Seattle Theater Company Leverages Crowdfunding

Ever since Amanda Palmer raised a million plus dollars on Kickstarter to fund her latest album, folks have been fascinated with the idea of Crowdfunding. Kickstarter claims to have raised almost a half a billion dollars to fund new business endeavors since it’s inception three years ago. The latest venture to successfully raise money is a small theater company called Twisted Cabaret. Twisted Cabaret closed funding this morning after reaching a modest goal of $11,000 to cover the costs of producing a live concert video of their Seattle show.

Nearly a hundred people contributed to the project, achieving their goal and completing funding just minutes before the cutoff of 11:00 a.m. This was lucky for Twisted Cabaret, as Kickstarter only pays out to projects that make their goal. According to Kickstarter less than half of the projects hit their mark. If a goal is not reached then all the money is returned to the would-be philanthropists and the project gets nothing. Not only do the fundraisers get Twisted Cabarets eternal gratitude for their contribution, they will receive copies of the finished video.

Twisted Cabaret star, Frank Olivier said, “I feel an excited buzzing energy of ‘YES!’ inside me, knowing these people are all there, helping bring this together.” Olivier recounts the final funding countdown. “We were about a hundred dollars short of our goal with just a few minutes to go when two folks came on board and carried us to victory.”

One of the final donors and the one who took the funding across the line to success had been monitoring the progress. He wanted to be the one who crossed the finish line and so he was, with just two minutes to go he pledged $40 which was exactly how much was needed to achieve the goal. When asked how he felt about funding a project like this he said, “It was like winning a race.”

Twisted Cabaret plays nightly from May 2 through the 26th at Hale’s Palladium in Seattle. Information and tickets are available on the website.