Crowdfunding is all about raising funds for a cause or a project on the online platform through a group of people. The startups and small businesses can take advantage of this arrangement to push their ideas at its early stage.
Crowdfunding is done in three ways: reward crowdfunding, equity crowdfunding, and debt crowdfunding. In case of reward crowdfunding, the supporters who pledged for your project a certain amount will receive a small reward while you are raising your funds. Equity crowdfunding is an arrangement where you give away a part of the ownership to the people who are funding your project. In case of debt crowdfunding, you will receive a debt for your project which you need to pay back within a set timeframe.
There are many crowdfunding sites available in the market and some are all-or-nothing sites while others give you the fund as it comes along. Let’s keep reading here to know more about them.
When it comes to crowdfunding, Kickstarter is considered as one of the biggest names in the field. It has been helping creative and tech entrepreneurs to gain enough capital for their projects before raising money or a loan for the venture capital. Since its launch in 2009, the company has managed to fund more than 154,000 projects and even raised over $4 billion. The potential funders can quickly browse through the site and look for different verticals from film and art to publishing.
The fundraising side of the site is easy to use and you can easily start by setting your goal and deciding the time you need to complete it. You need to get approved from Kickstarter before you launch your campaign.
Kickstarter can be called in other words as the “all or nothing platform.” It is called so because you will not get any funds unless and until the campaign is completed. Again, it also implicates that unless your campaign goals are not met, the credit card of the funder will not be charged.
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If you want to have some extra push to launch your project then RocketHub can be your best option. This popular platform is said to come with a 3-step process that can help you launch your project quickly. Once done that, you can track the progresses of the project and its status. Something that makes RocketHub better from others is its feature of LaunchPad. This feature helps the members of RocketHub to work with companies, brands, and marketers who are popular to easily boost public interest and find newer opportunities for their projects. It can easily help come up with plans for creative people who are looking for opportunities that are rare and hard to find.
Indiegogo is used as a platform by users who are planning to create campaigns for creative works, tech innovations, and community projects. Indiegogo works more or less like Kickstarter but then like it, it does not follow the all or nothing model.
Here users can choose between fixed and flexible funding models. If you need a certain amount of money for your project then choosing the fixed model can be good for your fundraiser. If you can benefit from any funding you get, you can better go for the flexible model. In the case of the fixed model, your money will be returned to the donor if your campaign goal was not met. While in the case of the flexible funding model, you will still get the funds even when the campaign model is not met.
However, here campaigners don’t have to bear any fixed funding fees when they don’t meet their goal compared to the 5 percent fixed funds and flexible funds- when they meet the goals. Again, every transaction comes with a 3-percent and 30-percent processing fee. $500 is the minimum goal for a fundraiser.
When you are talking about a fundraising platform for cultural, political, and social issues, then there will be no better option than Causes. If you are looking for a way to make difference effectively and in a faster manner, it can work as a social network for people. It is available in 156 countries and has 186 million users. The nonprofits that are looking to build a good donor community which can be build using much resource and money, can use this site for sure.
On the crowdfunding page, you can share relevant media, collect pledges and donations, and even raise awareness to potential donors. Apart from focusing on fundraising, Causes can work for you like your social networking platform that can work towards bringing people with the same interests together, and here, the interests can be like the environment, animals, and human rights. The platform can even be used to develop a petition for advocacy. The access to this platform is not limited to nonprofits and even individuals can use it to raise money for the ideas or projects they care about.
Razoo is one of its kind of a crowdfunding platform that you can use as a fundraiser and this popular platform is said to have raised more than $97,000,000 for a number of good causes. Rather than looking for profitable projects, the site focuses more on causes and yet, they have managed to have a section dedicated to building non-profit fundraising projects. The fundraisers in Razoo are divided into 4 major sections: Individuals, Nonprofits, Foundations, and Corporations. The technological advantage that comes with Razoo is what helps you to market your projects effectively. You can easily create a donation section within your blog just by making use of widget and embedding it in. With Razoo, you can even effectively manage your project and engage with the donors as it comes with an iPhone application
When we talk in terms of digital creatives like podcasters, YouTubers, and bloggers, Patreon means a lot. Unlike the donation campaigns held on other platforms, Patreon goes with more of a subscription model, and here donors can pay a set amount to the campaign every month or based on the project development. Here the idea owners get a chance to build a relationship with their fans and as an incentive to contribute the funding, creators can even deliver some exclusive content to the subscribers. Again, if you have the habit of sharing your work regularly on your personal platform then this service can prove to be good to you. Or else, if creators fail to develop any content, the pledgers have the option to end the subscription.
