How do you run a crowdfunding campaign?

How do you start a crowdfunding campaign?

Start with the cost: a creation fee when the campaign opens, then two fees on every pledge, all set out in what a campaign costs below.

Then set a goal that's the real cost of the thing, not a wish. It's all or nothing, so a goal set high to look impressive is one you can miss by a little and get nothing for. Work back from what arrives, not from what backers pay: each pledge counts toward the goal after its fees, so you need a few more pledges than the round number suggests. Include what people forget: shipping, packaging, the fees and the tax on the money once it's yours. The goal planner does the math for you.

Then the reward. It has to be a specific thing, clearly described, not a gesture. "The finished product, posted in March" works. "Eternal gratitude" doesn't, because it gives a stranger no reason to pick you over any other campaign. Not sure a reward is strong enough? Ask whether someone who has never met you would pay that amount for it on its own. The reward tier planner shows what each tier leaves you.

You can also offer whoever brings a pledge in a share reward of up to 18.5% of it. It comes out of your side, not on top of what the backer pays. The contract enforces that cap when the campaign is created, not a policy page. The same goes for the deadline: it must be in the future and is otherwise yours to set.

The page itself is mostly evidence. A short video of the thing existing beats any amount of copy about the plan, and a photo of a rough prototype beats a render. Backers have learned to tell them apart. Don't launch until the page is finished. The launch spike happens once, and a campaign that goes live half written wastes its best day. The pitch outline builder puts your page in the order backers read it.

What does it cost to run a crowdfunding campaign?

Three fees, plus a share reward if you choose to offer one. You pay only the creation fee directly. The rest come out of each pledge before it reaches your campaign.

The backer's plan sets the percentage on a pledge, not yours. Paid plans aren't on sale today, so plan with the free plan's fee. In practice a $100 pledge adds $97.51 to your total. The pricing page lists every plan, the comparison sets these fees beside other platforms' and the fee calculator works out what a campaign keeps.

How long should a crowdfunding campaign run?

About thirty days for most projects. Campaigns raise most of their money in the first and last weeks, and the flat middle of a long campaign mostly gives you more time to lose momentum.

The shape is predictable: a spike at launch from people who already know you, a long flat stretch, then a second spike near the deadline, when the people who meant to back it finally do. A longer campaign doesn't add a third spike. It stretches the flat part.

A deadline does work that a longer window undoes. "It closes on Sunday" is a reason to act today. "It closes in 10 weeks" is a reason to think about it later, then forget. That's not a trick: it's what turns interest into pledges, and why the final days matter so much.

Nothing in the contract caps the length. The only rule is that the deadline has to be in the future, so 30 days is a judgment about attention, not a limit we set. What the contract does tie to the deadline is the refund. On a campaign that hasn't met its goal, backers can take their pledges back only once that date has passed, so a long campaign also ties up their money longer with nothing to show.

The exception is a campaign with a truly cold audience, where the first spike can be small and the time goes on finding backers, not winning them over. Even then, it's usually better to delay the launch until you have an audience than to run a longer campaign in front of one you don't have.

The claim checks only the goal, not the date, so a campaign that funds early can be claimed early. A short campaign that succeeds gets you to work sooner than a long one that succeeds by the same margin.

Do you need a company to run a crowdfunding campaign?

Not to open one here. You can run a campaign as an individual, and we don't ask for a company registration. Whether you should have one is a different question, and it turns on tax and on who carries the duty to deliver, not on our rules.

We don't verify identity. There's no document check, no company lookup and no register we consult before a campaign goes live. That's why the advice on spotting a scam tells backers to do the checking themselves.

First, tax. Reward crowdfunding is generally treated as income or presale revenue, not as a gift. So it's usually taxable, as the section on tax explains, and may bring VAT obligations depending on where you and your backers are. You can handle that as an individual. At scale, people usually want a company between themselves and the liability.

Second, the duty to deliver. Portuguese law defines reward crowdfunding by the funded party's duty to provide the product or service that was funded (the Portuguese rules, with their sources). That duty is real, and it falls on whoever ran the campaign. If that's you, it's personal. A company doesn't remove the duty, but it changes who carries it.

The creation fee is the same either way. We don't give tax or legal advice, and this page isn't that. If the amount is meaningful, an hour with an accountant in your own country before you launch is the cheapest part of the whole project.

Do you pay tax on crowdfunding money?

Usually yes, for the creator. Reward crowdfunding is normally treated as revenue, not a gift, because backers get something in exchange, which is what tax authorities look at. We withhold no tax and file nothing for you: everything raised after our fees reaches you, and the law generally makes the tax your job anyway.

Unlike a donation, a pledge here buys a specific thing at a specific price, which in most places makes it a sale before delivery. That tends to bring income tax and, above the relevant thresholds, VAT. Portuguese law draws the same line between donation and reward crowdfunding.

The timing can catch first time creators out. The money arrives when the campaign funds, but the cost of delivering comes over the following months, so you can be taxed on revenue in one period against expenses in the next. It's a normal accounting problem with normal fixes, but know it before you spend the balance.

What arrives is also less than the headline, which matters when you work out what to set aside. The fees in the table above come off each pledge before it reaches the campaign, so you get the recorded total, not what backers paid. Whether the fees are deductible against that revenue is a question for your accountant.

For backers the question rarely comes up, because buying a product isn't a taxable event for the buyer. A backer who takes their pledge back from a campaign that missed its goal gets what was held for them, with nothing to declare. This is general information, not tax advice. The details depend on your country, your status and the amount, so ask an accountant.

What happens after your campaign reaches its goal?

You can claim. The claim checks one thing, that the amount raised is at least the goal, so it works the day you reach it, and you can take any amount up to what the escrow holds. The campaign keeps running and collecting until its deadline, and you can claim later pledges the same way.

From then on, backers can't take their pledges back: the refund path accepts calls only from a campaign whose deadline passed with the goal unmet. So the money you claim is yours to spend on the project. Its fees were settled as each pledge was made, and the program takes no fee on the claim itself.

What you owe backers is the reward. Under Portuguese law, the funded party in reward crowdfunding must provide what was funded, and backers are entitled to hear how it's going. Specific updates, about problems as well as progress, are what separate a late project from one that looks abandoned. What backers can do if a creator never delivers is worth reading from your side of the table.

All three answers are listed with every question they cover. New to reward crowdfunding, from stablecoins to escrow? The free guide starts at the beginning.