How to get a creative project funded online

My friend Slava has a fun company called IndieGoGo that lets you fund creative projects through their web site, or start your own and get it funded. Some examples include a photography project that documents hospice patients in Pennsylvania (above), socialism experiments in Germany, and a short film about Big Foot's encounter with an alien. The way it works is similar to the microlending non-profit Kiva, except you can chip in to just about anything. Donors are incentivized by things like a shout out in a film's credits, free swag, or event invites.

If you're the one who has a project that needs funding, you can post your pitch for free; the company takes a cut of what you make but you still get to keep most of it. I'm thinking of trying it out on a forthcoming social experiment. Fun!

IndieGoGo main page

I'm a contributing editor here at Boing Boing. I also have a blog (TokyoMango), a book (Urawaza), and I freelance for Wired, Make, the NY Times Magazine, PRI's Studio360, etc. I'm @tokyomango on Twitter.

MORE: Action

More at Boing Boing

Eurovision 2013: An American in London

The technology that links taxonomy and Star Trek

SamSam

Funny that every single anon here likes indiegogo… Hmmm, I guess there must actually be a lot honest of support out there!!1
ElaineZelker

The above photo comes from my project, “The Hands – some journey”….
I had to pop on over and give my opinion for I feel like there’s a bit of bashing going on here….I am completely humbled and amazed by the support IndieGoGo has given me for my project! To date I have raised $1375, had 3332 views, and 412 referrals. The fact that I am giving them some of my “earnings” in the end is only fair. All I had to do was plug in some information, post some pictures and the site was done! The links, widgets, dashboard information, referrals, payments are all done for me…..they deserve every bit of the percentage they receive. As far as Kickstarter is concerned…yeah, I looked at it….but after the thought of busting my As$ for 60 days and to come up $1 short of my goal, and walk away w/nothing….well, the choice to pick IndieGoGo was a no-brainer….
P.S. Feel free to go to the site now and donate!! See how easy it is!! :)
Elaine
Anonymous

The indiegogo pricing seems better. I like the idea of keeping the cash. Bonus money sounds great.
silkox

Just for fun, I pitched part of my highly worthy event: http://www.indiegogo.com/renewableroundup . I’ve never used Kickstarter, but indiegogo’s site is certainly easy to use.
Anonymous

It might be worth noting that one of the differences between kickstarter and indiegogo is that kickstarter is only available to those with an American bank account (currently), whereas indiegogo is open to anyone with a working Visa or Mastercard.
Anonymous

A lot of you people here seem to like indiegogo. I am not saying one is right over the other, but all I hear is, yeah we get to keep the cash if we dont reach the goal. Ohh, I dont want to bust my ass and not get any reward!

Your forgetting the utmost concern should be for the donater. If you dont reach anywhere near your goal, theres a good chance you wont be making the project but you get rewarded for that! Wowww!!! Sorry, wrong attitude!
Colorado Bob

Lisa -
In the past year, I have done 3 of these projects -
The first one celebrates it’s 1st ann. tomorrow .

The Downtown Art Market, we raised $ 1,300.00 to start this :
http://the-downtown-art-market.blogspot.com/

I raised $700.00 to start the construction of this :
http://cbsolaroven.blogspot.com/

And this winter I raised $76,000.00 to do this :
http://tmfishcamp.blogspot.com/
Anonymous

Very Interesting the subtle differences with Kickstarter. We are already on Kickstarter and having success thus far, but good to hear about what other people are doing to further creativity and community projects.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ericevans/aunties-fry-bread-tacos-sharing-native-american-cu?pos=5&ref=spotlight
Anonymous

That’s my project mentioned there (Bigfoot and Gray: on the run). I chose Indiegogo over kickstarter due to the fact that whatever you make you get to keep. As someone said earlier that with KS it’s all or nothing. I couldn’t imagine raising $4900 out of $5000 and then lose it it because I didn’t make my goal. I suggest tacking on 9% to the amount you are trying to raise to cover that cost of the service.
Anonymous

No one could provide this service without some kind of fee since it involves making financial transactions with credit cards and bank accounts and guess what? There are fees associated with those transactions. I think 5% is a fair cost for this kind of service.
daki

This is interesting. I signed up for indiegogo for my short film project Saul’s Groove. I think both are “fair”, but it’s just a matter of preference.

There’s a LOT of work that goes into raising money. I’ve done it online, and offline-it’s no joke. I will be making my film either way, BUT I would actually be able to BREATHE if I got some help. It’s not like your asking one person for $5,000…you’re asking AS MANY people as possible to donate whatever the can.