Patreon collects 35 cents from each pledge and a 2.9 percent processing fee. The site is said to have more than 100,000 active creators and two million active patrons.
Rather than working on profitable creativity, Crowdrise specialized in dealing with issues of the real world. They fund causes diseases, animal welfare, education, cultures, arts, and for religion. The platform is even said to raise money for charity.
The platform can also help you raise money for personal needs which can be some personal life activities like weddings, birthdays or some college projects. Keeping that in mind, personal fundraising and charity sections have been separately mentioned in there as Nonprofit and Fundraiser categories.
As more people will donate for a said fundraiser, it will keep on gaining more Crowdrise points. This way the fundraiser which is said to have more impact in the world will be known to the Crowdrise members. Eventually, the fundraiser will be able to work towards improving their reputation and to boost the popularity of their organization.
During emergencies or for some charitable causes, you must have for sure seen some bunch of GoFundMe fundraisers on social media. Apart from such causes, it can be used by businesses as well. For every donation, it takes 30 cents and a processing fee of 2.9 percent. Here you get to keep the entire fund you have raised through your campaign. Again, for those based in the US, there are no funding fees for personal campaigns. If your fundraiser is moving towards a cause that is service-based, this site can prove to be a better option.
This crowdfunding platform is all the more working towards introducing new talents into the music industry. Building a career in the music industry can be an expensive affair for the artist and it needs much publicity and funding. One such platform which can help such artists is PledgeMusic. Rather than being philosophical, it comes with an interface that is intuitive and persuasive in looks.
Even if the backer pledges the lowest he or she will get a reward and this pledge can be something like downloading the music album of the artist. So as you will pledge even bigger amounts, you will be getting better rewards too.
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CircleUp can be your choice if you are planning to build a consumer brand and over the years it has helped 196 startups by raising $260 million. It offers both credit financing and equity capital. It brings to you a platform with a network of entrepreneurs, retailers, and experts. Through this platform, you can also connect with investors who have an annual income of at least $200,000 and a net worth of at least $1 million. The platform also offers some other benefits using Helio like market insights and special lines of credit, and create marketing strategies using the machine learning technology of CircleUp.
The platform can be more beneficial for businessmen who are looking for opportunities to scale their businesses rather than develop ideas. They hold a competitive selection process and to get yourself listed on the site you need to have revenue of at least $1 million.
Sellaband has been working on coordinating recording sessions for different artists and even funded around $4,000,000 to music bands. It offers the music creators with 100% freedom to create the music of their choice and get in a deal with any publisher, management company, or label.
Based on the public image and music genre, you get to change the background design of your page. You can even come up with a blog page which can be your standalone web page, as photos and videos page and biography page. For professional third-party solutions, you will be offered special prices when you are a Sellaband artist.
Lending Club is a crowdfunding site that offers up to $300,000 as business loans and up to $400,000 as personal loans. This crowdfunding is a form of debt that you can easily get qualified and gain compared to getting through the process of a traditional bank. Again, compared to equity crowdfunding, here you do not need to come up with business plans and projects or business visits.
You get to secure your loan within 1-5 years with Lending Club. Depending on the credit score, the interest rates can be high and generally it ranges from 9.17 -35.71 percent annually. Certain things that Lending Club looks into are $50,000 annual sales, at least a year in business, ownership of at least 20 percent of the business share, and no tax liens or recent bankruptcies. This simply means that you should not have any financial issues.
Chances are there that after going through different crowdfunding sites you may still think Angel Investor fund can be good for you. Crowdfunder can help you get their attention easily. Crowdfunder lets small businesses and startups in the US to raise funds by selling debt, equity, and securities that are revenue-based while attracting Venture Capital and Angel Investors to your company.
Even though GoGetFunding has been here since 2011, it has been not much popular in the market. So people who are looking for some flexibility in terms of fundraisers can think it to be a better option for their project. In the case of GoGetFunding, the fundraisers get to keep the raised money even if the project is not met.
GoGetFunding can be used for any fundraising cause which includes personal, non-profit, or something business-related. It comes with a fee of 6.9% which includes the payment processing fee and the platform fee.
If you are wishing to fund your app then it is possible now through Appbackr. Through this site, it is now possible for the backers to fund the app which is either in the development stage or currently on sale. Here, by backing the app the backers can earn their money back. Here the backers can buy the app listed on the Appbackr and the money will be used as a fund for its development. Once the app is done, ready on the app store, and making money, Appbackr will start paying back the backers. This way the backers who bought the app at a lower price will get back their returns at the higher sales price.
Ulule is the first crowdfunding site in Europe and it can be the reason why you have not heard much about it. Still, it can be considered as a good option for people who are looking for funding their creative projects. The site work towards empowering people and so can be best for those who want to get funded for a variety of projects.
