Sites like Kickstarter: Patreon, Fundly, GoFundMe, Indiegogo, Ulule, Plumfund, Pozible and Thrinacia. Read the full details below.
To start things off, Kickstarter is into crowdfunding. What does this crowdfunding mean exactly? As the name implies it is a way people or companies are helped to achieve their projects by involving the public. Imagine you are trying to come up with a big-time innovative project but you are not financially buoyant, you can use this method of funding to bring everyone else into it. It is like a donation sort of.
Kickstarter is an American online platform that helps artists, musicians, filmmakers, designers, food and craft, publishers and other creators find the resources and support they need to make their ideas come through. With the support of Kickstarter tens of thousands of creative projects both big and small have come to life.
Kickstarter was launched on 28th April 2009 with Perry Chen, Yancey Strickler and Charles Adler as the founders. The company has a record of over 17 million people who have backed a project, $4.8 billion has been pledged and 177.194 projects have been successfully funded. This is how kick starter works.
Each project is independently created and crafted by the person behind it. The filmmakers, musicians, artists and designers you see on Kickstarter have complete control and responsibility for their projects. They spend weeks building their project pages, shooting their videos and brainstorming what rewards to offer backers.
When they are ready, creators launch their project and share it with their community. If people like the project, they can pledge money to make it happen. If the project succeeds in reaching its funding goal all backers credit cards are charged when the time expires. If the project falls short no one is charged.
I want to bring to your notice that Kickstarter is a very selective platform. You can’t just sign up for an account and start fundraising unlike some of its competitors. Before given a go-ahead in this platform you will be thoroughly prescreened and found worthy.
I am not trying to scare anyone away from Kickstarter but rather to warn you that Kickstarter with all its amazing features might not be a great fit for everybody. Knowing all this we have taken our time to search the internet and come up with a great piece on alternative websites to Kickstarter.
Kickstarter alternatives are:
1). PATREON
Patreon is an American platform that powers membership businesses for creators by giving them the tools they need to acquire, manage and energize their paying patrons. With a subscription-style payment model, fans pay their favourite creators a monthly amount of their choice in exchange for exclusive access, extra content or a closer look into their creative journey.
This is an encouraging model because creators retain creative freedom while getting the salary they deserve and fans get to rest easy knowing that their money goes directly towards creating more of what they love. This company was created by Jack Conte alongside his roommate Sam Yam in May 2013.
The California based company has a record of 3 million monthly active patrons who support the creators they love in exchange for exclusive membership benefits, 100,000 creators on Patreon with the opportunity to create on their own terms, $1 billion dollars paid out to creators.
2). FUNDLY
Fundly is another crowdfunding online platform like Kickstarter that provides the trust, transparency and ties necessary to make global giving both instaneously impactful and hyper-local.
The company’s mission is to share the unlimited possibilities achievable by anyone with their platform through empowering people and organizations to support and nurture the causes and communities they care about. Unlike Kickstarter you can sign up on this platform easily without many steps and get started.
Fundly charges fees based on the scale of the fundraiser. Individual campaigns are charged 4.9% of the funds collected plus 3% credit card fees. Campaigns that reach certain donation levels receive discounts on the fee percentage charged the company.
The CEO of Fundly is Dennis Hu and was launched in 2009. Since launching the company has known several signs of progress of which seed fundraising of up to $2 million using the online investor market place was recorded.
3). GOFUNDME
GoFundMe is considered to be one of the world’s largest crowdfunding platform with over $9 billion raised from more than 120 million donations. They empower both individuals and nonprofits to turn compassion into action because that is how change happens.
With free fundraising for all they are creating the giving online platform where individuals, teams and organizations can champion causes that matter and raise money to make a lasting difference. GoFundMe is owned by GoFundMe Inc and was created by Brad Damphousse and Andrew Ballester.
They have their headquarters in Redwood City, California United States of America and came into existence in 2010. For the personal campaign in Australia, Spain, France, Germany, Ireland, Canada, the United Kingdom, Italy and Netherlands GoFundMe is a free platform.
4). INDIEGOGO
Indiegogo is another big platform like Kickstarter that gives entrepreneurs around the world a platform to launch new and groundbreaking products. The California based company is said to be one of the first web portal to offer crowd funding and surfaces innovations in technology, design and much more all before they go mainstream.
Millions of people around the world visit Indiegogo to find clever and unconventional things that solve everyday problems large and small. Indiegogo is owned by Indiegogo Inc, created by Slava Rubin, Danae Ringelmann and Eric Schell IN 2008.
Indiegogo runs on a reward-based system where donors, investors or customers who are willing to help fund a project or product can donate and receive a gift rather than an equity stake in the company.
5). ULULE
Ulule helps creators take the plunge and more importantly turn it into a success. Apart from the financing aspect, Ulule supports its creators throughout this process by helping them make their ideas a reality, co-create with their communities, spread the word about their projects and make them grow.
As creators, citizens, non-profits or companies, this platform shares the same desire to take actions to build a better world. One that is more diverse, sustainable and open to all. Since the conception of this platform in the year 2010 the company has supported thousands of creative, innovative or community-minded projects to users from over 193 countries around the world.
6). PLUMFUND
Plumfund has almost the same working principle with Kickstarter and other reviewed alternative websites but there are some slight and unique differences which make the platform an awesome one. Plumfund is totally free, unlike Kickstarter. Here fundraisers do not have to pay transaction fees for organizers or contributors and no setup fees. Plumfund services allow your funds to be sent directly to you either offline by cash or check which eliminates the need for processing fees. Plumfund is safe and secured for contributors. Rest assured all personal information and gift money is safe and secure. Your funds travel directly from contributors to you either offline or via your own WePay or PayPal account.
7). POZIBLE
Pozible is an Australian online web portal that makes available the platform for project creators to present their ideas to a connected audience around the world. If you are lucky and people love what you are creating then they supports it by pledging money.
In return project creators offer rewards matched to the level of funding commitment. Since launching on May 2010, Pozible has a success rate of 56%, raised in pledges up to over $76 million Australian dollars, project launch of up to 15,313 and pledges from over 105 countries.
Projects are allowed on Pozible platform after a reviewing process to make sure the project abides by the platform’s project guidelines. Just like Kickstarter if the nominated target is not met by the deadline, pledges are not processed.
To become a supporter of this platform you only need a master card, visa card or debit card to make a pledge. Pozible takes 5% service fee from successful projects and a transfer made into the project creators bank account or PayPal account.
8). THRINACIA
Thrinacia is an online web portal that comprises of a team of developers, designers, support and infrastructure individuals, allowing them to create and provide the most secure, stable, scalable and comprehensive set of crowdfunding solution available in the market today.
The company’s goal is to deliver the next generation of crowdfunding tools with an emphasis on powerful features and customizable web user inter-phase to those who wish to operate crow funding portals, run their own crowdfunding campaigns or integrate with their core crowdfunding rest of application programming inter-phase.
SUMMARY
This is where we will be coming to a halt with regards to the topic of alternative websites to Kickstarter. Like I mentioned earlier Kickstarter has a lot of amazing features that make it one of the best crow funding platforms but with a lot of conditions which might not go down well with everyone.
Now we have reviewed and listed some other websites which can serve as a very good substitute to Kickstarter. Feel free to check them out and make use of their features to the greatest maximum.
