Crowdfunding: Connecting Creators and Patrons

Nominations are now CLOSED for the Patron category of the Rose & Bay Award.

Nominations are now OPEN for the Patron category of the Rose & Bay Award. This award honors excellence in creative crowdfunding, and this category recognizes the people who support projects financially, among other ways. Everyone is encouraged to make nominations and, later, to vote. Icons and banners are available to help spread the word. Please read the complete details below, and then make your nominations in a comment under this post.

Note: A project or person which wins one year is not eligible in the same category for the next year. After that, it is eligible again. In 2024, for the Patron category, librarygeek for the Poetry Fishbowl won, thus neither are eligible this year.



What Is the Rose & Bay Award?

The Rose & Bay Award was launched by ysabetwordsmith (Elizabeth Barrette) in January 2009, and quickly gained additional volunteers. This award focuses on a growing business model known as "crowdfunding" or "cyberfunded creativity," which directly connects creative people and patrons of the arts online. This award recognizes exemplary projects and enthusiastic patrons. It currently features six categories: Art, Fiction, Poetry, Webcomic, Other Project, and Patron.

The award period for eligible activities spans January 1-December 31, 2023.
The nomination period spans January 1-January 31, 2024.
The voting period spans February 1-February 29, 2024.

These are the handlers for the 2025 award season:

Art: fuzzyred
Fiction: curiosity
Poetry: fuzzyred
Webcomic: ysabetwordsmith
Other Project: ysabetwordsmith
Patron: curiosity

Award Rules

1) In order for a person to be nominated in the Patron category,

The person must have made a financial contribution to a creative project. This distinguishes patrons of the arts from the general audience. However, money is not the only consideration: Patrons may also be admired for their feedback, word of mouth promotion, suggested improvements to crowdfunding models, taste in items sponsored, etc. -- and these are good ways to choose between patrons if you're not sure which to pick.

The receiving project must qualify as "cyberfunded creativity" aka "crowdfunding." That means it must be creative material marketed directly to an audience online, with money involved somehow. There are many variations of this business model; all are welcome; and if you're not sure a project qualifies, you may ask. See "5 Steps to Crowdfunding Success" for a discussion of key features that identify a crowdfunded project.

For the Patron category only, duplicate nominations will be accepted/encouraged. The same patron can be nominated by multiple creators and/or by the same creator for multiple projects. This has two benefits. Links are included to each project on the nomination comment. Voters may follow those links and find new projects to enjoy. Also, the information that a patron has supported multiple creators/projects might prove useful for undecided voters.

Note: A project or person which wins one year is not eligible in the same category for the next year. After that, it is eligible again. Example: In the Patron category, Anthony Barrette, patron of the Poetry Fishbowl AND [personal profile] fuzzyred, patron of the Poetry Fishbowl are not eligible.

2) This award will go by calendar years. So in order to be eligible for the 2024 award season, a project or patron must have been active on or between January 1, 2023 and December 31, 2023.

3) For the 2024 season, nominations will be made in comments to each category's nomination post (beginning in January). A nomination consists of the project title, creator name, award category, a link to the project page, and a summary. The summary should include several sentences describing the project's content (theme, characters, plot, etc.), presentation (media, frequency, etc.), and crowdfunding approach (money handling, audience interaction, etc.). Example:


Patron: Q. Moneybags
Project Title: "Awesome Content"
Creator Name: A.J. Muse
Link: http://awe.some.content.com
Category: Other Project
Summary: "Awesome Content" is a story about A.J. Muse's three ferrets, told in a combination of music and fiction, illustrated by photos. It is funded by a combination of donations and photo sales. Updates twice weekly on Music Mondays and Fiction Fridays. Q. Moneybags regularly donates to the Feed the Ferrets tip jar."

4) You may nominate a maximum of three projects per category. You are not required to make that many nominations or to cover all the categories. Please make each nomination in a separate comment; that way, if a problem occurs with one nomination it will not affect any others. You may NOT nominate your own project.

5) Nominations for the Patron category will be collected by curiosity.

6) Participation is voluntary. If a creator wishes to withdraw their project from any category, or a patron wishes to withdraw from the Patron category, simply contact the category handler. In case of withdrawal, the person who made the withdrawn nomination may then nominate another project or patron instead.

7) Voters are strongly encouraged to browse the nominees before making a final decision; that's what the links are for, and the purpose of this award is to promote the splendor of crowdfunded projects. If you don't have time to explore widely or you already have a firm favorite, that's okay too.

8) Voting will take place via Dreamwidth polling in the crowdfunding community, open to all. Polling is by popular vote, with checkboxes; you may vote for all of the projects in a category that you admire. (There may need to be more than one poll question per category, and runoffs, if the number of nominees is high. DW has a limit to how many options there can be per question in a poll.) You ARE allowed to vote for your own project, or yourself as a patron.

9) Winners will be announced after the polling is completed.


How You Can Help

Rose & Bay Award depends on everyone's participation and enthusiasm to make it a success. Here are some ways you can help that happen:

1) Nominate. Leave your nominations for Patrons in the comments on this post. Don't forget to check out the other five nominating posts as well.

2) Vote. Voting opens in February. Don't forget to mark your calendar or set up an alert.

3) Promote. blog, email friends, post to Facebook, GooglePlus, Tumblr, Twitter, Bluesky, or other social websites. Use the banners and icons. Hire a skywriter. Organize a flash mob. Just spread the word.

4) Share. If you're a patron or audience member, highlight your favorite crowdfunded projects from 2022 and direct people back to the award. Are you following other patrons whose tastes match your own to see what they sponsor or recommend? Mention them too! This makes it easier for people to find eligible nominees.

5) Speak up. Don't be shy. If you have eligible projects for Rose & Bay, let your audience and patrons know and link them to the relevant nomination post(s). If you have an "honor wall" or other place acknowledging your patrons, mention that too! Let your fans know there is a way for them to honor your project and the patrons who make it possible.

6) Plug in. Consider joining crowdfunding on Dreamwidth if you're not yet a member. Add "crowdfunding," "cyberfunded creativity," and/or "weblit" to your Interests to help creative people and fans find each other.

7) Place an appropriate image on your website; there are general ones for promoting the Rose & Bay Awards.