How I Crowdfunded $27,000 for Harvard LL.M.: Strategies That Worked for Me
This post is an excerpt from The Ultimate Guide to Funding Your Master's Degree, in full available here.
Introduction
I've done my LL.M. at Harvard. It's been a wild ride, and I've written extensively about the various components of my application strategy that brought me admissions from top programs, including Harvard, Cambridge, MIDS Geneva, and NYU LL.M. in international arbitration, along with over $140k in scholarship offers.
Given my socio-economic background, raising money to attend Harvard was honestly the most difficult part of the process.
In this post, I'll talk about the most unconventional way I used to finance this degree: crowdfunding.
At the time, to fund my Harvard LL.M., I had to secure $92,000 in total: $62,000 for tuition and $30,000 to cover living expenses. I raised $58,000 through scholarships and supplemented it with savings, but it still wasn't enough. After a long period of seeking additional funding opportunities, I decided to crowdfund the remainder.
It's been nothing short of life-changing, and I want to share this experience can help others. There are several reasons why I considered crowdfunding to be a viable option for funding my Harvard LL.M. degree.
A crowdfunding campaign allows you to tell your story on a transparent, public platform where people can see who you are, verify your credibility, and track your progress in real-time. Having an online presence, like a crowdfunding campaign, makes it easier to approach people, companies, and NGOs for support, as they can see something tangible on the Internet.
Before launching my campaign, I felt uncomfortable asking people and organizations to invest in my studies, explaining my background, goals, and intentions in every outreach. However, the campaign streamlined that process, as it told my story for me. It was shared over 2,000 times on Facebook, engaging people and fostering a sense of participation and transparency. Everyone could see any time of day and night how I was doing. It kept people engaged. Ultimately, this visibility made it easier for a Russian NGO to step in and cover the outstanding balance.
A campaign also acts like an "accountability buddy." Once it’s there and public, it motivates you to stay active and committed to promoting and completing it, and generally taking action to make it successful. Unlike private outreach, where you might drop your efforts, a public campaign creates a strong drive to finish what you started, leading you to success.
Crowdfunding for harvard LL.M.: my story
When I mention crowdfunding $27,000 for Harvard, I get mixed reactions. A friend, even years later, is still surprised: ‘You must be so popular back in Russia to have raised that money!’ (I still smile at this memory 😁).
Many people assume it was easy: I got admitted to Harvard LL.M. and immediately decided to 'just take other people’s money' as if I had nothing better to do. That could not be further from the truth. Crowdfunding happened out of desperation, after years of wanting to pursue an LL.M. degree, not comprehending how education could be so inaccessible because of the circumstance I’ve been born into, and a fierce desire to escape the life script dictated by my nationality, socio-economic status, and upbringing.
Before I decided to do an LL.M., I’d studied in Europe a lot, always funding my way through scholarships. My family couldn't support my studies financially: I grew up in a village on the outskirts of Moscow, with my father working as a plumber and an electrician on about $500 a month. My mother was living in Kazan, a city 800 km from Moscow, raising my younger sister on a salary of a kindergarten teacher, notoriously underpaid in Russia, and struggling to leave an abusive relationship with an alcoholic.
I submitted my LL.M. applications and applied for all scholarships that I knew of. Months later, I was thrilled to receive an offer from Harvard LL.M. Harvard offered a $30,000 grant, but I needed an additional $62,000 cover the full cost.
For months, I searched for more scholarships, convinced that I just hadn't found yet the right options. Eventually, I won a $28,000 scholarship from the Russian-U.S. Legal Education Foundation. However, it came with an obligation not to seek employment outside of Russia for two years after graduating. That meant that even if I wanted to work the U.S. and make a lot of money afterwards, I was ethically obliged not to.
I also explored loans, but in addition to being an almost unheard of way to fund education in Russia, they proved nearly impossible. Russian banks didn't support loans for overseas education, and I wasn't eligible for Harvard's own loan program due to the sanctions imposed on my country.
Facing these dead ends, I finally searched online for what people do when they don’t have enough funding. That's when I stumbled upon the story of a British student who crowdfunded £26,000 for her master's at Oxford. Initially, the idea seemed absurd - who would donate their hard-earned money to a stranger's personal project? I buried it for a while.
But with deadlines approaching, I reconsidered. I had nothing to lose. If I tried crowdfunding, at the very least I could say I'd exhausted all available remedies.
So, I got to work. I researched successful campaigns, wrote my story for the website, created a video script, and filmed an intro video in a public library with my sister's help, making versions in both English and Russian. This work took about a month. After I had all the campaign parts together, I launched my campaign on Indiegogo's non-profit platform, Generosity, and promoted it everywhere I could. In three weeks, I reached my goal.
