Crowdfunding success for nonprofit fundraising via Indiegogo?

Almost every week we write about the continued growing adoption of online nonprofit fundraising methods and technology to assist nonprofits in building their donor audience and drive forward charitable receipts, whether via search engine tips, social media strategies or other ways to develop and improve your website to further engagement with your audience. There are however many situations where a completely worthy cause may not have a website or have yet made significant inroads in finding their potential audience despite the importance of their organizational goals and in those circumstances crowdfunding may be the best path to consider.

Indiegogo may offer the ideal solution for the smaller nonprofit or even an established one that looks to reach a large audience within a short space of time. Indiegogo is an international crowdfunding site where anyone can raise money for film, music, art, charity, small businesses, gaming, theater, and more.

Indiegogo formed in 2008, initially as an online platform to fund independent film makers in an industry where it was historically difficult to find financial backing. In 2009 they modified their website to include absolutely any industry from inventors to scientists and in turn incorporating fundraising for causes and nonprofits. The site used to be heavily vested in the arts and still supports numerous exceptional creative projects in that field but has grown the last few years to really embrace the nonprofit sector.

The site benefits by being easy to use and navigate and allows anyone to easily start a campaign for free immediately without the need for expensive web design and coding nor a deep understanding of online marketing. Indiegogo provides the audience which leaves you to successfully express the importance of your cause. The website receives more than half a million visits per day, by far the most popular crowdfunding site of its kind.

Of course there are fees but they also offer significant reductions to those fees if you are a registered nonprofit. The fee schedule is again easy to understand and works as follows:

• Before beginning a campaign you establish and set a fundraising goal which will be displayed as part of your project listing, you are allowed to raise funds beyond that established ceiling.
•  The fundraising goal is important as it determines what option to choose; ‘Flexible Funding’ or ‘Fixed Funding’
• ‘Flexible Funding’ results in a standard fee to Indiegogo of 4% if your meet your goal. If you fail to meet your goal then the fee is 9% but you get to keep the funds raised even if you fall short.
• ‘Fixed Funding’ means that you either make your goal and receive the funds with a 4% fixed fee, or if you fall short then all those who donated are refunded and you receive no funding

Registered nonprofits are eligible for a 25% discount from the above fee schedule, details are at the end of this post. It’s important to know that you determine your fundraising goal and the length of your campaign – once these are submitted they cannot be changed.

Indiegogo provide the tools to help you list your campaign in detail so that visitors can find, view and then hopefully fund your cause. Causes are listed under Animals, Community, Education, Environment, Health, Politics and Religion with a special navigable section for registered nonprofits. They also provide a set of tools designed to help globally market selected causes via social media and their other platforms via what they call ‘gogofactor’ it’s easier to read about than have me try to explain briefly.  You can also offer a series of perks for donations at specific levels such as thank you notes, apparel or formal recognition.

For those who fear that a high level of computer expertise is required to get started, don’t worry, they provide one-click social media integration, direct email service in addition to special announcement features make it easy to grow the awareness for your campaign and increase funding. As far as I can tell it’s acceptable to merge this with your existing website or social media as well.

Remember that Indiegogo has a huge international audience and has helped to raise millions of dollars for thousands of projects. A quick visit to the cause pages will give you a true flavour of both the diversity of causes seeking funding and the support that they receive.

For full information about nonprofit features and eligibility on Indiegogo visit this link, or for an overview of how Indiegogo works visit here. We’d love to hear your success stories.
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Miratel Solutions is a Toronto call centre, eBusiness, and letter shop mail house specializing in professional fundraising services including telephone fundraising, online fundraising, lottery services, donation caging, donation processing and other donor management services. We are committed to our CSR business values in all contact centre services