Happy holidays, Boosted whānau.What a ride this year has been! In the spirit of this season the Boosted and Te Tumu Toi whānau are sending out a big dose of gratitude.

Crowdfunding is not about you. It’s about the community around what you do. Your crowd. And there’s a difference between your audience and your crowd. Your crowd are the people personally, financially, and emotionally invested in you successfully completing your art project. They’re with you for the journey. They’re with you for your career.

Māpura Studios is a creative space and art therapy centre in central Auckland Tāmaki Makaurau. The project works with over 200 adults and children every week, offering art classes and art therapy programmes for people living with disability and diversity. The studio is also the only organisation that is contracted to deliver art therapy programmes to inmates at Auckland Prison – changing paths and making an impact through art and creativity.

Events can raise awareness of your campaign, raise money, reward your core crowd and create opportunities for media coverage.But they can be time-consuming to organise, so if you can piggyback on existing events where you can make an ask, or have a supporter ask for you, even better.