The Renfrow Story

Maybe you are like me and are not super familiar with Kickstarter. I had contributed to a few projects through their platform before, but figuring out how to create a campaign has been quite a learning curve. Unlike some other sites like GoFundMe, which allow you to simply make a contribution to a cause, Kickstarter is tied to accountability and providing a return to those who contribute. You have to set a target goal, and the number of days you have to reach it. If you don’t reach your goal in the set time, you don’t get any of the money. You set contribution levels and each is tied to a “reward”, something you promise to provide to the supporter if the project is funded. So figuring out what goal I needed and what the levels and rewards would be took a lot of thought. And they strongly recommend having a campaign video. I’ve done a few video projects before, so it’s not completely new to me, but I wanted this one to include more variety in content than I have done in the past, so it took a bit to pull it all together.

When I posted an early test video on Facebook, I discovered that if it didn’t have captions created by me the auto captioning tools were going to be really annoying. For one thing, Facebook can’t figure out how to spell Grinnell and they don’t make it easy to edit the captions. So my work around was to upload the video to YouTube, which does a much better job with their captioning and makes it easy to edit and correct spelling and punctuation.

I started working on the video before visiting Edith on March 25, so I knew I wanted to include some clips of my time with her. I just don’t think anything can compare to seeing and hearing her because, at age 108, she is a bit beyond belief otherwise. Her response to the story was so wonderful and affirming. Being able to include the video with her at the beginning and the audio clip at the end really made the video special. The bit at the end is her response immediately after I finished reading it to her that day. I don’t think I can fully express what an honor this has all been and my hesitancy to think I was the person write her story. So her response was so meaningful and reassuring.

For the Kickstarter campaign, I decided on a goal of raising $10,000 in 30 days. $5000 of that will go directly to the illustrator for completing the book. The rest is to pay for things like the website, professional fees like lawyers, Kickstarter fees, and of course printing initial copies of the book. One nice thing about Kickstarter is you might actually raise more than your goal – so you share what they call your “stretch goals”, essentially what you’ll do if you raise more than your target. This also allows a bit of a buffer if things end up costing more than you initially thought. In this case, I’m really not sure what the printing costs will end up being because there are so many variables in finished product quality and there are a number of online printing companies with different options. I also want to be able to explore local print options if possible. Ideally, I’d like to be able to order one copy from a number of places to figure out which one has the best look and feel before we do a bulk order.

I’ve set six reward levels, hoping to offer an option that will work for most people who want to chip in. If you donate $10, you will get the ebook as soon as it is ready. If you can do $25, you get that plus one of the first print copies (picked up in Grinnell, or please do the $10 “add-on” option if you want it mailed). When you jump to $50, your contribution will add a copy to my library donation pile. [Sidenote: There are 543 public libraries in Iowa and about 80 in the Chicago public library system. Wouldn’t it be amazing to give 500 copies of this book to those libraries who want one!]

For those who are able to help with larger contributions, I decided I would offer official acknowledgement in the book as a member of Team Renfrow. So there will be three levels for that: Team Renfrow ($100), Team Renfrow Star ($250), and Team Renfrow Super Star ($500). Each of these levels of support will be acknowledged in the book. We’re also thinking of something fun we can add for each level – maybe stickers or notecards with images from the book. At the $500 level, I will also do a reading and/or presentation about Edith at a location of your choice, although if it’s more than 100 miles away we’d need to figure out travel expenses.

For Kickstarter, your campaign also has to meet their guidelines and be approved before it can go live. I am happy to report that, as of yesterday, it has met their approval criteria and you can see the “prelaunch” page by clicking the button below

If you go there now, you won’t see much more than the option to sign up to be notified when the campaign launches on April 10th. So if you are planning to contribute, which I would be so happy to have you do, please create an account in Kickstarter and sign up to get notified when it goes live.

One thing I will add, as I’ve had a few people ask, if you want to support this project but aren’t comfortable giving to the online campaign , I’m willing to have a conversation about doing something direct (let me know in the comments if you don’t have my direct contact info). The caveat is I need to meet the Kickstarter campaign level or I don’t get any of what people offer to contribute there. Once that happens (fingers crossed) we can work something out.

Thank you to everyone who has been so encouraging at every step of this journey. I know there are so many people, near and far, who have been inspired by Edith. While my name may be listed as the author of this book, I consider this to be a project born and nurtured by all Grinnellians everywhere. Edith has the power to inspire us to be the kind of person she has always been – one who doesn’t let differences divide or define us. She represents a world where we do better when we come together, and goodness knows the world needs more of that these days.