The "successful" crowdsourcing efforts I have seen all started out with a big fan base.
No, make that a MASSIVE fan base.
Here's what I consider the best example I've seen, in comparison with something like building a T1:
http://theoatmeal.com/blog/tesla_museum
Now, look at what he had:
*7 million visitors and 30 million unique page views a month.
*A quirky cult following, extremely popular with the young Internet audience.
Result:
In nine days, they surpassed a million dollars. http://theoatmeal.com/blog/tesla_museum_1m
Not enough? http://theoatmeal.com/blog/tesla_museum_update
Ultimately, they raised $1.3 million by the end, AND the property price was reduced, giving them the chance to buy the property for the matching grant: http://theoatmeal.com/blog/tesla_museum_saved
Next result: Elon Musk, of the Tesla auto company, stepped in himself, just as prompted by the first comic: http://theoatmeal.com/blog/musk_tesla_museum
Still at it: http://theoatmeal.com/blog/bricks_for_tesla
Current (Get it?): http://www.teslasciencecenter.org/
How well did this work? I know a successful computer business guy who has an advance order in for a Tesla, who said in part, "This kind of thing is part of why I'm doing it. I like where he's putting his money where his mouth is."
I have seen science fiction writers and fantasy artists start modest Kickstarter campaigns to raise funds for publication of high-quality anthologies of their work. The one, Larry Elmore (who is to the field somewhere about where we might put, say, Link, Steinheimer, Hastings, etc. as rail photographers), humbly tried to find $17,500 to fund the upfront costs of printing a "complete works" collection. He got just shy of $300,000 from about 2,100 people. The book is basically now two volumes, both double the size of what he had hoped one book would be, with deluxe and super-deluxe versions available. He's a year or so behind in finishing up all the "stretch goals," bonuses for various levels of donation (everything from an autograph to a "dragon doodle" with the autograph to color art prints to a personalized commission to a day spent with him and a studio tour, including a motorcycle ride).
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/14 ... re-artbook
Now, what do these guys have that we don't?
1) POPULARITY. You draw them with a great product. The Oatmeal, Matt Inman's web comic, is chock full of humor, attitude, and cojones, and it sells. He's up to published anthology #4, and by the standards of today, he's a Charles Schulz, a George Carlin, a Grand Canyon Railway of Internet humor. Similarly, Larry Elmore is "a god" of fantasy art, which is as obscure to most people as railfanning must be--but at least people have heard of Comic-Con and sci-fi conventions, if only for the stereotypes of costumed geekery run amok.
2) AN EFFECTIVE SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE. This takes truly savvy people, who have a great product, good marketing skills, and a real understanding of how social media works--and doesn't. I've seen one fantasy writer who seemed condemned to languish in obscurity after a movie of his "magnum opus" effectively screwed him out of any income from the cult-followed movie. A social-media presence of his fanbase, a decade or more later, eventually found him fans that were attorneys willing to work pro bono to rectify that situation, and although the litigation is still supposedly ongoing, at the moment he has rights to some control of the movie, has shut down pirates bootlegging the movie, and has grateful, very loyal fans from two decades ago falling over themselves screaming "SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!" for a properly vetted DVD and re-published book.
Just imagine if Dick Jensen had had social media to promote his trips, fundraise, and/or get help for his dilemmas. Or the Blue Mountain & Reading's mainline trips. How about saving the Alco PAs, or building the A1 Tornado? Or getting both the funds and the groundswell of public support behind, say, seeing 614 back on the C&O, or 3751 or 2926 on the Santa Fe Transcon? Or--dare I go there--1361???
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