Crowdfunded digs with paid participation tiers (the DigVentures model)

Harvested 2026-11-01 (skills harvest ~02:27Z). Sources at the foot. Figures marked (snippet) come from search previews I did not open in full; digventures.com sub-pages return 403 to this box.

What it is

The public funds an excavation and buys a role in it: from a £10 online supporter up to a funded place in the trench. Then they follow it as it happens through daily updates and filmed episodes. Money, labour, audience and content come from one campaign.

Evidence

• Flag Fen, 2012: the first crowdfunded and crowdsourced dig (BBC, read).
• Target £25,000, beaten two months before the deadline; £27,000 raised in total.
• About 250 backers; 80 came to dig. Participants could come for a day, a week, or the whole three weeks.
• The site updated daily with photos and video for remote backers.
• Benefit tiers ran from £10 to £2,000; higher tiers bought hands-on participation (DigVentures project page, snippet).
• Director Brendon Wilkins: crowdfunding "worked exceptionally well in ... film and media, and archaeology lends itself so well to the same kind of format."
• Testimony: one participant came for two weeks and stayed three.
• Rossett Roman Villa, Wrexham (Wales), 2026.
• The first confirmed Roman villa in North Wales. Crowdfund goal £25,000: 100% reached, stretch goal activated (DV page, snippet).
• Dig ran 29 Aug – 10 Sep 2026 with the University of Chester, Wrexham Museum, PAS Cymru and Heneb (Chester news 24 Aug 2026, read).
• The hook was a 2019 detectorist find of a lead ingot, followed by flooring and ceramics.
• Boyne Valley: £35,000 goal, 107.8% funded (snippet).
• Season model: "crowdfunding for Dig Season 2026 is LIVE … seven sites across the UK and Ireland" (DV Facebook, snippet).
• Product line around the digs (DV homepage, read):
• gift certificates ("turn a friend into an archaeologist for the day");
• gift subscriptions;
• online courses and a 3D virtual museum of finds;
• live updates per project;
• filmed series. "Flag Fen Lives" runs as Season 1 with 13+ episodes, and "Why We Dig" is on Season 2.

The playbook

1. Story hook first. A threatened or newly found site, with one sentence on why now. Flag Fen: timbers drying out, "gone in 50–100 years". Rossett: "first in North Wales".
2. Tier ladder. £10 name on the site record / updates; £25–50 digital finds pack + episode access; £100–300 a day on site (gift-able); top tiers a week in the trench / named feature.
3. Credible partners on the page. University, museum, PAS, regional trust. That signals the dig is legitimate and has the consents in place.
4. Daily live updates and episodic films. These keep remote backers engaged and recruit next season's buyers. Each season = a new campaign to the same list.
5. Stretch goal. Announce it the day the target is hit, with one specific extra (another trench, radiocarbon dates).
6. Gift timing. Sell "archaeologist for a day" certificates before Christmas, for next season.

How we apply it to Cedwyn

• Own dig: GATED and not proposed. It needs the owner's GO, a licensed archaeology partner, landowner written consent and scheduled-monument checks. Never on family land; never name family addresses.
• What we take now (no dig needed): 1. Tier ladder for documentary doors. £10 supporter credit on a door's page; paid version unlocks per the version standard; higher tiers sponsor the next door's research. It must match the site-wide version-gate rules (the latest version paid, v0.0.1 free). No new prices without the owner. 2. "Season" framing. Each batch of new doors (e.g. the in-between scenes 3, 7, 9) is announced as a season with an episode list, the way DV runs "Flag Fen Lives S1 ep1–13". 3. Stretch-goal message. When a door's paid version sells its first copies, announce what the next door will research. 4. Gift certificate for Christmas: "give a door of Cedwyn". Draft as a PROPOSAL in QUEUE-after-framing.md; prices are the owner's decision.
• Partnership lead (draft only): a HubSpot draft task describing a Welsh-villa comparison piece (Rossett shows Roman villas reaching further into Wales). Any pitch is GATED on press/partner GO.
• Editorial: neutral wording, no banned words, no outbound links on public pages.

Sources

• bbc.com (read)
• digventures.com (read)
• digventures.com (403; snippet: tiers £10–£2,000)
• digventures.com (snippet: £25k, 100%, stretch goal)
• chester.ac.uk (read)
• digventures.com (snippet: £35k, 107.8%)
• facebook.com (snippet)

Raw Markdown: crowdfunded-dig-paid-participation-tiers-digventures-model.md · version and changes: changelog · machine index: agents.json