Choosing the right crowdfunding platform is important when it comes to finding the best ways to make money with crowdfunding.
Raising money for your projects across the internet from a large group of people needs the right strategies to make money with crowdfunding.
These are my personal 3 favorite picks for different categories of people looking to raise funding.
| Platform | Description | Category of crowdfunding |
| Kickstarter | Works on taking all or take nothing concept of raising money. | Creator |
| Indiegogo | Offers support in tech, community, and art-related projects. Supports funding beyond the funding period | Business |
| GoFundMe | Supports medical, communal, or environmental causes | Others |
In this guide, we will look at 5+ platforms to make money with crowdfunding.
In this Guide
Best of platforms to make money with crowdfunding in 2022 (Top 7 updated)
For a quick overview of all the platforms discussed to make money with crowdfunding, head over to the summary section below.
1. Patreon
Fees charged from Patreon: The pricing model under Patreon comes under 3 different levels, which are:
- Lite (For beginners creators) = 5% of the monthly income of Patreon + Payment Processing Fees.
- Pro (For intermediate creators) = 8% of the monthly income of Patreon + Payment Processing Fees.
- Premium (For established creators) = 12% of the monthly income of Patreon + Payment Processing Fees.
Patreon is an amazing crowdfunding platform for independent artists and creators to build a steady income online.
It is free to sign up for the platform and set up your campaign but it includes a fixed percentage of monthly payments while you start earning from patrons.
There is also an additional standard rate of processing fees as well.
Here are some quick insights about Patreon…
| Year Founded | 2013 |
| Creators supported for | More than 250,000 |
| Patreons strength | More than 8 million |
| Earnings of creators | Higher than $ 3.5 billion |
| Who can use Patreon | Any creator which includes podcasters, video creators, musicians, writers, gaming creators, etc. |
What is Patreon?
Following are the key features of Patreon:
- Patreon is a crowdfunding platform to support independent creators by providing monthly memberships to Patrons (backers).
- There are a lot of benefits to Patrons which include exclusive access to content, a community of Patrons, and getting a good insight into the creation process.
- Provinces much flexibility and independence to independent creators to follow their creation.
- Gain valuable insights and build audience loyalty with access direct to them and building meaningful conversations.
- Provides different tiers of membership access for Patrons with different levels of benefits associated with each.
2. Kickstarter
Fees charged from Kickstarter: 5% of total funds that are raised from the campaign + Payment Processing Fees (country-specific)
Here’s a complete detail of the payment structure for Kickstarter.
Kickstarter is the crowdfunding platform for project-based support for backers.
Either you take all the money funded set as a goal during the funding timeline or you don’t take anything at all.
Every project that is placed on Kickstarter has a finite goal in place that is clear about what is being created.
Here are some quick insights about Kickstarter…
| Year Founded | 2009 |
| Projects supported | 219,989 and counting |
| Total Backers | More than 21 million |
| Fundings raised | Higher than 6.5 billion |
| Who can use Kickstarter | Creative projects from various fields such as games, films, art, music, design, and even technology |
What is Kickstarter?
Following are the key features of Kickstarter:
- Kickstarter is a crowdfunding platform to support serious creators who have a definite goal to work on a project.
- This works on funding all or nothing structure which means you take all funds received when you meet your funding goals or you take nothing at all.
- Projects need to abide by 5 rules which include no equity, no prohibited items, no raising for charity, and more.
3. Crowdfunder
Fees charged from Crowdfunder: The fee structure in Crowdfunder is different for different types of projects.
Crowdfunder collects 4 types of fees which are (Platform fees + VAT) + (Transaction Fees) + Tips (Optional) + Extra Funding Fees.
The maximum that one needs to pay would be 5% in addition to 2.4% + 20p (per pledge) + VAT on UK/EU cards + 5% + VAT.
For complete details about the fee structure here’s a complete guide for you.
As you can see Crowdfunder supports a lot of causes such as
- community projects,
- business activities,
- sports,
- cause-related campaigns,
- charity or
- even personal causes.
