Eight Crowdfunding Sites to Consider

If you need funding for something, often you think the only way is to go to a bank. But today, there are many other options. You can go to crowdfunding to try to get the money. One good thing about crowdfunding is that it can show whether an idea is good enough before you bother investing too much time or money into it.

1. Indiegogo.com – Creative, charitable, or entrepreneurial enterprises can raise money and offer perks to donators, but keep 100 percent ownership of their ideas. It’s simple to use and they have helpful customer service. You can also collect your funding even if you didn’t reach your goal, if you can still do the project. Fees do apply. You can upload videos and create interesting pages that you send your audience to.
2. EquityNet.com – You can find equity investors (angel investors) and crowdfund a number of ways using this platform. Some say that the pool of investors isn’t as high as they say, but you can sign up free to find out for yourself if this service will work for you.
3. Ablelending.com – You can do a lot on this site, including getting regular start-up loans. But, it’s also a crowdfunding lender. Basically, anyone who invests in your business is seeking a return on investment. Plus, if you get some of your family to chip in, they’ll fund the rest if you can’t raise enough.
4. GoFundMe.com – On this website, you can crowdfund for any type of project you want, including personal causes. It can be tuition, medical bills or even a business idea. They just ask that you don’t include inappropriate content. Plus, depending on the type of crowdfunding you’re attempting to do, you can keep the funding even if you don’t meet your goals. They keep 5% plus payment processing fees.
5. Kickstarter.com – While they have a history of not checking out who places crowdfunding projects on the site, with a few of them being fraudulent, this doesn’t mean the site itself is a fraud. They have raised and delivered more than 1.2 billion dollars in funding. They deal with creative funding and it’s an all-or-nothing proposition, which is why some people don’t like it.
6. Patreon.com – This one is a little different. It encourages people to donate to content providers such as YouTube stars, bloggers, cartoonists and other creative types in a secure environment. This isn’t for raising funds in advance, but for getting paid while you’re creating. They take 5 percent of your earnings plus credit card and third party payment processing fees.
7. Kiva.org – On this site, you can get person-to-person loans, start-up loans and working capital, all for zero interest up to $10,000 dollars. Individuals come to the site to find different businesses or projects to support and know that they’ll support them and get back their money. They’re not doing it to earn money but to support causes they like.
8. Teespring.com – This one might not seem like a crowdfunding site, but it is. Basically, if you have a cause that you want to have a t-shirt made for, this is the site to use. You can sell your t-shirts for any price you want to. The catch is that you have a short window of time to get orders and you must have at least nine ordered to get your t-shirts printed and mailed.
These are all great options to try for crowdfunding. If you need to raise money for any cause or reason for your business, look at each of these and choose which one will work best for your needs.