Creators
How do you monetize your audience with crowdfunding?
Turn followers into backers: pick one thing to make, offer rewards only your audience gets, set a goal they can fill, and let sharers earn a cut.
Short answer
Ask your audience to fund one specific thing you'll make, not to pay you in general. Pick a project they already want, offer rewards only backers get, set a goal your most engaged followers can fill on their own, and give everyone who shares the campaign a cut of what they bring in. If the goal is reached, the money is yours; if not, every backer takes their pledge back.
Key facts
- One campaign, one project: a goal, a deadline and rewards.
- An email is all it takes to start. No company, no approval queue.
- Whoever shares your campaign can earn up to 18.5% of each pledge they bring, which you set.
- All or nothing: miss the goal and backers take their pledge back.
- Each pledge pays 1.5% plus a flat $0.99.
Why fund a project instead of asking for support?
Because people pay for something they can picture. "Support my content" asks for faith; "fund the printed zine of my best 50 photos" gives a reason, a finish line and a thing they get. A deadline also creates the push that an open tip jar never has.
Pick what your comments already ask for: the merch, the long video, the course, the meetup, the album.
How big should the goal be?
As big as your most engaged followers can fill without strangers. A rough way to start: take the people who comment or reply, not your follower count, and assume a small share of them back you.
For example, 300 people who regularly comment, 1 in 10 backing at an average of $25, makes a goal of about $750. Then check it covers making and sending the rewards, plus fees. The goal planner does that sum for you.
What rewards work for an audience?
Rewards that only backers get and that feel close to you:
- Your name on it: backers credited in the video, the book or the release.
- Early access: the thing a week before everyone else.
- Something physical: a signed print, a sticker pack, the first run of the merch.
- Time with you: a group call, a live session, a question answered on stream.
Keep three or four levels, and make the most popular one cheap to deliver. The reward tier planner checks what each level leaves you after costs.
What does it cost?
Opening a campaign costs $5 on the free plan. Each pledge pays 1.5% plus a flat $0.99, and the share reward you set 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.
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).
That protects your name as much as their money: a project that couldn't happen never keeps their pledge.
How do you start?
- Sign up in the app with email or Google.
- Write the project, the goal, the deadline and the rewards.
- Set the share reward and publish.
- Post the link where your audience already is, and pin it.
How to share your campaign, from the free course, covers the first week. Everything you can fund has a guide for each kind of project, and every other question is in the answers.