Here are some quick insights about Crowdfunder…
| Who Founded Crowdfunder | Phil Geraghty |
| Projects backed | 300,000 |
| Total Backers | 1 million |
| Fundings raised | More than £250 million |
| Who can use Crowdfunder | Anyone who has any project to deal with societal challenges involving community projects, businesses, charity, sports, and more. |
What is Crowdfunder?
Following are the key features of Crowdfunder:
- Crowdfunder is the No. 1 crowdfunding platform in the UK spreading its operations to Canada.
- The platform works to meet societal causes and backs projects dealing with such issues.
- Operations are primarily based in the UK with operations spreading to Canada.
- The platform gives access to a community of people who support your idea, and interactive sessions with backers.
- Extra funding is available which is a bucket of funds available from partners associated with a platform that can be made available to you to bring more funds.
4. GoFundMe
Fees charged from GoFundMe: The platform has one of the low-cost payment structures among all discussed.
It basically charges a transaction fee of 2.9% of the total donation received and a $0.3 deduction from each donation received during the campaign.
GoFundMe supports more personal causes rather than any profitable cause which focuses more on medical, memorial, emergency, NPO, animals related cases.
Here are some quick insights about GoFundMe…
| Year Founded | 2010 |
| Donations received | Over $5 billion |
| Donors strength | 50 million |
| Who can use GoFundMe | Personal and societal causes related to medical, communal wellbeing, environmental causes, etc. |
What is GoFundMe?
Following are the key features of GoFundMe:
- GoFundMe supports raising funds for any cause which includes meeting the personal needs of strangers such as education, medical, funeral, etc.
- GoFundMe operates in 3 simple steps which are starting a fundraiser campaign, sharing with people around you, and managing donations from people.
- One can keep the entire donation received no matter whether you reach the goal or not.
- 19 countries are supported by GoFundMe for raising funds.
5. Crowdcube
Fees charged from CrowdCube: 0 listing fees + 7% on the amount raised from the platform + Completion Fees (0.75%-1.25% for the funds raised) successfully.
Here’s a guide on charges to be paid to CrowdCube for raising funds from the platform.
CrowdCube is a platform solely for entrepreneurs who want to raise money to support their businesses.
Investors would invest money in your business in return for getting an equity stake in your business.
Here are some quick insights about Crowdcube…
| Year Started | 2011 |
| Investments | More than £1bn |
| Investors Strength | Higher than 300,000 |
| Who can use Cowdcube | Entrepreneurs looking to fund their business in return for equity |
What is Crowdcube?
Following are the key features of Crowdcube:
- Crowdcube is a platform that is primarily for businesses to want to raise funding in return for offering a stake of equity.
- The platform offers equity funding which means an investor gets a certain percentage of stake in the capital and can gain or lose from the operations of the company in the long run.
- All the due diligence checks are put in place and are verified before putting on the site such as the projections, size of the market, or even contracts entered into.
- Supports funding in 3 stages i.e. Seed funding (£150k-£249k), Early funding (£250k-£750k), and Growth funding (>£751k).
6. Indiegogo
Fees charged from Indiegogo: 3 types of fees are charged by Indiegogo.
Platform fees = 5% with different segregation for campaigns run on Indiegogo or not.
Transaction fees = Charged for each contribution campaign receives depending upon the location of banks and currency of funds raised.
Transfer fees = Charged for funds each time funds are sent over to bank accounts.
Here’s complete detailed info for the fees charged from Indiegogo.
Indiegogo is another platform primarily backing projects which deal with technological aspects, creative pursuits, or any community-based work.
Raising funds from this mode of crowdfunding goes through 3 steps i.e.
- planning for the pitch of your project,
- setting the goals of raising funds from crowdfunding and
- taking a call for the length of the campaign.
Here are some quick insights about Indiegogo…
| Year Operational | 2008 |
| Funding raised | More than $11 million |
| Investors Strength | Higher than 9.5 million |
| Projects Funded | More than 8000 each week |
| Who can use Indiegogo | Businesses working in the domain of tech, community projects or even art projects. |
What is Indiegogo?
Following are the key features of Indiegogo:
- The platform is for entrepreneurs looking to raise capital primarily working on 3 sectors such as tech, community, or even art projects.
