We get many questions here at the Crowdfunding Guide. But today, I’ll tackle the first question. Which platform is the best for your crowdfunding campaign? we’ve included a quick and easy platform guide just to get you started :
Kickstarter
Best for:
films, art, dance, theatre, writing, publishing, music, photography, gaming, design, fashion, tech, food
What’s so great about it: Household name in crowdfunding.
Nearly 10 million visits per month.
Indiegogo
Best for:
same as Kickstarter but add small business, sports, causes
What’s so great about it: You don’t have to hit your goal but you do have to pay 9% in fees, 4% if you do (Kickstarter’s fee is 5%). Also a household name.
GoFundMe
Best for:
students, educators, personal needs, achievable dreams
What’s so great about it: Small and steady and pulls from crowdfunder’s social network. So if you want to pay for tuition, go on a trip around the world or raise money for your classroom, gofundme is a favorite.
FundAnything
Best for:
business, education, art, film & video, hopes & dreams, causes, medical, music, non-profit, pets, theatre & dance, volunteering, web projects, writing
What’s so great about it: It came from Donald Trump’s brain so if the platform fails, it’s fired and has to spend a weekend doing unspeakable things to the Donald’s combover. Gaining in popularity – Penn Julliet funding his movie Diretor’sCut here and Adam Carrolla got banked here too – FundAnything has become the place to go if you’re a weird-looking comedian who wants to star in a probably weird movie. I’m just fucking with you, Penn, you crack me up.
RocketHub
Best for:
the same categories as Kickstarter and Indiegogo but is a big draw for governments, educators and communities with an emphasis on causes, bolstering services and educators as well as the more artsy projects
What’s so great about it: It’s known. High success rate, especially for eduction-based campaigns.
Fundable
Best for:
startups
What’s so great about it: According to the egg heads over at Fundable, startups that offer equity or some type of real reward in exchange for funding, tend to raise more.
CrowdFund Connect
Best for:
US-based businesses looking to be connected directly
to funders
What’s so great about it: Funders are highly connected. Funders have a track record of making it happen for many small businesses.
Dragon Innovation
Best for:
hardware
What’s so great about it: It’s singular focus on hardware has quickly made Dragon Innovation one of the go tos for builders and inventors.
Selfstarter
Best for:
hardware
What’s so great about it: Rejected by Kickstarter, the creators of Lockitron made their own crowdfunding site. Not only did Locktriton – a keyless entry system operate by mobile app – get wildly funded, it’s also the new hotshit. And now so is Selfstarter, the crowdfunding site Lockitron’s dudes created. Take that, wirelessly and remotely, in the nads, Kickstarter.
Rock the Post
Best for:
startups and entrepreneurial investing
What’s so great about it: Well, the staff looks very diversified and they have their arms folded in the main shot on the home page. Also, big business brainiacs can talk about their idea in an open forum and connect with other big brained creatures. Rock the Post has the most varied list of categories of all of the start upcrowdfunding sites.
StayClassy
Best for:
peer-to-peer fundraising
What’s so great about it: Helps guide and build a voice for your fundraising campaign. Helped with Kony 2012 but that was quickly undone by it’s naked Siri ranting/breakdown lane creator Jason Russell. But whatchagonna do.
Crowdrise
Best for:
do-gooders who don’t have contacts to the non-profit
world
What’s so great about it: Geared toward marathons, races, community support and all kinds of homespun philanthropy.
Microryza
Best for:
scientists and sciency stuff
What’s so great about it: Because despite some book-burning, flat-Earth people, science is a real thing and the more scientists get funded to know more things, then cancer gets cured and we grow back some ice caps and then we solve the problem of Justin Bieber, forever.
Circle Up
Best for:
consumer companies that have a product (mainly healthy and green-related food –based) they want to bring to the public
What’s so great about it: They are JOBS Act compliant and ready – when that happens. Larger amounts of funds than other crowdfunding platforms.
CrowdSupply
Best for:
actual products that will go out to the general public
What’s so great about it: CrowdSupply takes the crowdfunding from the campaign to the storefront – if they get fully funded.
Fundly
Best for:
that’s what their site says – but it’s main focus seems to be about helping others, from raising medical funds to rebuilding communities
What’s so great about it: It’s a trusted go to for altruistic crowdfunding
Pledge Music
Best for:
musicians and musically stuff
What’s so great about it: This crowdfunding platform is getting more and more popular. You can see what other musicians and music-related people are doing.
Appbackr
Best for: St. Barths
apps that will make it possible for your future yacht, docked at
What’s so great about it: Very well thought-out crowdfunding platform for app creators.Wireless butthole bleaching app is within grasp.
Razoo
Best for:
victims of natural disasters, fires, cancer, education, arts
What’s so great about it: The platform has raised lots of cash for victims of large natural disasters – Philippines – and is becoming a crowdfunding philanthropic darling.
Gambitious
Best for:
gamers
What’s so great about it: Large international network.
The Future is Yours, Bitches We could go on and on but as you can see, there’s a spot for just about every idea, product and campaign. As we like to say around here, thinking about your project before you set up house on a crowdfunding campaign is the best practice, though, and should be carefully researched. Search the top sites and look for a project that is similar to yours. See how it did. Examine the elements of the campaign from the pitch to the video to the end result. You can also write directly to the creators of the crowdfunding platform for advice. A good site will steer you in the right direction. Once the right crowdfunding platform is chosen and you’ve done your homework and due diligence on your campaign, the momentum will happen. Here’s the big win for you, no matter the outcome…you now have priceless knowledge on how crowdfunding works and how not to fuck up. You may now run around naked in celebration.
CrowdFund Connect
CALL 844-478-6874 530 Lakeshore Drive, Chicago, Illinois, United States Email: vpitetti@crowdfundconnect.com
Visit www.crowdfundconnect.com