Crowd Supply is a very less known site for crowdfunding and it focuses on very less known ideas that are not much entertained on other crowdfunding sites. Any project that does not follow the usual norms will be supported here.
Chuffed is a crowdfunding site that is quite popular among the nonprofits. It is all about a group of people who are interested in working towards resolving different social issues. Here anyone can submit their project for crowdfunding but things are a bit different. Here you need to submit a pitch that has 50 or fewer words and if the site likes it, they will approve it. This also offers some surety to the funders. So if the project head can manage to explain the project in a better way to the backers, it will prove that they are serious about the project.
If you are interested in some science projects or experiments and need funding then Experiment is the right site. The site to goes for the all-or-nothing model like Kickstarter. No one is charged if the project does not meet its end funding goals. Here all projects need to be pre-approved and so it eases off some tension. The website allows anyone to submit the proposal but it only goes in for crowdfunding after it has been reviewed to ensure that the concept is viable. As the project developers need to keep things transparent for the backers, everyone will be able to see the scientific process throughout.
Crowdcube is an equity crowdfunding platform that is UK-based. There are limited campaigns going on this site but, the ones which have been approved to go ahead with fundraising can get benefitted from exclusive benefits that are offered by the partner organizations by joining the “Funded Club”. You can either appeal your pitch to the community of investors in Crowdcube or directly promote it to solicit investors that are present in your network.
Fundable is one of the top crowdfunding sites that are part of the Startups.co platform and it offers them equity or rewards in exchange for funding. As per the site, startups that offer rewards get more backers while raise under $50,000 while the ones which offer equity have fewer investors but have raised more capital. When it comes to equity fundraising, you need to come up with everything that investors would like here such as a solid business plan, a good track record of growth, and a pitch deck.
With WeFunder, you can raise around $50,000 to $50 million for your project from investors. It can take around one to three months generally for a campaign to get completed and reach its goal. WeFunder can help you with fashion business to a tech startup, restaurants to breweries and you can raise your solicit funds from more than 150,000 investors.
Fundly doesn’t need any startup fees or any raise requirements and can be used to raise money for anything. You can use Fundly to raise money for anything to everything which can include sponsoring trips to politics to health industry needs.
So…
Create a page for your campaign, use the Fundly app to manage the campaign, and maximize its reach by integrating it with Facebook OpenGraph from Fundly.
There is no minimum amount you need to have your funds and you can withdraw it within 48 hours once the donation has been made.
StartSomeGood is a crowdfunding site that is cause-driven. StartSomeGood can help you if your project needs some funding for uplifting. Whether you are an unincorporated group, for-profit, non-profit, and anything else, it only cares about the social impact that it can make.
SeedInvest can be an ideal platform for companies that are in its early stage, very professional, and with high-growth. You can either raise a convertible note funding or go for preferred equity. You will have to provide a pre-money valuation for the preferred equity. You will have to provide the valuation cap, term length, interest rate, and conversion discount for convertible notes.
Before you come up with your profile, you need to create an application, ensure it passes through the screening committee, and conduct due diligence. The companies that want to go high can choose this platform for their benefit. The whole process can take around 60 days to get completed.
Now have affordable and easy business loans to expand your business or hire resources with Funding Circle. The platform has funded cosmetic brands, veterinary clinics, and others. Here the interest rates are around 4.99% to 26.99% per year and you will have six months to five years period to repay the money. You can borrow anywhere between $25,000 and $500,000 and there are no prepayment penalties. So here all you have to do is to fill up the online application and you will have a dedicated account manager to take care of things.
Somolend is a US-based platform for lending to small businesses. It is offering debt-based investment funding to those businesses which already is making revenue and have existing operations. Somolend is into helping small business owners get ahead by partnering with banks so as to provide loans. Somolend is now expanding across different markets of the US through its focus on the small business market and by being the leading participant in the JOBS Act Legislation.
In case you are a tech startup and have already found your lead investor or someone who is looking for an investor to take up the campaign, then you can find investments by visiting AngelList. Initially, AngelList was not into crowdfunding, but now a number of accredited investors and institutions on the site are now tackling the investment needs of many startups.
In case you are a maker or an inventor who is looking for opportunities to collaborate and crowdfund by going for funding which is donation-based. Here the donation comes from the community which is formed by people who are like-minded. The website work towards helping the process of completing the product quickly and even brings the community participation to it.
So here we have managed to list out as many crowdfunding sites as possible for raising funds for your business startup or the idea. Some are popular across the global domain while some are good with the local market. It is turning ideas into products that will play a crucial role in deciding what fits your bill.
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