- Provides support to the businesses to raise money even beyond the funding period is over. This is called the In-demand phase which doesn’t have any specific target or deadline assigned to it.
- Has operations spreading across 223 countries across the globe.
- Works under 3 steps of operations which are adding the initial capital, growing the reach of the network of business, and establishing the business.
7. Fundable
Fees charged by Fundable: Free setup + $179/month + 3.5% + 30¢ per transaction (only for rewards based raises)
Fundable is a great platform that enables investors to put their money backing up potential startups.
Raising money from Fundable goes through these 4 step approaches which are:
- setting up a profile,
- establishing fundraising terms (debt or equity-based funding),
- putting the work out to market for your project and
- marking commitments for the funds raised (minimum of $1000)
Here are some quick insights about Fundable…
| Year Founded | 2012 |
| Funding raised | $568 Million |
| Mode of operation | Equity and Rewards-based strategies used for funding |
| Who can use Fundable | Businesses having clear and concise information related to products and services offered setting clear fundraising goals. |
What is Fundable?
Following are the key features of Fundable:
- Fundable provides 2 ways of raising funds i.e Equity-based and Rewards-based systems of funding.
- Under Equity, mode startups can raise higher capital in return for ownership of the company while the rewards system gives lower capital in exchange for some kind of rewards to investors.
- Has a minimum commitment of $1000 under equity and debt source of raising funds which get completed offline between both parties.
- The platform is only for those companies which are having its registration in the US but not elsewhere.
We have covered all the 7 best platforms that can help make money online with crowdfunding.
Which one is the ideal one for your need?
Do let us know in the comments below.
If you are still not able to decide which one to go for, refer to the summary below for a quick overview of all that we covered.
Platforms to make money with crowdfunding (Summary)
My 3 top picks for the best platforms to make money with crowdfunding in 2022 are:
- Kickstarter – For Creators
- Indiegogo – For Businesses
- GoFundMe – For Others
Here’s a quick overview of the 7 best platforms to make money with crowdfunding:
| Platform | Who can raise money |
| Patreon | Any creator (podcasters, video creators, musicians, writers, game developers), etc. |
| Kickstarter | Creators (games, arts, music, etc) |
| Crowdfunder | Businesses looking to raise money in return for giving equity in the UK. Have also started spreading into Canada as well. |
| GoFundMe | Funding related to personal causes which involve medical, communal wellbeing, environmental causes, etc. |
| Indiegogo | Businesses related to the field of art, technological, and communal-based platforms. |
| Fundable | US-based businesses looking to raise money have a clear and concise goal looking to raise capital under an Equity and Reward-based system. |
| Crowdcube | Entrepreneurs to fund their business. Funding can accumulate for more than £751k. |
Do let us know which platform would you like to start within the comments section below or share with us if you would like to have more information on anything that we missed.
Happy crowdfunding!
Here are some more commonly asked questions related to crowdfunding.
Make money with crowdfunding FAQs
Ans. Crowdfunding as the name suggests simply means raising money from people (crowd) who believe in your idea and back your project.
The crowd of people who invest their money during a crowdfunding campaign is popularly known as “backers”.
Ans. Yes, crowdfunding is indeed a good way to raise money for your project primarily for the following reasons:
– Provides liquidity in raising money for your project on short notice within a deadline.
– Helps to validate your idea for the product you are raising money for.
– Builds a following of bakers who believe in your idea.
– Expands the options to raise money beyond traditional sources such as bank loans, raising capital in the house or personal investments, etc.
So one must definitely try acquiring capital from crowdfunding way to avail above benefits.
Ans. Crowdfunding is a simplified process of raising money from the people backing your project.
The fundraiser is freely allowed to set up their crowdfunding campaign on most of the platforms.
But there are certainly some payments required to be done when a campaign is successfully executed on crowdfunding platforms.
These payments are usually of 2 types which are platform fees and payment processing fees.
We have discussed these below for each platform.
Ans. The highest record crowdfunding ever recorded in history is from the Kickstarter campaign to publish 4 novels written during a pandemic.
The funding raised a total of $20.8 million that happened across just 3 days timeline.
Here’s a detailed guide related to how much money can be raised through crowdfunding.