Crowdfunding, Got a lucrative business idea but need some funding to kick-start it, or are you a small business owner looking for capital to take your business venture to the next level? After you have made a business plan, invested your own savings, and worked your business as a side hustle for a few some time, it is time to raise some real capital. But hold on—where you are going to get the finance/capital. Unless you know some deep-pocketed angel investors or venture capitalists, it’s time to appeal to the masses!
Luckily, the bank is not your only option anymore. There are sites where people can invest in your project, idea, or business (crowdfunding sites). Below we have gathered together the best crowdfunding sites for you. Whether you’re funding a startup, creative endeavor, or raising money for a cause or project, you’ll find a crowdfunding site below that might are perfect.
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Kickstarter (kickstarter.com)
Kickstarter is a funding platform for creative projects. It helps creators connect with the resources they need to bring their ideas to life. It is a great platform for artists, filmmakers, musicians, designers, writers, illustrators, explorers, curators, promoters, performers, and others to bring their projects and ambitions to life. It is an all or nothing situation with funding as you have to meet the gal you set within the allotted time, or everyone gets their money back.
It’s free to create a Kickstarter project, but if it’s successfully funded, Kickstarter collects a 5% fee on the raised funds. You will also get charged processing fees that are usually between 3-5%. Completing a successful crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter is tough. It’s a highly competitive platform that carefully selects the crowdfunding projects allowed on the site. And you can’t fund just any business on Kickstarter; you must “create something to share with others.”
2. Indiegogo (indiegogo.com)
Indiegogo is a global crowdfunding platform empowering people worldwide to fund projects and ideas that matter to them. The platform enables individuals and startups to do pre-sales and collect customer feedback before they manufacture their products.
Indiegogo offers both live crowdfunding campaigns and a marketplace for innovative products. Since its inception in 2008, it has helped entrepreneurs raise over 1 billion dollars for more than 650,000 projects.
There are no fundraising targets or deadlines with this platform, and you can apply equity, offer securities, revenue sharing, and even cryptocurrency sales. Indiegogo charges a 5% platform fee for all projects.
3. Fundly (fundly.com)
Fundly advertises on their homepage that they “raise money for anything” with no cost or startup fees involved. They fund everything from personal health needs to politics and even trips. Create a page, manage your campaign from the Fundly app, and use Fundly’s Facebook OpenGraph to maximize your reach.
There is no minimum target limit or time frame to keep the money you have raised, payments can be withdrawn within 48 hours of donation, and automatic transfers can be arranged.
We recommend Fundly if you’re fundraising for a charity or personal cause. Not only is Fundly one of the lowest costing websites to use, but the platform also comes with a whole host of awesome (and effective!) features.
Fundly understands that personalizing your page helps increase your chances of success. That’s why their fundraising pages are fully customizable. If you ever run into any challenges, Fundly’s support team is ready to help resolve your problems so that you can get right back to fundraising.
4. GoFundMe (gofundme.com)
GoFundMe is an internationally recognized crowdfunding platform for helping people worldwide put their money toward charities and causes that matter to them.
It tends to skew mostly toward individual people aiming to raise funds for something in particular—whether covering medical bills or paying for education.
GoFundMe has many individuals on the platform, making it great for business owners and entrepreneurs who are looking for money to open a new venture or even take their existing businesses to the next level.
GoFundMe is another platform where you must meet your fundraising goal to collect. The most significant upsides to GoFundMe include zero-funding fees for personal causes based in the US and the ability to keep all funds you can raise. GoFundMe campaigns have a reportedly low success rate, so you’ll need to work extra hard to get people to see—and invest in—your project.
5. Patreon (patreon.com)
With an emphasis on creative projects, Patreon works with a subscription model. Patreon helps artists, musicians, writers, and more get paid by running a membership business for their fans. With a subscription-style payment model, fans pay you a monthly amount of their choice in exchange for exclusive access, extra content, or a closer look into your creative journey. Because Patreon prides itself on supporting creators (from podcasters to game creators to artists), this platform is best if you’re pursuing a creative venture.
Formerly, creatives on the platform would pay a 5% fee for the platform and any other fees associated with payment processing. But, recently, Patreon changed its approach to giving its creators as much money as possible. Now, donors are the ones who pay a service fee of 2.9% + $0.35 per transaction over $3 & 5% + $0.10 per transaction $3 or less to cover payment fees. While it means that fundraisers now get to take home 95% of what they earned, many users were concerned that donors’ additional fees would scare away patrons.
