Dr Mumbo

Tropfest, the festival of fund raising

john polson tropfestDr Mumbo was as sorry as anyone to hear about last year’s cancellation of short film festival Tropfest after undisclosed shenanigans blamed on the management company.

And he was as delighted as anyone when new sponsor CGU Insurance stepped in a few weeks later, to allow the event to go ahead next month instead.

So his eyebrows raised slightly at the weekend’s news that the organisers, led by founder John Polson, would like some more money – $100,000 to be exact.   

They’ve kicked off a crowd funding campaign on funding platform Pozible asking punters to help pay for them to create a new business model.

Tropfest, which is not a charity, would like $45,000 to spend on a “strategic review and business model restructure”, $7,500 for a “finance and governance review”, $20,000 to spend on focus groups, $17,500 to make a fund raising plan; $5,000 to spend on travel and accommodation and another $5,000 for “project expenses”.

As is the way with Pozible, donors get some juicy perks. For $10, Tropfest will say thank you. For $25, they’ll say thank you on social media.

tropfest pozible honor roll

And for a mere $10,000, you can spend the day of Tropfest with Polson.

One or two potential backers are expressing scepticism. As one commenter on the Tropfest Facebook page puts it:

“Fair dinkum, you are really taking the piss. You want $100k, to: ‘cover the cost of the strategic review, governance review, some vital audience research and focus groups and developing a business model that is genuinely sustainable’.

“You had a huge audience and still fucked it up, and you need money to figure out a business plan? Wake up to yourselves.”

The campaign still has $98,895 to go…

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