Alternatives to Kickstarter :-) & Crowdfunding Options

Paul, I hope I am putting this in the right place. I remember you or someone mentioning getting money with http://kickstarter.com and because if you don't make your goal that NO money comes to you, I thought I would mention a couple other ways.

http://indiegogo.com
http://gofundme.com

I am sure there is more!

I think there are a couple of threads on "tinkering with this site" that might be better for sharing those links.

Oh! Try clicking on the "feed the empire" link that is showing up on every page--it's right over the Hugelkultur video on my screen.

Thanks, I will cross-reference that thread - great idea! If it disappears: https://permies.com/t/19160/tinkering-site/ho-ho-ho-feed-empire

I am posting here because this thread seems more specific; I don't want to break the rhythm of Paul's feed the empire thread!

I saw an article recently on Kickstarter and similar sites, and one that was mentioned for science research was www.petridish.org.
Seems like a number of the projects we do through Permies could be considered as applied ecology or conservation research.

-EricaW


-edited to correct the spelling of petri. -EKW
- edited to add note: I don't see any ecology or conservation projects being funded although the categories exist. Looks like a couple of mainstream geeks trying to duplicate Kickstarter's model - they don't fund unless the goal is met, just like Kickstarter.

There are any number of crowdfunding sites out there, but the two that seem to have the most permaculture related projects are Kickstarter and Indigogo. I have noticed a strong preference towards Kickstarter here and was wondering if something about them is proving more appealing or if it is just the site that happened to be picked without one being better than the other. I only ask because it seems that Kickstarter has less permaculture on it and has less categories where permaculture projects might fall under.

Either one are viable platforms for permaculture projects. The big difference between the two is that with Kickstarter you have to reach your financial goal to be able to get your funding. With Indiegogo you can get whatever is pledged even if you don't reach your goal. Kickstarter is more famous than Indiegogo so that's helpful as far as picking up random funders/backers that you don't directly promote to.

We wrote about our first Kickstarter experience as we were launching it here: http://organiclifeguru.com/permaculture-design-course-coming-to-a-computer-near-you/

I've run across additional crowdfunding sites and ideas recently, and thought I'd post them here.

http://www.wethetrees.com/ - is specifically for permaculture projects!

https://www.seedandspark.com/ - especially for documentary videos/films/shorts - might also host the video which is amazing

https://pozible.com/ - with options like kickstarter or indiegogo though accepts bitcoin(!)

Some organizations I'm involved with are using bonfire.com to sell t-shirts as fundraisers. That was kind of surprising to me. A minimum number of tees must be sold before bonfire prints and fulfills the orders, with profits increasing per tee when more are sold. Here are the examples I'm aware of:

https://www.bonfire.com/snovalleytilth/
https://www.bonfire.com/snovalleycoop/

https://www.bonfire.com/get-dirty-1/
https://www.bonfire.com/live-your-crazy/

There are more - I hear there are 2,000 crowdfunding sites now! - so this is only scratching the surface so far.

Now, if only we had a crafter-creator (like someone on etsy or who sells things they make) offering to sell a widget or an organic t-shirt or something, as a fundraiser for a content creator who is raising money for more educational content!! That would be some synchronicity I'd like to see.

also you can look at barnraiser.us

SARE Grants are always an option.