How raise funding for your Case on Laymans
Go to www.laymans.app
1. Introduction
Laymans doesn't believe that money should be a barrier to access to justice, so Laymans enables both you and your representatives to raise money on your behalf through Campaigns. It's really easy to get started, let's begin:
2. Click "Raise" on the Homepage
The fastest way to start a campaign is to click "Raise" on the homepage
3. Campaigns and Updates Wizard
Welcome to the Campaign and Updates wizard, in this wizard you can create new Campaigns or write updates to preexisting ones. To learn more about updating your supporters and funders via updates, review the Create a Update Guide.
4. Click "Create Campaign" Button
In this case, we are going to click "Create Campaign' to start a new one.
5. Describing your Campaign
Campaigns are the vehicles for getting money to cases from litigation financiers, whether thats grants or loans, or from individual donating laypeople. Campaigns by default are public and are associated with your Laymans account and associated with your case if you've made one:
6. Enter Campaign Title
So, you do want to make a catchy, informative campaign title that doesnt reveal any personal information or legal analyses of your case.
7. Enter Campaign Description
For your campaign description, you want to give a good, rich timeline of everything thats happened to this point, why you need money for your case, and how this case may help others like you. Laypeople respond to base injustice and societal change, but ake sure to not identifiy yourself or your legal analyses.
8. Enter Funding Goal
Now you can estimate an amount you think would be helpful for your case: As a rule of thumb, the smallest amount for a legal service is 2500, the median cost for a singular service is around 5000, and the average is 20,000. If you have an idea of what you need then you can check the Marketplace section of the Homepage to see what the cost may be and plan for it. You should be realistic, as anything you don't use will be refunded back to your funders and pledgers, but whatever is not covered by your campaign you're on the hook for -- unless you make another campaign. You can adjust the amount as time goes on, but your funders and supporters will probably want updates as they too can withdraw their pledges at anytime.
9. Choose Associated Case
Finally, you can choose the case you're raising for now, or later after you've made the case, under the campaigns edit interface. Your campaign has to be associated with a case to be accessible to fund payment requests on services in the Marketplace. Don't worry if that's confusing, as the Checkout screen will let you know!
10. Click "Next"
Time to finalize!
11. Click "Create"
Click Create to finally create your campaign. Once your campaign is created, you'll be prompted to make your first update. You really should do so, as your campaign won't show up in search until you do. Once you've made your first update and created your campaign, your campaign will show up on the homepage for any relevant search for people to donate to. But this is a passive form of advertising your campaign; you can easily share a direct link to your campaign using the share button on your campaign's page, and you're welcome to share your campaign widely on social media, email, and text. Alternatively, by contributing on Laymans with comments, case files, and courses, you put your layperson account out there for laypeople to donate to via the pledge button, allowing you to raise money from your lived experience. If you do get legal services while raising money, your representative can contribute and manage your campaign for you—helping you to apply for funds and adjusting the fund amount and writing updates as needed. While campaign pledges only convert when you actually purchase a legal service or fulfill an invoice, you can use your campaign to apply for legal funds at any time to begin the process of having your case reviewed for grant or contingency funding. But you may need a service to apply for funds, so balance the process as you see fit, and don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.
