One of the great advantages of trying to launch an interesting project today or trying to mobilize a citizen campaign is to have financing methods such as crowdfunding. Crowdfunding is the process of asking the general public to provide seed capital for new ventures. The goal is to convince as many people as possible that the project is worth it, where each person invests an amount.
In general, crowdfunding sites offer two forms of financing:
Everything or nothing
In this case, it sets a deadline for the goal to be reached. If the full amount is collected by the stipulated date, the project owner takes the money and has a duty to reward investors with previously set terms. This strategy seeks to encourage donations and creates an urgent basis to donors.
All help
Here, the author of the project does not have to collect 100% of the money, but must specify clearly the fate of the amount collected, even partial, as well as establish the rewards provided to investors.
The following are the 3 types of crowdfunding platforms:
- The donation, called crowd giving. – Platform to collect donations or contributions which may give rise to different counterparties;
- The loan, called crowdfunding lending. – Platform for project financing through loans;
- The stake, called equity crowdfunding. – Platform to finance entrepreneurial projects through the purchase of securities.
If you need money to fund an idea, project or business, you must have contemplated resorting to collective financing systems. To help you in this task, there are 6 major crowdfunding websites in the world. Continue reading and discover the best options for your case.
Donorbox is a powerful nonprofit crowdfunding platform that helps nonprofit organizations create compelling crowdfunding campaigns in minutes.
Its major features include recurring donation system, effective donor management, goal meter and donor wall. Whether a nonprofit needs recurring donations for their disaster relief fund or emergency fundraising, Donorbox has it covered. Nonprofits can easily customize their crowdfunding page, send email updates on the go and manage donors seamlessly. Nonprofits can even accept multiple currencies, languages and set different payment options quickly with Donorbox.
Donorbox is priced the lowest in the market with 1.5% of monthly donations plus transaction fees.
Because of its affordability and easy-to-use features, powerful integrations and customizations, Donorbox is one of the favorites amongst nonprofit organizations for crowdfunding.
This is the largest crowdfunding site in Latin America. The platform operates in the following countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay and the United States. Ideame primarily stimulates funding through networking (according to the site, 80% of resources come from these people) and accepts collective financing in two modes.
Catarse is the largest Brazilian crowdfunding platform. Since its launch, the site has helped fund more than 1,800 projects, raising $31 million by 216,000 people.
Created a year before Kickstarter, Indiegogo is one of its main competitors worldwide. According to the platform, the performance reaches 224 countries. In addition, 15 million people visit the site monthly. Indiegogo is one of the most popular crowdfunding sites due to its flexibility, openness and being an accessible option for campaigns around the world where anyone can raise money for film, music, art and more. If you decide to create a campaign and launch on this platform, know that Indiegogo charges a fee of 5% on the funds you plan to collect. Indiegogo does not require a formal application and is available in any country.
RocketHub is a platform for collective fund projects including various areas such as art, science, business, and social projects, among others. What differentiates RocketHub from the rest is the great exposure that your project can reach through a strategic partnership. As for the cost of your commission: it’s 4% plus 4% for fees of the transaction if you reach your goal. Otherwise, you will be charged with 8% commission plus 4% fee per transaction. Its interface is intuitive and offers tools for building better projects and businesses. RocketHub uses a reward-based strategy on awards and badges to help foster interaction between users.
FundAnything is another digital platform for crowdfunding addressed to the general public. It can be used to raise money for almost anything. One of FundAnything’s main investors is 2016 presidential candidate Donald Trump, who has promoted it on his personal Twitter account. FundAnything charges a rate of 9% commission of the total contributions you get.
Remember that these sites are all platforms that drive joint financing, therefore are not linked to any of the projects. Visit these sites and if it is within your reach, support projects that you like and potentially start your own project.