Who Can Start a Kickstarter Campaign

Kickstarter is a great platform for anyone to get creative projects off the ground. Starting a campaign can help entrepreneurs turn their ideas into reality with the help of their supporters.

There are few eligibility requirements that creators must meet in order to create a Kickstarter campaign. In this overview, we will discuss who can start a Kickstarter campaign and what is required to do so.

    1. Who can start a Kickstarter campaign?
    2. What is required to do so?

Who Can Start Kickstarter Campaign?

Anyone can create a Kickstarter campaign and it can be used by individuals, organizations or teams. While there is no official requirement of who or what types of campaigns are approved by the company, they do have some guidelines that must be followed when creating a campaign:

    • Must be 18 years or older
    • Set reasonable goals
    • Provide tangible rewards for backers
    • Meet all legal requirements and comply with all applicable laws where your project is located

Any individual 18 years and older can start a campaign on Kickstarter so long as it meets Kickstarter guidelines including not involving prohibited items stipulated by its rules. A successful campaign requires thoughtful strategizing rather than merely relying on crowdfunding platforms, but luckily this is made possible through separate services specifically designed for helping others delicately craft their pitch — something strongly recommended for any new campaigner entering the market.

    • Building an audience of loyal supporters
    • Receiving funds from backers before the cost of production
    • Strategizing rather than relying on crowdfunding platforms

Eligibility Requirements

If you’re looking to launch a Kickstarter campaign, you’ve come to the right place. But before you can do that, you must meet the eligibility requirements. Kickstarter requires that you:

    • Are at least 18 years old
    • Are a permanent resident of one of Kickstarter’s eligible countries
    • Have a major credit or debit card
    • Have a valid U.S. social security number (or an EIN) if you are a U.S. resident
    • This article will explain the requirements in more detail.

Age Requirements

In order to use Kickstarter and create a campaign, you must be at least 18 years old. All Kickstarter accounts are required to create an account with a legal name that matches the official government identification used when registering the account.

If you are between 13 and 17, you can set up an account if you have the consent of your parent or guardian. However, in this case, your parents will need to register the account in their name and approve any projects or messages on your behalf.

If you are younger than 13 years old, you cannot use Kickstarter but parental guardians can do it for their children as long as they follow all of the rules as outlined in the Terms of Use page.

Country Requirements

In order to create a Kickstarter campaign, you must meet a certain set of eligibility requirements. Among these are country requirements, which involve ensuring that your campaign is able to accept payments and pledges from all over the world.

The countries in which Kickstarter can go live are as follows:

    • Australia
    • Austria
    • Belgium
    • Canada
    • Denmark
    • Finland
    • France
    • Germany
    • Hong Kong SAR of China
    • Ireland
    • Italy
    • Japan
    • Luxembourg Niederlande (Netherlands)
    • New Zealand
    • Norway
    • Portugal
    • Singapore
    • Spain
    • Sweden
    • Switzerland
    • United Kingdom
    • United States

If you wish to start a Kickstarter campaign but do not reside in one of the above-listed countries or have checking accounts based in those countries you can connect with Stripe Atlas. This allows payment processing and the ability to establish new businesses located outside the US in supported countries.

Additionally campaign support will be provided in English or Spanish only if located outside of the US so please keep this in mind when deciding on your approach for launching and managing your campaign.

Other Requirements

In order to be eligible to start a Kickstarter campaign, you must meet a few qualifications. You must be at least 18 years old, have a permanent residence within one of the countries that Kickstarter serves (currently this includes the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Luxembourg, Denmark, and Norway), and have a valid debit or credit card.

Whoever is starting the campaign must be an individual or a legal entity (a company). In certain countries (e.g., Canada), if you are a legal entity with more than one founder than all founders must be individuals associated with your organization (trustee or principal) and approve the campaign before launch.

You cannot use Kickstarter as a charity platform, but instead advocate for support of your project. To create trust and transparency on project details, you are responsible for providing updates on project progress and promptly responding to any backer/customer questions or complaints in good faith.

    • Be at least 18 years old
    • Have a permanent residence in one of the countries that Kickstarter serves
    • Have a valid debit or credit card
    • Be an individual or a legal entity (a company)
    • Provide updates on project progress
    • Promptly respond to any backer/customer questions or complaints in good faith
    • Not include alcoholic beverages or items meant for persons aged 18 or under unless an applicable exchange/refund policy is included with the pledge agreement

What is not allowed on Kickstarter?

While Kickstarter welcomes projects from creators all around the world, there are some activities and items that are not permitted in campaigns. Some prohibited items include any item claiming to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent an illness or condition (whether via a device, app, book, nutritional supplement, or other means). Contests, coupons, gambling, and raffles. Energy food and drinks. Offensive material (e.g., hate speech, encouraging violence against others, etc).

In terms of backer rewards, projects should not offer incentives related to deceptive activity or otherwise violate any applicable laws. Rewards cannot offer buyers the opportunity to purchase equity or debt in a company; accounts will be permanently blocked if they attempt to do so. Reward tiers must now also specify exactly what is being delivered in that tier and at what stage it will be delivered.

Creators with sensitive topics or activities should consult Kickstarter’s Community Rules page to ensure that their projects fall within the guidelines set out by Kickstarter. It is important to remember that backers rely on creators’ accurately representing the details of a completed project when pledging money – if you overpromise during your campaign you may face an insurmountable burden of expectations upon completion. While Kickstarter encourages creative approaches to problem-solving within your project’s scope, it’s important to keep promises realistic within constraints such as budget and timeline.

Setting Up a Campaign

Anyone can create a Kickstarter campaign to help fund a creative project. Whether you are an artist, an inventor, or a philanthropist looking for a way to jumpstart your cause, setting up a successful campaign is essential for achieving your funding goals.

But how do you set up a successful Kickstarter campaign? Let’s go over the steps you need to take to create one.

    • Develop a creative project idea.
    • Create a detailed plan and budget.
    • Set a realistic goal.
    • Develop compelling visuals for your campaign.
    • Create an engaging video.
    • Write great copy for your page.
    • Connect with influencers.
    • Start spreading the word.

Creating a Project

If you have an idea you’d like to turn into reality, it’s time to start a project on Kickstarter. To get started, all you need is an idea, and a plan for bringing it to life.

Creating a project is easy. All it takes is this four-step process:

Sign up: Create an account so that your backers can see who’s behind the project. You will also need to connect the platform with your already existing bank account or credit card as payments for your project will be automatically sent to you.

Draft your content: Craft a story about your idea and how it will be brought to life—whats the creative vision? what makes it unique? Be sure to include visuals like videos, images or text that help you explain your story and bring out emotion in potential backers of the crowd-funding campaign!

Set up the financial details: This includes setting up the goal amount of money needed to fund (funders are called ‘backers’), create rewards for backers based on certain donation levels, and decide how long the campaign should run (usually 30-45 days). Also decide what percentage fee (about 10%) goes towards Kickstarter itself which must be accounted when setting goals!

Launch: Get ready to share campaign everywhere including social media outlets—time effectively promotes campaigns by leveraging organic methods as well as targeted advertisements from platforms like Facebook and Google Ads! Once these steps are done, click ