TIM MEKEEL | Staff WriterDon Rongione, the president and chief executive officer of Bollman Hat, didn’t sleep very well Saturday night.
But Sunday night, he slept great.
Thanks to an intense late push, the Adamstown-based firm’s crowdfunding campaign exceeded its $100,000 goal just moments before its 9 p.m. Sunday deadline.
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The money will go toward the $1 million cost of bringing production of Bollman’s best-selling Kangol 504 caps from China to here, creating 41 local jobs.
“It was a little nerve-wracking toward the end, but we’ve all got smiles on today,” said Rongione on Monday.
The final tally: $102,820 from 671 supporters.
The anxiety came from the all-or-nothing nature of the crowdfunding campaign, done on the Kickstarter website.
To collect a cent of the pledged funds, Bollman had to hit its goal.
Crowdfunding is a way of raising money via the Internet. Usually it’s used for low-budget arts or small business projects, not sizable industrial ventures.
And Bollman is thinking big.
It’s bought the 130 machines used to produce the hats from a Chinese contractor. The machines need to be shipped here, repaired, adapted to the U.S. power grid and supplemented by some new equipment.
Bollman has gotten $160,000 in state help and contributed $350,000 of its own money, with more to come. Still, to ready all the equipment promptly, rather than stash some in storage, it needed additional dollars.
So it turned to Kickstarter. To promote the campaign, Bollman made a video, nearly four minutes long, featuring movie star and 504 fan Samuel L. Jackson.
Buzzer beater
Putting Bollman over the top was a $3,000 pledge from a California woman, who was attracted by a premium that Bollman had just added to the proceedings.
It was a polished, 25-pound aluminum statue of a kangaroo (the Kangol hat emblem).
Bollman initially offered just one of the statues, which had gotten snagged by a supporter on the first day of the campaign, back in November. Then Bollman offered a second one.
The twist was that the woman, a stranger to the company, had pledged $400 earlier in the campaign for a 504 cap autographed by Jackson.
To make a second pledge, Kickstarter required the woman to cancel her first pledge — except that the woman didn’t want to give up the autographed cap.
Bollman’s solution was to have the woman cancel the first pledge but receive a newly created premium for the second pledge — the statue plus the cap.
That maneuver was completed at 8:45 p.m.
Broad support
The spontaneous creativity by Bollman was one of several extra efforts to erase a substantial shortfall in the campaign’s final days.
Bollman employees, with no prompting from management, donated items that they sold to fellow employees via a Chinese auction.
Kickstarter drew attention to the Bollman effort by highlighting it as one of the “Projects We Love.”
Bollman, mindful that the holidays might have distracted some possible supporters, sent out reminders to potential donors who had yet to pledge.
All that helped Bollman generate more than half of its targeted sum in the last week.
Last Tuesday, for instance, the campaign had attracted $48,000 in pledges from 500 backers. In other words, it was $52,000 short.
On Friday evening, it was still $28,000 short. On Saturday evening, it was $14,000 short.
Rongione noted that Bollman drew support from a wide base — employees, customers, friends, family, suppliers and business associates.
For instance, Bollman’s insurance broker, Lancaster-based Murray Securus, gave a “significant” pledge, which he declined to specify.
Members of “American Made Matters,” a group started by Bollman to underscore the economic impact of buying goods made in the U.S., also pledged generously.
“We’re very thankful for all the people who contributed to this campaign ...,” said Rongione.
“That’s what’s really gratifying — people really connected with the project and understood the importance of what we’re trying to do.”