The drawback to Kickstarter for me is not being able to keep what you do raise if you don’t meet your goal. MOST of us are not fundraisers, we’re artists or maybe even activists. Besides sitting on the net for hours each day garnering support, we actually have to pull of our projects.

I’ve already written my script, had it critiqued, made edits, done a promo pitch vid (paid for that editing), started on a web site, written a press release, paid an advance to my DP, and have 90 % of my cast…while securing locations.

So please give us a break! Who wants to do all of this, AND raise money, and not get to keep it?
daki

Oh, by the way, almost forgot: http://www.indiegogo.com/SG (Saul’s Groove), Check it out, and please support:) Thanks!
isabeli.s

I like Indiegogo’s democratic approach to crowd-funding. Completely international, etc.
and 4% is obviously better than 5%. And getting to keep your money is a Glorious thing! Better to make your project on a tighter budget than not have any opportunity at all, if you don’t raise 100%. Plus, i cant believe no one commented about how Indiegogo saves you money with their fiscal sponsorship. Count me in for Indiegogo over kickstarter.
- Anonymous
  
  Just stop you guys (or you one person). Astroturfing is always so obvious to other people. You don’t realize how much you sound like an ad on TV. Also, stop having every one of your characters saying the same thing.
SamSam

Where do I get the impression that there’s some sudden astroturfing here?

@Anon (are you all the same anon?): I think parkerhiggins (#9)’s comment is quite astute: If you only get half the necessary sponsors, then you’ve taken their money, don’t have enough money to complete the project, AND indiegogo has taken nearly 10% of that cash.

Plus it’s kind of ridiculous to keep calling it a “cash reward” from indiegogo, when really they’re just giving you back some of the truly outrageous fees they charge. Also, saying that they need to charge so much because of the financial transactions is BS, even if it weren’t a whopping 9%, since they say “projects are also responsible for 3rd-party payment processing,” i.e. pay for it yourself on top of our 9%.
- Anonymous
  
  No, not astroturfing. As a Canadian, I can’t use kickstarter but I CAN use indiegogo.
Richard

And there’s this site to fund actual out of the box journalism:

http://www.spot.us/
Anonymous

indiegogo only charged 4% versus kickstarter 5% if you reach your goal. Seems pretty clear which is the better deal.
ill lich

“Slava”, what a glorious name.
Agies

Looks a lot like Kickstarter to me.
Antinous / Moderator

The only Slava I ever knew worked for Tass. Sometimes I miss the Cold War.
upso

yeah. sounds exactly like http://www.kickstarter.com
Anonymous

Also similar to: http://www.fundable.com/
Rob Beschizza

If the thread gets to 10 straight comments mentioning Kickstarter, we all win an internet.
- Felton
  
  Sounds like a kickstarter to me!
- David Pescovitz
  
  WAY too late with that, Rob!
  - Rob Beschizza
    
    You broke the chain!
cinemajay

I do love me some Kickstarter in the morning! Esp. when it’s for my favorite local comic artists:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/popgunpulp/johnny-recon-no02-a-daring-hi-fi-adventure-tale
SamSam

I’m confused by their fees. With Kickstarter, it looks like they change a flat 5% rate. With this, they charge 9%, and then, if you hit your goal, they give you back 5%, leaving you with a 4% rate. If you don’t hit your goal, they keep the 9%

Why the weird pricing structure?
- Anonymous
  
  IndieGoGo’s fee is 9%. You set up a deadline for your project (like Kickstarter), and if you reach your goal, you get a cash reward of 5% for every dollar that you raised. Look at it as an incentive and motivation to reach your deadline. If you don’t make your goal on your assigned deadline, you still get to keep the money, but you don’t get the cash reward.
  
  With Kickstarter, you try to raise the funds you need in the duration that you set, and if you don’t make your deadline, you don’t get anything.
  
  Kickstarter or Indiegogo? Sounds like a no-brainer to me.
parkerhiggins

Probably one of the more significant differences between the two services (and I’m only really familiar with Kickstarter here) is that with Kickstarter, it’s all-or-nothing–if you don’t raise your target amount by the deadline, nobody gets charged and you don’t receive any money.

I think that’s a much better policy: after all, both values are self-determined, so you don’t have to worry about hitting some arbitrary number, just the budget you determine. And as tense as it is to have, say, a total of $5000 from 300 people expecting you to pull off a $5000 project, it seems MUCH scarier to me to have $2500 from 150 people who expect you to pull off that same $5000 project.

Also, jeez man, the layouts are practically identical now.
Robert

So aside from the apparently sneaky fee thing, how is this different from Kickstarter? Three more mentions to win an Internet.
das memsen

does anyone know of a similar site without the fees? You know, someone setting this up for the good of culture and artkind rather than to make a nice little side-profit? Just wondering…