Underhill Rose has a middling average pledge per backer of about $59.

But they are yet another example of the goodness that comes from having strong mid-level rewards.

I’ll do a simple break-down of where their funding came from and, as a bonus, bestow my award of the Single Best Mid-Level Reward of the Year So Far.  And don’t worry, it’s not lame, it beats everybody from last year, too!

Rewards Breakdown

The Big 5

1. $10 Digital Download (DD) (85 backers – $850)
2. $20 Physical CD + Download (110 backers – $2200)
3. $75 Shirt (19 backers – $1425)
4. Album Credits – Missed.
5. $500/1000 House Concert (5 and 3 backers – $2500 and $3000)

The total raised just from these 4 of the Big 5:  $9975 from 222 backers.

As always, when you go to design your rewards packages, DO NOT exclude the album credits.  People donate money for all kinds of reasons, and whether or not they’ll admit it, one of these reasons is recognition.  This is value created so don’t skip it just because you plan to shout out on social media!

Mid-Level Rewards (Over $50 that received pledges)

• $50 – 5-pack of hand-made Cards plus CD/poster (34 backers – $1700)
• $100 – Tickets to CD Release, shirt/hoodie, plus CD/DD (5 backers – $500)
• $150 – Woodcut Print, hand-made earrings, homemade preserves, and a signed print plus DD/CD/poster  (14 backers – $2100)
• $300 – Skype Lesson plus DD/CD/poster (2 backers – $600)
• $400 – Original Song (3 backers – $1200)

These five rewards total $6100 from 58 backers.

The Lesson:  Mid-Level Kickstarter Rewards Kick A$$!

The average pledge per backer for the Big 4 of 5 is $45.

The average pledge per backer for the mid-level rewards is $105!

Mid-level rewards are important!

If you cut out mid-level rewards, this project and any other project would be left scrambling to make up a significant amount of funding, anywhere from 25% to 75% and in this case 40%.

At an average $/backer of $45, you would need to snag 2 backers of a Big 5 reward for every 1 backer of a mid-level reward.  If you consider the likelihood that you can only pull so many backers at the house concert level, you would probably find yourself needing 4 or 5 Big 5 backers to replace 1 mid-level backer.

Soooooo, DON’T FORGET MID-LEVEL REWARDS!

Heck, don’t even NEGLECT them.  Make sure you put as much thought and creativity into these suckers as possible!

Bonus:  Single Best Mid-Level Reward of the Year So Far

Goes to the $150 Woodcut Print, hand-made earrings, homemade preserves, and a signed print plus DD/CD/poster reward!

I mean to tell you, this son of a gun is PACKED with value.  Heck, the only thing it has going against is that the project ended in January.  If they had ended in December and shipped it, it would’ve solved 3/4 of my Christmas shopping!

Listen up, though.

From what I have seen, bands are having some success with music-related mid-level rewards such as concert tickets, custom music, or sitting in on stage.  Skype lessons are often unsuccessful unless the band/artist has an exceptional rapport with people.

Homemade/handmade mid-level rewards, on the other hand, often have a significant amount of success.  And by success, I mean they usually raise more money than their music-related counterparts.