What Amount Should I Set For My Kickstarter Goal? (2024)

FAQs

What should my Kickstarter goal be? ›

Your funding goal should include the amount you need to complete your project (costs of making and shipping rewards), and the fees associated with running a project on Kickstarter. Once you launch your project, you cannot change your funding goal or deadline.

Most successfully funded projects raise less than $10,000. Having a lower target on your Kickstarter project means that you increase the chance of getting fully funded. It's important to note that lots of projects set lower targets of around $10,000 and end up far exceeding this number.

The average Kickstarter goal is around $5,000 though most don't reach their funding goal. The average crowdfunding goal for successful projects is lower. The good news is that if you can raise at least 20% of your goal, odds are that you can reach fully funded.

Creators will still receive the balance of collected funds, less fees, even if the final amount falls below your project's funding goal due to dropped pledges. Kickstarter will only collect fees on the funds that we are able to successfully collect.

We recommend offering up to five reward tiers for your first Kickstarter project.

Kickstarter Success Rates Based Upon Month Ended

Success rates (on average) are significantly lower if you end your campaign during the months of August, September or December and significantly higher if you end your project during the months of February, March and May.

Over the years, more than 221,597 Kickstarter projects have been successfully funded, with over $6,670,055,191 in funding from backers. However, according to Kickstarter, about 9% of all projects fail to deliver rewards.

In March 2015, Pebble's second smartwatch project completed its crowdfunding and publicity run with 20.34 billion dollars raised in Kickstarter pre-order funding, becoming the most successful Kickstarter project as of July 2021.

We've done some research, and found that projects lasting any longer than 60 days are rarely successful. When planning your project, we recommend setting it to run for 30 days or less. Campaigns with shorter durations often have higher success rates, and create a helpful sense of urgency around your project.

In general, in the US, funds raised on Kickstarter are considered income. In general, a creator can offset the income from their Kickstarter project with deductible expenses that are related to the project and accounted for in the same tax year.

What happens if you exceed your Kickstarter goal? ›

Any funds raised beyond the goal will help the creator to cover any manufacturing or shipping costs related to their add-ons. In other cases, overfunding leads to better margins and the creator may even profit from the project.

The downside of Kickstarter is that it's all-or-nothing. This means that if you don't reach your funding goal, you don't get any of the money that was pledged. This can be a big risk for businesses, especially if they're not confident that they can reach their goal.

Project creators keep 100% ownership of their work, and Kickstarter cannot be used to offer equity, financial returns, or to solicit loans.

Originally Answered: Can an idea on Kickstarter be stolen? Yes, an idea on Kickstarter can be stolen, but there are two reasons why that doesn't matter: The project itself serves as proof it was your idea. You have a public record of your work if you try to raise funds on Kickstarter.

When you compare GoFundMe vs Kickstarter in terms of fees, GoFundMe charges 5% for each donation and a 3% processing fee for each donation in both USA and Canada. Kickstarter charges a 5% fee of the total funds raised, plus a 3-5% payment processing fee from each pledge.

Launching by the numbers

The best time to launch a Kickstarter campaign, according to recent Kickstarter stats and trends that look at when the most backers are on crowdfunding platforms and which days have the most successful projects, is Tuesday between 8 AM and 1 PM EST.

Audience composition can reveal a site's current market share across various audiences. kickstarter.com's audience is 77.54% male and 22.46% female. The largest age group of visitors are 25 - 34 year olds (Desktop).

Can I end my Kickstarter early? ›

If you need to make any major changes to your project, such as the funding goal or campaign duration, or you'd like to rework your idea and start again, you can cancel your project at any time.

The price for creativity and innovation: 1 in 10 funded projects never deliver to backers. It started like a typical Kickstarter success story.

Your Kickstarter campaign duration should be between 45-60 days. Most campaigns go with 30 days.

Today, crowdfunding is mostly synonymous with Kickstarter. It's the biggest crowdfunding platform there is. It's also got a bunch of metrics that are happy to sing its praises. Kickstarter campaigns have already raised over $7.109 billion.

We welcome and support projects from a variety of categories: Art, Comics, Crafts, Dance, Design, Fashion, Film & Video, Food, Games, Journalism, Music, Photography, Publishing, Technology, and Theater.

On January 27, 2015, after seven days, it passed 103,000 backers setting the record for the most backers in Kickstarter history. At completion on February 19, 2015, it had US$8,782,571 in pledges by 219,382 backers. The campaign ended as the fourth most-funded campaign on the crowdfunding site.

