A nonprofit must use creativity when looking for funds. One tactic that has rapidly gained popularity is crowdfunding. An individual, group, business, or nonprofit organization can use a crowdfunding website to publicize their campaign and streamline the necessary financial transactions when they need many individuals to contribute small amounts of money each to a particular project or cause.

This concept has been successful for nonprofits like Start From Seed, which provides comprehensive doula care and birth education. This group uses Rally, an online platform for fundraising. In addition to raising money, the organization also released information about their new location, pictures of the infants they had helped, a wish list, and accounts of how the donations had been used.

Start From Seed co-founder Cheryl Orengo says, “We don’t pay salaries and use whatever funds raised to run the program.” Through donations and other means, Start From Seed has saved enough to cover their rent for an entire year in advance.

According to organizations like Start From Seed, fundraising in this way is a quick, simple, and inexpensive way to support the cause. It’s an easy way to get media attention, recruit supporters, and spread the word about your cause on social media. If you’re interested in trying crowdfunding for your organization, here are some websites to check out:

Websites for nonprofit crowdfunding

Rally

Start From Seed used this internet platform for fundraising with success. The website is user-friendly and well-designed, and any quantity of donations can be made.

HopeMob

This area is home to more than ten thousand individuals. There are many motivational tales to be discovered here, such as the nearly $5,000 raised for The Supply, a group that builds schools in Nairobi.

Start Some Good

In addition to the website’s user-friendly platform, Crowdfunding 101 is a free nine-part email course created for organizations and social entrepreneurs. Additionally, you won’t be charged to use the site unless your campaign is a success.

Crowdrise

Because it divides fundraising into many categories for various causes, such as those linked to animal welfare and education, Crowdrise is one of the most structured platforms. The website further divides charities into groups based on the fundraising activities they hold, such as marathons, walks, and celebrity-endorsed campaigns.

Causes

Despite claiming to be the biggest online campaigning platform, Causes only allows organizations with a legitimate 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4) tax exemption to do fundraising on their website. Toyota’s initiative to prioritize child passenger safety illustrates how a campaign may be used for purposes more than simply raising money.

Indiegogo

Every campaign needs goals and a budget, which can be either fixed or changeable. If the fundraising target is not reached when using a fixed account, any donations made but not used are returned to the donor. You keep the funds raised; however, if you set up a flexible account and fall short of your goal, Indiegogo retains a higher portion of your funds. Organizations having 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4) tax status are eligible for discounts, but you’ll need to do the arithmetic.

Kickstarter

As the most well-known platform for fundraising where innovative ideas may find support, Kickstarter is synonymous with crowdfunding. Since the site’s debut in 2009, more than 200,000 projects, including items, movies, games, and more, have amassed over $5.9 billion in funding thanks to the Kickstarter community. If your campaign is successful, you will also be charged a platform fee of 5% in addition to the payment processor’s transaction costs (US).

Kickstarter uses rewards to draw users. The more money supporters provide, the better rewards. People who donate money to the project receive swag and special pre-order pricing benefits.

You won’t get any of the money pledged to you (and will still be forced to pay Kickstarter’s platform fee) unless you raise the entire amount you set for your Kickstarter campaign. Your backers will keep the full amount if you cannot reach your objectives.

Because of this, most Kickstarter projects are excellent and unique, frequently so novel and ground-breaking that they attract early adopters and receive media attention. Donors tend to have a higher sense of the legitimacy of such endeavors because they are not required to give their money until the campaign is successful.

Our interviews with Spotify sellers Rockwell Razors, SaniKind, and LastObject shed light on what constitutes a successful Kickstarter campaign. See our tutorial if you’re interested in learning how to transition from a Kickstarter project to a Shopify store.

FirstGiving

A few well-known organizations that have raised money through FirstGiving over the past ten years include Habitat for Humanity, the Special Olympics, and The Humane Society.

RocketHub

When A&E’s “Project Startup” is seeking crowdfunded businesses to feature on TV, RocketHub is now their first stop. Depending on your success in achieving your goals, there is a sliding scale of fees.

StartEngine

StartEngine is a different equity crowdfunding website with a network of over 760,000 potential investors. Regulation Crowdfunding, a gap in SEC regulations that enables businesses to raise $5 million from a sizable number of individual investors, is how StartEngine facilitates fundraising. 

Even though there are strict financial and legal requirements, they are less demanding than more traditional methods of raising money from authorized investors. You may thank StartEngine for providing the necessary financial analysis and legal documentation if you wish to start a Reg CF campaign. 

Its initial fee is more than that of other crowdfunding platforms, though, and if a company has to raise more than $5 million, the price may go up. If a business restricts its fundraising efforts to no more than $107,000 or charges investors an extra 3.5% fee on top of the share price, it can avoid going over budget. Despite this, StartEngine works best for expanding businesses that have already through some validation.

CauseVox

CauseVox advertises that its capabilities, including multimedia content by just pasting a link, such as movies or Flickr slideshows, allow non-profits to easily change the appearance of their fundraising page without the assistance of a developer. Additionally, it has an original price and charging system. Examples given include the Autism Science Foundation and Change for Kids.

Razoo

Charitable organizations can organize a Giving Day, a 24-hour online fundraising competition, using the Razoo tools.

Tips for razoo 

Are you ready to go on this journey? Razoo’s CEO, Lesley Mansford, has offered the following guidance:

• Record it on video. Donations to campaigns with videos sometimes result in a four-fold boost in revenue.
• Donate funds that will have an impact. According to one of these figures, $20 will provide a child with three meals per day for a whole month.
• Ask your supporters to spread the word about your cause to raise awareness. Every time someone shares something on Facebook, Razoo receives an extra $18 in donations.

You should carefully read the FAQs on each website because most of them retain between 3% and 5% of the money your organization generates on top of the costs charged by credit card processors.

Have you ever used a platform for raising money or awareness? Please feel free to share your thoughts in the space provided below if this is the case. For nonprofit organizations, VerticalResponse offers a free version of its software. Register now to get started.

Conclusion

Due to the access to a pool of potential investors and customers that crowdfunding offers, startups, new product development, and growing enterprises can all benefit from it. Effectively present your campaign to the appropriate individuals to acquire support and spread the news about your proposal. However, unless you combine a good deal of luck with a thorough strategy, you won’t be able to raise any money. If you’re looking for a more traditional company loan, consider what to Know Before Applying and How to Get a Small Business Loan.

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