What you need to know about the advancements in these 4 fundraising platforms
For many years now, crowdfunding developed from a mere digital quirk to a powerful tool, becoming the go-to idea for people who want their unique ideas to get off the ground. It’s a fairly easy yet brilliant idea. Start a venture or project, and use the internet to get a large number of people to contribute small amounts of money to back it. Easy enough and effective. And for the longest time, Kickstarter has been the world’s largest platform to do it. It was established in 2009 and started an international trend ever since.
However, the recent years have brought more similar sites out into the surface, all with their own unique workings. Of course, some more or less work like Kickstarter while some have more flexible funding models. Here are some examples:
IndieGoGo
Renamed as Generosity.com back in 2015, Indiegogo is essentially a direct competitor to Kickstarter and was even founded a year before it initially launched. As a result, its scope and feature-set are similar to Kickstarter, with the primary difference depending on how goal deadlines work for each site. With Kickstarter, failing to meet the goal results in no money being kept by the initial project maker. However, with Indiegogo, you can hold on to the money when you choose the flexible funding option.
Patreon
Working a little different from the usual crowdfunding site, Patreon is essentially made for content creators who have something more to share than the usual content they put out on the internet. It can be used for podcasts, YouTube videos, blog posts and even music if the content creator is also a musician. Contributors on the site are called Patreons, and they essentially fund project creators every month with an amount of their choice in exchange for exclusive content such as requests, new media, or even something simple as a shout-out.
While it may not be for everyone, Patreon still works as an important tool for content creators who may want to do the gig full-time, as it provides a way for their followers to provide monetary support.
XPO2
Usually shortened to XPO2, Exponential, Inc. may be the most different platform out of everything listed, yet a quick look at its inner workings reveal that it belongs here just as any other crowdfunding platform. Operating as a firm that’s “in the business of doing good,” XPO2 essentially works as a Kickstarter for cause-driven nongovernment organizations (NGOs) by developing innovative concepts and strategies to drive incremental fundraising revenue on behalf of said NGO and charities. While a typical crowdfunding platform is catered to individuals or groups who have an idea that they want to fund, XPO2 takes this model a notch higher by catering to cause-related NGOs who lack sufficient funding to operate.
So the question is, how? Simple. XPO2 takes a number of small to medium-scale NGOs (which company CEO and founder Dom Einhorn personally vetted) and brings them to XPO2’s very own crowdfunding platform where they can have heightened visibility to a large consumer market. So while a usual crowdfunding site showcases different projects, XPO2 lists NGOs that you can help “kickstart.”
Recently, the company launched its newest NGO crowdfunding platform in line with its rewards-based crowdfunding campaign. The company will then be using the funds from this new campaign to positively impact the lives of over a billion people in the course of five years.
As of the moment, the cause-related firm currently has over 1,200 participating merchants worldwide, and there are two ways people can contribute. The first is through its “cashless contributions” module (which the company pioneered) where a contributor can support an NGO by purchasing an exclusive product from one of the participating merchants. The second one gives contributors a chance to directly contribute to an NGO of their choice.
Driven by the concept of net social impact, or the amount of good that every contribution can do, the firm effectively used the traditional crowdfunding model and revolutionized it to something that can continuously provide a lasting positive impact on the world.
GoFundMe
First started back in 2010, GoFundMe works as a for-profit crowdfunding platform and is currently the world’s biggest platform for crowdfunding, responsible for raising over $5 billion since its initial debut.
The site brands itself as a personal fundraising website, and much like Indiegogo, lets the project creators keep the funds raised even if they don’t meet their goal. Similar to XPO2’s goal of making sure the funds go to something good, GoFundMe’s rise to become the world’s biggest crowdfunding platform is mainly due to a simple concept: humans helping humans. Recently, the site decided to drop the fee that it collects from personal campaigns launched on the site.
Of course, these are merely the surface, and there are numerous other websites that follow the same concept. Still, whether you want to use your money to help some small nongovernment organization on the other side of the world or simply contribute to help your favorite YouTuber get sustainable income, there will always be a crowdfunding site that will cater to your needs.
