# 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)