How do you fund a peaceful protest with crowdfunding?

Can you fund any protest on CoFunders?

Only a peaceful one. A march, a rally, a vigil, a sit in or a day of action, where people gather to be seen and heard and leave nothing broken behind them. A campaign that plans, funds or encourages violence, damage to property or hatred against anyone is not welcome here.

Nobody approves a campaign before it goes live, so this rests on the organiser, and on everyone else: anyone can report a campaign from its page. Our Terms of Service forbid using CoFunders for anything unlawful, and we can close the account behind a campaign that does.

What does a peaceful protest cost?

More than one organiser should pay alone. Write every line down before you pick a number.

• Signs, placards and the main banner.
• Flyers and posters to bring people on the day.
• A sound system or megaphones, and the batteries.
• Transport: a coach or train tickets to the city where it happens.
• Water, sun cream or rain ponchos, and first aid kits.
• High visibility vests for the volunteers who guide the crowd.
• Thank you rewards, and posting the ones that travel.

Check what your town hall asks of organisers before you set the date, and add any cost that brings.

How big should the goal be?

The sum of your cost lines, plus the fees and a little for the unexpected. Not a hopeful round number.

For example: signs and the banner $300, flyers and posters $150, sound hire $250, a coach $600, water, first aid and vests $100, and $100 for the rewards. That is $1,500. Add a little for fees and surprises and the goal is about $1,650. Then check it: 110 supporters backing at an average of $15 makes $1,650. The goal planner does that sum for you.

What rewards fit a protest?

Small, shared and about the day, so backers who can't march still take part:

• The protest poster, signed by the organisers.
• The protest shirt or a cloth bag, waiting for you on the day or posted after.
• Your name on the thank you banner.
• A sign made for you, carried in the march.
• Photos from the day, sent to every backer.
• An invitation to the meeting where the organisers plan what comes next.

Keep three or four levels, up to five. The smallest can sit at the minimum pledge, $10, so anyone who cares can join in. The reward tier planner checks what each level costs you.

Who should run the campaign?

One adult from the group that organises the protest. Every user must be 18 or over, and nobody needs an association or a company to start: an email or a Google account is enough.

The campaign and its funds belong to the one person who creates it. So the organisers should agree who that is before anything is published, and the story should name them and say what each cost line pays for. Supporters back a protest whose organisers they can see.

Who should you ask, and how?

The people who already share the cause: the group's members, the people who signed the petition, the neighbours it affects and the groups who stand with you. They fill the first part of the goal, and strangers follow a campaign that is already moving.

• Put the link in every group chat and on the group's social pages.
• Print it as a QR code on the flyers and posters.
• Ask every speaker and every partner group to share it once.
• Show the goal and what is still missing in each update.

How to share your campaign, from the free course, covers the first week.

Backers can pay by card or in USDC. A share reward, from nothing up to 18.5% of each pledge a shared link brings, is optional; for a protest, a low one or none is the usual choice. Some backers care who can see that they backed a cause: can you crowdfund anonymously? says what stays private and what is public onchain.

What does the campaign cost?

Writing and previewing it costs nothing, and opening it costs $5 on the free plan. Each pledge pays 1.5% plus a flat $0.99, and a share reward, if you set one, comes out of the pledge too.

The percentage fee on a pledge follows the plan of the account making it. It's taken when the pledge is made, so it isn't returned if the campaign misses its goal. Paid plans aren't on sale today, so the published fee is the free plan's fee.

The fee calculator shows what each pledge leaves the protest.

What if the goal is missed?

If the goal isn't met by the deadline, you take your pledge back from escrow with one tap, and nobody has to approve it. What comes back is the amount held for you: your pledge minus the fees taken when you backed (the platform fee, the flat fee, any tip and any share reward the campaign pays).

Set the deadline before the printing or the coach has to be paid, so you know in time whether the day goes ahead as planned.

How do you start?

1. Agree in the group who runs the campaign, and that the protest stays peaceful.
2. Check what your town hall asks of organisers, and set the date.
3. Write every cost line and add them up.
4. Sign up in the app with email or Google.
5. Write the story, the goal, a deadline before the first payment and the rewards.
6. Preview it, publish, and send the link to the people who share the cause first.

Raise money for a social cause covers causes in general, everything you can fund has a guide for each kind of project, and every other question is in the answers.