Crowdfunding for NGO is the process of collecting money as donations, for a cause from individuals and businesses. A person who raises the money from them is known as a fundraiser.
These causes may include anything, from helping the underprivileged to raising funds for one’s education. Traditional fundraising happens offline whereas the modern day nonprofit crowdfunding happens online.
What is Crowdfunding for NGOs?
Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or enterprise by collecting small amounts of money from numerous people, typically via online platforms. In the past two decades the market of crowdfunding has been growing quickly; crowdfunding has become a new way to finance, for example, start-up companies, projects in the visual arts and music, technological innovation, scientific research, and community projects.
Related Blog: Crowdfunding for NGOs Everything You Should Know!
Top 5 Advantages of Using Crowdfunding for Nonprofits NGOs
1. It’s more efficient than traditional fundraising.
When you’re an early-stage company focused on building your business and attracting seed capital, you might not be able to afford all the time and attention that pursuing traditional financing demands. Compared to applying for a loan or seeking out accredited investors yourself, setting up a successful crowdfunding campaign on Fundable or another platform is far more efficient and effective in getting your message out to the right people. With the right platform, you can tell your business’s story, produce a quick video, set up some enticing rewards, and benefit from having everything in one centralized location where potential backers can find you.
2: It’s a place to build traction, social, proof, and validation.
A strong, highly visible crowdfunding campaign can provide validation and social proof that’s vital in charting your path forward. When potential customers show interest in your startup’s product or service, you’ve generated social proof—demonstrating that other people believe in what you’re doing. Once early adopters vet and buy into your idea, others are more likely to follow suit. Social proof is translated into traction—whether it’s a large number of backers, pre-orders, or media attention—that’s invaluable as you pitch to other investors.
3. It’s an opportunity for crowdsourced brainstorming to refine your idea.
Hear your would-be backers poking holes in your business plan or asking some tough questions? Take it in stride and accept it as free, crowdsourced brainstorming. The basis of a startup is finding some important, unmet need that your customers have, and deciding to be the one to do something about it. Thus, it’s important to seize any opportunity for customer feedback and consider it in planning your startup. One of the greatest things about crowdfunding is how close it gets you to your customers, giving you a chance to engage them and field questions, complaints, feedback, and ideas. You never know—your company’s next great idea could come from somebody who isn’t even on your payroll.
4. It gains you early adopters and loyal advocates.
The people that power your idea’s social proof are your early adopters and potential brand advocates. They’re the people who believe in your story, product, or service, enough to stake their money on its longevity and long-term success. These early adopters are key to the success of your crowdfunding campaign and the momentum you keep after closing, being the ones most likely to share your vision with friends and family and promote it through their social networks.
5. It doubles as marketing and media exposure.
Press coverage will create more eyes on your campaign and create lasting brand awareness for your startup. This can come in the form of a feature story on a popular news station, blog, or print publication, and is a great way to bring in backers outside of your personal network. A good feature story or Twitter mention can create a powerful snowball effect, putting you in touch with major investors you might not have otherwise reached. Whether they read about your new product on a popular blog or hear about your innovative campaign from a friend, a successful crowdfund is a great way to capture new investor interest.
Crowdsourcing has grown into an excellent way for entrepreneurs and early-stage companies to validate their business, find capital and early adopters, and get the exposure they need to grow. To recap, some of the most powerful ways a crowdfunding campaign can help build more startup momentum than other financing methods are:
- It’s more efficient than traditional fundraising.
- It generates traction, social proof, and validation.
- It’s an opportunity for crowdsourced brainstorming to refine your idea.
- It gains you early adopters and loyal advocates.
- It doubles as marketing and media exposure.
Which crowdfunding platform is best for nonprofits?
1. Ketto
Founded in 2012, Mumbai-based startup Ketto is one of the most popular crowdfunding platforms in India. The platform has been endorsed by several celebrities and ministers alike. It was co-founded by Zaheer Adenwala, Kunal Kapoor, and Varun Seth. It features three major categories: community/social projects, creative arts, and personal development. The three categories include various campaigns like sports, health, women empowerment, animal welfare, education, movies, music, fashion, charity, and more. NGOs can also use Ketto as an eCommerce platform. Fundraisers get a cash pickup facility, helping even those without a bank account.
Depending upon your campaign, Ketto takes 5-8% of the fund raised along with payment gateway charges. The crowdfunding platform is pretty user-friendly with easy navigation.
How to start the fundraiser on this platform?
Take 2 minutes to set up your campaign
Start sharing after approval with no processing fee
Withdraw your money once you reach a milestone
2. Social For Action
Sakal has stewarded several social initiatives over the past several decades with many of the initiatives going beyond Sakal’s own regional markets, addressing needs across the country. Social impact and social change remains the core of the Sakal’s beliefs even today and with this Sakal is introducing its own Crowdfunding platform – Social For Action. We belief that the role of media today has changed from being an advocate of social causes to being the facilitator or the agent of social change itself.
