Just now, we had an article on the importance of crowdfunding, as well as a discussion of the various constructive and positive things you can do with crowdfunding money.
But now, as already promised, we’re going to look some of the important criteria you need to consider when choosing a crowdfunding site.
Obviously, some of these criteria may seem a little obvious to some of you; others may seem unimportant. Either way, you are free to decide which criteria mean most to you; you can tailor your search for a crowdfunding site, in keeping with your own requirements.
The following is not intended as the last word on the matter; I’m sure you can think of some more criteria. If so, feel free to drop us a comment below!
PURPOSE OF CROWDFUNDING SITE
If you’re a creator, e.g. a satirist or indie journalist, you obviously need to avoid sites that are not intended for this purpose. Just Giving, for example, is a site for charitable giving. Even though there is a separate section for corporations, this is not intended for ‘just any’ work.
I am not entirely sure whether ‘social enterprises’ are appropriate for Just Giving either. So in order to find out whether your project is appropriate for any one particular crowdfunding site, it’s better to use due diligence. Either way, if you are just running a straight satire site, rather than for a special cause, you should go with a more general site, rather than a charity site.
COMMISSION
Crowdfunding sites often take a commission on your work. You can shop around to find out more. Bear in mind that a higher commission is not necessarily a deal-breaker. For example, if one site has slightly higher commission for the site, but has a much larger audience, and has already had a lot of successful crowdfunds in your line of creative work, it might still be worth the risk of the higher commission.
AUDIENCE
That brings us to the next point. It’s often better to get a site with a large audience. And if you look around the site, you can see if there are lots of other people doing crowdfunds that are similar to yours. You can also see how these crowdfunds are doing.
But how can you know what the bigger sites are?
It’s not easy to know for sure. You’re going to have to make an educated guess, based on whatever imperfection information you can find.
That’s the topic of the fourth and final article of today.
Image attribution:
By Thargol – Own work, CC0, Link
***
If you found this helpful, please consider any future Glossy News Crowdfunds! You can keep in touch with us here: