By Becky Fitzpatrick, Digital Marketing Associate

Kickstarter

Mission: “Kickstarter helps artists, musicians, filmmakers, designers, and other creators find the resources and support they need to make their ideas a reality”.
Purpose: Kickstarter focuses on funding creative projects more than generic fundraisers.
Launch: 2009

Notes:

• It’s has been covered on many news outlets and the name is popular among millennials.
• If your goal is not met, all money is returned to the donors.
• Only funds creative projects in these categories: Art, Comics, Crafts, Dance, Design, Fashion, Film & Video, Food, Games, Journalism, Music, Photography, Publishing, Technology, and Theater. It must be a project with a clear goal – cannot fundraise for charity.
• Cost: If a project is fully funded, Kickstarter applies a 5% fee to the funds collected.
  • All pledges are processed securely by Stripe, their third-party partner, with fees equaling about 3-5%.
  • If the project does not reach its funding goal, there are no fees.

Indiegogo

Mission: “Indiegogo empowers people to activate the global community to make ideas happen. Then, we help you spread the word.”
Purpose: Indiegogo focuses on fundraising or helping a cause, rather than funding a specific creative project.
Launch: 2008

Notes:

• It’s has been covered on many news outlets and the name is popular among millennials.
• If your goal is not met, you still keep the money you raised and transaction fees do not apply for refunded contributions.
• Cost: It is free to sign up, to create a campaign, and to contribute to a campaign. When your campaign raises funds, Indiegogo charges a 5% fee on the funds you raise.

GoFundMe

Mission: GoFundMe provides entrepreneurs, artists & inventors with the tools to successfully crowdfund ANY project.
Purpose: Revolves around personal causes and life-events rather than large scale nonprofits or product launches
Launch: 2010

Notes:

• Interesting option for nonprofits. This is generally a personal fundraiser option but GoFundMe partners with a list of nonprofits that fundraisers can choose to donate their funds to.
• Most often used for personal reasons like medical emergency, tuition needs, building a new house, etc.
• Cost: GoFundMe operates on only a 5% fee deducted from each donation received. A small processing fee of about 3% will also be deducted from each donation.

Crowdfunder

Mission: “Crowdfunder helps you raise funds to make your great idea a reality. If you are a community group, a business, a charity, a social enterprise, a sports club, or a person with the spark of an idea that you want to turn into reality, then we want to help you fund it.”
Purpose: Crowdfunder focuses on funding both causes and specific projects.

Notes:

• Based in the UK, and more popular in the UK than in USA
• You can use Crowdfunder outside of the US, but you’ll have to use PayPal or Stripe as a payment method, as GoCardless requires a UK bank account.
• You can add a stretch target to your project before you go live and/ or when you are already live.  Your stretch target will only appear on your project page on the Crowdfunder website once you have reached your target.
• Cost:  5% + VAT  [VAT is 20% on the fees (1%) so the overall fee is 6%]
  • 0.5% GoCardless fee on each pledge (taken on payout).
  • 1.9%+ 20p Stripe fee on each UK pledge (taken on payout).
  • 2.9%+ 20p Stripe fee on each non-UK pledge (taken on payout).
  • 1.4%+ 20p PayPal fees (taken on payout).

RocketHub

Mission: “Get Funded. Get Discovered. Make it Happen”
Purpose: Offers services to a diverse crowd including art, science, business and social good

Notes:

• Keep your funds regardless of whether or not you reached your goal
• Cost: Reach your goal: 4% commission fee + 4% credit card handling fee
  • Don’t reach your goal: 8% commission fee + 4% credit card handling fee
  • No upfront costs

Some keywords to know when researching your crowdfunding platform:

• Flexible Funding – keep what you raise, even if you didn’t reach your goal
• Fixed Funding – all or nothing approach to amount raise, so if you don’t reach you goal you give back the money
• Crowdfunding – the practice of funding a project or raising funds by reaching out to a large number of people (either locally or globally). Many small donations add up to a larger amount