SFA addresses the many challenges of giving (such as difficulty in discovering the right causes, trust deficit, and overall donor apathy). We share stories of (pre-qualified) individuals and groups with a network of its trusted community and partners, who either specialize in providing and supporting the local communities by promoting products or can connect with the cause to help with a donation.
How it Works?
SFA is the best place to fundraise, whether you are an individual, group, or organization.
1. Start your campaign
- Set your fundraiser goal
- Tell your story
- Add a picture or video
2. Share with friends
- Send emails
- Send text messages
- Share on social media
3. Manage donations
- Accept donations
- Thank donors
- Withdraw funds
With a simple on boarding process and 0% platform fees, your free fundraiser will create impact and touch lives. Start a fundraiser for free today and begin your journey of making a difference and impacting lives.
3. Wishberry
Founded by Anshulika Dubey and Priyanka Agarwal, Wishberry is solely dedicated to creative projects and artists. It voluntarily assists them by assigning a Campaign Coach who is a Wishberry advisor.
The adviser will help you design a campaign, write an effective pitch, make a compelling video, and choose rewards. The coach will also guide you through the effective distribution of rewards. To date, they have helped deliver project creators a remarkable success rate of 70%.
The platform has completed over 325 projects, raising around $1.3m worldwide. Having operated in over 60 countries, Wishberry is now a trusted name among creative startups. There’s also something for the contributors, like tickets to movie premiers, merchandise, name in credit roll, and more. Wishberry charges a one-time fee and 10% of the total commission only when the funding goal is achieved. You can also avail their digital marketing services.
How to start a fundraiser on this platform?
Submit a form on the website with your details
A Wishberry consultant will help you with funding after approval
You get up to 45 days to reach your goal
4. Kickstarter
One of India’s oldest fundraising platforms, Kickstarter is also popular for funding creative projects and startups. The platform has had much success in crowdfunding for innovation, research, music, books, and films, among other creative art forms. Kickstarter supports unique initiatives like a photographic series on Indian deities, edible cutlery photography, and more.
The platform also offers various rewards to the donors, depending upon the project. The Sweet Requiem campaign is one of the most successful campaigns on this platform in India. It raised funds for a film based on Tibetan women’s struggles in Tibet and how they’re living in India. Over 300 people contributed to the project, raising over $33,000.
The Edible Cutlery was another such successful campaign. It raised nearly $3,00,000 from over 9000 donors. The platform supports creativity and merchandising and is a delight for aspiring artists and creative startups.
How to Start a Fundraiser on this Platform?
Check out their criteria on the website to see if you’re eligible
Learn about structuring your project with their Kickstarter resources compendium on the website
Submit your campaign and start marketing it around
5. FuelADream
A fairly recent startup by Ranganathan Thota in 2016, FuelADream is another reward-based crowdfunding platform in India. The platform focuses on supporting charities, social causes, and creative projects by collecting donations. You can choose between All or Nothing or Keep What You Get campaigns.
If you don’t reach the All or Nothing campaign’s target, you won’t get anything, and all the money would be returned to the senders. The company has an in-house content and marketing team that designs campaigns and online pitches and creates compelling reward systems for every campaign. In both kinds of campaigns, the company would charge a total of 9% of the amount raised exclusive of taxes.
FuelADream takes up only 20 projects a month. They choose projects wisely, going for quality over quantity. Battery-powered bikes and a canal to irrigate arid farmlands were some of the platform’s most successful campaigns. It supports campaigns in multiple languages to appeal to local and regional audiences.
How to Start a Fundraiser on this Platform?
Sign up on the website
Add story details
Add rewards
Add team members
List team members
Send campaigns for approval
Read Further: Best 6 Crowdfunding Platform for Nonprofits in 2022
Summary
Great ideas and startups need a boost with funding. And with the increasing number of crowdfunding sites in India and abroad, founders and innovators have a range of options to choose from.
Want to get more information about startups and raising funds?
Visit https://www.socialforaction.com
Social for Action connects campaign owners to funders in a way that is productive and engaging. The uniqueness lies within our various campaign, as a part of Sakal Media Group, we have extensive reach throughout Maharashtra and beyond, the most credible resources which are available to us. We have been previously supported By 2000+ Donors and over 15000+ impact stories.
We want to spur innovation & make access to funds easy through crowdfunding in India; while promoting transparency and accountability. We want to change the traditional methods of how ideas, activities, ventures and organisations are funded by making crowdfunding the go to method of raising funds in India.
For more details visit Crowdfunding for NGO’s In India.
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