfilment of commitments and lessons learned. Campaign's website: https://goo.gl/GK1KXA