Kickstarter files a 1099-K for each unique tax identification number (TIN), such as a Social Security Number (SSN) or Employer Identification Number (EIN), that meets the IRS processing threshold.

Money raised in a crowdfunding campaign is considered taxable when: Donors receive something of value in return for their contribution. The IRS could consider the donation to be a sale, which would mean any profits could be taxed as personal income.

Kickstarter is not a store and we do not issue refunds. When you back a project, you're supporting a creator's right to try to make something new—and agreeing to go along for the ride.

Funding on Kickstarter is all-or-nothing in more ways than one. While 10% of projects finished having never received a single pledge 79% of projects that raised more than 20% of their goal were successfully funded.

What happens if you don't pay your pledge on Kickstarter? ›

If we're still unable to process your payment at the end of the 7-day timeframe, your pledge will be dropped and you will no longer be considered a backer of the project.

In truth, the vast majority of successful projects — some 67% —raise less than $10k. On the flip side, unsuccessful projects (which typically have larger goals) don't get very far: 2 out of 10 fail to raise a single penny, and another 6 out of 10 can't crack 20% of their goal amount.

Yes, you may be able to sue the creator of a Kickstarter product. If you are a backer of a project who doesn't get their reward, you may be able to sue for breach of contract, fraud, or for violation of a state consumer protection statute.

Pledging to your own project is not allowed by either Kickstarter or our payments processor. Doing so violates our guidelines and may lead to suspension of your project.

Kickstarter is an all or nothing platform, which means a project must end at or above its funding goal in order to be successful. If a project does not successfully reach its goal, the creator will not receive any funds, and no backers will be charged for their pledges.

Technically, you as the creator, can NOT contribute to your own Kickstarter project. You will notice that you can not access the Rewards buttons through your Kickstarter account. However … a family member such as a spouse or child CAN contribute to your campaign. All they need is their own Kickstarter account.

Because of the risk that someone could get the trademark protection first, it is considered best practice to get the registration for your trademark prior to launching a campaign. As with the patent process, a trademark must be registered in foreign markets as well.

What if I want to pledge anonymously? It isn't possible to pledge anonymously, but if you'd prefer to change the name displayed on your Kickstarter profile, you can do so by going to the Edit profile tab under Settings and adding your preferred profile name.

They might be inspired by a new idea, or simply motivated by a project's reward. Whatever the reason, people back projects because they want to have a part in helping to bring it to life. Backing a project is more than just pledging funds to a creator, it's pledging support for a creative idea.

GoFundMe charges one transaction fee—that's it. So, what percentage does GoFundMe take for transaction fees? A transaction fee of 2.9% +$0.30 is automatically deducted from each donation, so you never have to worry about paying a bill.

What is a good conversion rate on Kickstarter? ›

A campaign with a conversion rate higher than 3% might not be achieving all of its potential. The majority of successful campaigns have a conversion rate from visitors to backers between 1 and 3%. And that takes us to the conclusion that to be successful in a crowdfunding campaign, you have to communicate a lot.

The key to any successful Kickstarter campaign is a well thought out and comprehensive strategy. You won't be able to create a great product or service without understanding exactly what your backers want, setting clear goals, and executing that plan accordingly.

Broadly speaking, a common conversion rate for an email opt-in landing page is between 5% and 15%. The companies with the most success tend to convert at around 20-25%. And the very cream of the crop achieves conversion rates of 30% or higher.

Conventional wisdom says that a good conversion rate is somewhere around 2% to 5%. If you're sitting at 2%, an improvement to 4% seems like a massive jump. You doubled your conversion rate! Well, congratulations, but you're still stuck in the average performance bucket.

What is a Good E-commerce Conversion Rate? The latest studies show that the average conversion rate for e-commerce websites is 2.86%. The average e-commerce conversion rate in the US is 2.63%, while the global website conversion rate is 4.31%.

Funds raised on Kickstarter are generally subject to taxes. How much you owe can vary based on a number of factors, including the deduction of project-related expenses. We highly recommend talking to an accountant or tax advisor.

Here are some of the top reasons why Kickstarter projects fail: Bad pricing plan (e.g., the product is being sold too cheap and is expensive to produce). Components of the final product are bad quality. Creators of the project don't have the required experience or understanding.

The Pebble Time is the most funded Kickstarter ever, even though the campaign was launched in 2015.

What is the most successful Kickstarter critical role? ›

Critical Role's ardent fans have broken the Kickstarter record for the most-funded TV or film project ever, pledging over $5.79 million — in under four days — for the production of what has morphed into an animated series about a band of Dungeons & Dragons adventurers.