'Reading Rainbow' Kickstarter Ends With $5.4 Million (Take Our Word for It)

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LeVar Burton teases his Star Trek visor, which one Kickstarter donor will get to wear as a reward.

By Brian Anthony Hernandez2014-07-02 19:22:46 UTC

LeVar Burton's campaign to raise $1 million on Kickstarter has reached the end of the rainbow, finishing its 35-day crowdfunding effort with a $5.4 million pot of gold.

The donations from 105,855 backers will be used to bring Burton's cult TV classic, Reading Rainbow , to a new generation of readers by building a web version for families at home, creating a classroom version for teachers and providing free access to it for schools in need.

Burton had huge help moving the final total to $5,408,815 in the final days thanks to comedian Seth MacFarlane, who promised to match every dollar pledged from the $4 million mark to the $5 million mark — but only if the campaign reached $5 million.

MacFarlane's additional $1 million, which is separate from the official campaign because Kickstarter has a $10,000 pledge limit per individual, catapults the total to more than $6 million.

Along the way to $5,408,815, the campaign broke the record for most donors for a single project with 105,855, beating out the campaigns for the Veronica Mars movie (91,585), Double Fine game (87,142), Torment game (74,405) and Project Eternity game (73,986).

The Reading Rainbow project is now the fifth most-funded campaign in Kickstarter's five-year history. Only the Pebble ($10.2 million), OUYA gaming console ($8.5 million), Pono Music player ($6.2 million) and the Veronica Mars movie ($5.7 million) have raised more money via the fundraising platform.

Those other projects, during the last week of Burton's fundraising sprint, contributed rewards for Reading Rainbow donors to help with the final push. Burton previously lured in donors by offering rewards (watch below) to supporters based on how much they donated, such as a chance to wear Burton's Star Trek visor, Reading Rainbow app subscriptions, books, autographed memorabilia, dinner with Burton and an appearance in a video field trip.

Burton previously revived Reading Rainbow in 2012 as a tablet app filled with interactive books and video field trips. This new project will expand the availability to more platforms.

"Just being on tablets simply won't get the job done for way too many of our families," he said in a video (below) promoting the campaign. "This Kickstarter campaign is about reaching every web-connected child. Universal access. Thousands of more books than what we have now. And hundreds of more video field trips."

The campaign got off to a fast start on May 28, reaching the $1 million milestone in just half a day. Support continued to flood in, and on day two — like a butterfly in the sky going twice as high — it eclipsed $2 million.

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