How Does Pay It Forward Work for My Film?

Learn how to activate a community of giving around your Film while, at the same time, enabling more people to watch.

What is Pay It Forward?

Pay It Forward is a tool for your community to support each other through your Film and activate giving with the goal of maximizing viewership for your Film. 

How does it work? 

When you enable Pay It Forward for your Film, Gathr creates a fund that you and your community can contribute to which covers the cost to view the Film for anyone who may not be able to afford the ticket/rental price.

How is Pay It Forward for my Film funded?

Pay It Forward is funded in multiple ways - by you, the Film Owner, by Screening Hosts featuring your Film at their Screening Events, by visitors to your Pay It Forward enabled Film page, and by Attendees of your Film Screenings or purchasers of your Film’s Video on Demand. 

You can choose to contribute a custom amount directly from your Film Management dashboard or, if you’re self-hosting a Screening Event, you can “gift” a specific number of Pay It Forward tickets from your Event Management Dashboard in the Ticketing section.

How do I fund Pay It Forward as a Film Owner?

When you first set up your Film, you can enable Pay It Forward and contribute to your fund directly in a few clicks. 

You can also access your Film Management dashboard any time to enable, adjust, or view your Pay It Forward settings for your Film under the Pay It Forward tab. 

How do I fund Pay It Forward as a Screening Host? 

If you are hosting a Screening Event with a Pay It Forward enabled Film, you can contribute to the Film’s Pay It Forward fund by donating a custom amount or by “gifting” a specific number of Pay It Forward tickets from your Event Management Dashboard in the Ticketing section.

As the Screening Host, you can also opt to disable Pay It Forward ticketing. 

How do others fund Pay it Forward?

Once you’ve set up and enabled Pay It Forward, anyone can contribute to your Pay It Forward fund in the following places on Gathr:

1. Your Pay It Forward enabled Film page

2. All Screening Event pages featuring your Film (any Event that has booked your Film)

3. On the virtual watch pages of all virtual Screenings of your Film (any virtual Event that has booked your Film)

4. Your Video on Demand page for your Film

How to fund Pay It Forward as a member of the public?

From your Pay It Forward enabled Film page, members of the public can “gift” a specific number of Pay It Forward tickets.

Also, when your Film is featured at a Screening Event or you’ve created a Video on Demand for your Film, anyone visiting the Event/VOD page can contribute to your Pay It Forward fund. 

Site visitors will see an option to contribute a custom amount or to “purchase” any quantity of Pay It Forward tickets. When someone purchases Pay It Forward tickets, their contributions go into the fund connected with your Film, and other members of the public may then claim Pay It Forward tickets on a first-come, first-served basis. 

How can my potential audience claim a Pay It Forward ticket so they can see my Film free of charge?

As long as your Pay It Forward fund has an available balance, your audience can claim a Pay It Forward ticket from the following places on Gathr:

1. All Screening Event pages featuring your Film (any Event that has booked your Film)*

2. Your Video on Demand page for your Film

Whenever you have an available balance in your Pay It Forward fund, your audience will see the option to claim a Pay It Forward ticket from any Screening Event page featuring your Film and from your Video on Demand page for your Film.