Patreon may not be the best solution for launching a technology startup with high capital needs, but it’s an excellent way for creators to build an audience and a source of income. Just about anyone in the world (who’s at least 13 years old) can set up a Patreon campaign. And the platform is excellent for helping you fund creative projects like video and photography, music, writing, comics, podcasts, games, animation, and more.
You’re probably not going to earn colossal investments with Patreon, but you can keep all the donations you get (minus a 5% payment fee) and leave your campaign running indefinitely.
6. Fundable (fundable.com)
Whether they’re equity or reward crowdfunding, most crowdfunding platforms take a percentage of the funds you raise. Fundable works in a different approach. It charges a flat monthly subscription. . As long as you’re subscribed, you can create campaigns to raise money (through your campaign has to be approved by Fundable after verifying it meets its terms and conditions).
Consumer-facing companies can raise to $50,000 with their rewards program that allows entrepreneurs to sell their products, taking pre-orders, and selling merchandise. Companies looking to raise $50,000 to $10 million for their product, service, or B2B business have an equity program that allows them to seek investment from accredited investors.
Fundable’s flat fee makes it a great deal for many successful crowdfunding campaigns. If you set a goal of just $3,580, that fee comes out to about 5% of what you raise (comparable to other platforms). If you make it to $10,000, the fee is less than 2%. It is free to create a company profile and $179 per month to fundraise.
A failed campaign will lose you money, so Fundable is best for startups with a lot of confidence in their ideas. And if you’d like a little extra help with your campaign, Fundable offers consulting services. It will do everything from design assets to market your campaign. These consulting services do cost additional money to the monthly fee, but you’ll have to contact Fundable to get the exact cost for your startup.
7. Lendingclub (Lendingclub.com)
LendingClub is a fair-credit lender offering personal loans, including one specifically for debt consolidation. Lendingclub started in 2007 as a peer-to-peer lender, connecting borrowers with investors willing to fund their loans. With LendingClub, you can get a personal loan of up to $40,000 and business loans up to $300,000. LendingClub facilitates every transaction and screen all borrowers. When you have a business loan through LendingClub, you will get your capital upfront on one to five-year terms with no monthly payments and prepayment penalties.
LendingClub is recommended for large, one-time expenses. It is also required that your business has been around for 12 months, have annual sales of at $50,000, no recent bankruptcies, and ownership of at least 20% of the business.
8. NaijaFund (naijafund.com)
Naijafund provides a fundraising platform to fund creative projects and businesses in Nigeria. Anyone seeking to raise funds for everything from films, games, and music to art, design, medical expenses, school fees, and technology can start a project on the platform. All fees are based on and applied to the number of funds raised. NaijaFund removes the physical barriers traditionally associated with receiving financial support from the people in our lives or those that wish to support us.
The platform allows users to connect their accounts with social media networks to easily ask for funds from friends, family, friends of friends, community leaders, pastors, and others. While it’s free to create and share your online fundraising campaign, NaijaFund will deduct a 10% fee from each donation that you receive.
9. Fundanenterprise (fundanenterprise.org)
The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Crowd Funding Foundation (the owners and operators of fundanenterprise.org) was registered in July 2018 to assist enterprises in Nigeria to raise grants and donations to support their businesses
Fundanenterprise is here, not only to provide the much-needed relief to start-ups, small and growing businesses but to change the way Nigerians in particular and the world in general support business operations.
10. CircleUp (circleup.com)
If your business is focused on building and producing consumer brands, check out CircleUp. CircleUp it’s one of the best equity crowdfunding platforms around. CircleUp intends to help emerging brands and companies raise capital to grow.
Because of its more thorough process, CircleUp is good for entrepreneurs who already have a somewhat established business and seek both funding and guidance to take their businesses to the next level. If you’re an entrepreneur working on getting your consumer product on the market, CircleUp offers an exciting array of services, including a platform for connecting with accredited investors, insights from machine-learning technology, and access to special lines of credit for startups.
If you’re approved to be listed on CircleUp, the fee percentage will be determined based on the total amount raised.
Over to You
If you’ve decided to crowdfund your business idea, plan it carefully. The best way to get started is to consider your own needs and your goals. With those in place, you can begin to the zone where the above platforms will work best for you. Happy fundraising!