With the funds raised, I paid my tuition and went to have one of the best years of my life doing Harvard LL.M.
if you've decided to crowdfund for your LL.M.: Actionable Guidelines
Guideline no. 1: Don't Throw a Pity Party
Crowdfunding for education differs from raising money for a business or an art project. The latter can be easier, as the project allows you to give something back, like company shares or album copies.
Crowdfunding for a personal cause, however, is all about your story - there is little in it for others, which makes it harder to "sell." Many people, when crowdfunding for personal reasons, focus on hardship and throw a pity party. Instead of making their contributors feel inspired by their journey, they complain about life, sending a message that other people should contribute because of it.
I faced this choice myself. I was tempted to share the difficult aspects of my life but I chose not to. Not because they weren't valuable - there were, very much so. They made me who I am today. But my pain didn’t define me. The way I built my life in these circumstances did. I wanted my life's resilience, not my pain, to define me.
I wanted people to feel inspired when they saw my campaign. Instead of seeking pity, I wanted people to see me as a brilliant lawyer who had achieved so much in extreme adversity, genuinely in love with what she was doing and needing help to make a crazy dream come true. And this approach seemed to resonate with people.
When crowdfunding for a personal cause, remember that people contribute not because of the cause itself, but because they're inspired by who you are. They want to become part of a meaningful story, to feel that they've increased the amount of good in the world.
Guideline no. 2: Make It Reciprocal
When crowdfunding for a personal project, you usually don’t have as many ways to reward or thank contributors as you might with a business or an art project. Still, there are ways to express gratitude and make your campaign more reciprocal and less one-sided.
One option is to offer something in return for a contribution. What you offer will depend on your skills. For example, I offered discounted legal services and assistance with LL.M. applications. I’ve seen others offer business consulting (a person crowdfunding for a startup bootcamp), handmade jewelry (a person crowdfunding for a jewelry degree), and more.
Think of what you do best and offer that to your contributors. If you think you don't have anything to offer, think again. Everybody has something to offer. If you are at a stage of your life when you are applying for an advanced degree, you must have acquired a variety of skills by now. What do people ask you to help with? What could you do for them?
You don’t need to be an absolute expert. The purpose of offering something as a thank you for a contribution isn't to show off your mastery. It's to show gratitude and alleviate the discomfort of accepting money. It won’t feel as one-sided when you offer something valuable in return.
Guideline no. 3: Promotion Is Just As Important As the Launch
Promotion doesn't mean a sleazy sales pitch. It just means letting people that you're raising money. Carefully plan both the launch and promotion of your campaign. Don’t stop after launch. The launch is only half of the job, and it's success depends on the ongoing promotion just as much as pre-launch preparation.
Make a list of people to ask for help by spreading the word. Ask a few friends to make small contributions at the start, so your campaign doesn't sit at a zero balance at the start, which can psychologically deter others from donating. Offer to reimburse friends in advance, i.e., before they spend their own money. Share your campaign on social media, professional networks, etc. Send personal emails to every person you’ve ever had a positive interaction with, but don’t spam them – one initial email and a follow-up near the end should be enough. Remember, if you don't maintain the campaign's energy, no one will.
Guideline no. 4: Treat Each Contributor Like a Love Affair
When you ask people to contribute, treat each contributor like a short-term love affair.
This is your personal project, and no one owes you anything. If, when, and how much anyone contributes is their own good will. Don’t complain about the amount. Whether it's $1, $10, or $100, it’s already an incredible gift. Be grateful.
After someone contributes, follow up with a warm, personal thank-you email - not a mass message. Let each contributor know how much their support means to you.
Guideline no. 5: Make a Video
A video adds authenticity and shows effort. If you're asking people to share their money with you, demonstrate that you’ve put in the work. Not making a video can come across as lazy.
Videos help people feel connected to you, showing them that you are a real person and that this campaign is genuine. People are more likely to watch a video than read a long text, and a campaign with a video feels more alive.
Guideline no. 6: Don't Be Afraid to Ask
You'd be surprised how far you can go by explicitly asking for what you need. Politely and genuinely ask people to contribute. If you ask, they may contribute or not, but if you don't ask, you'll never know.
It never hurts to ask.
Final Thoughts
If you are interested, as a matter of reference, my campaign still available online here.
If you're looking for more information on how to fund your LL.M. degree, I talk about my strategies for funding in more depth in my Ultimate Guide to Funding Your Master's Degree.
I wish you best of luck! ☺️
Now, go and get that money.
And in the meantime, I'll be waiting.
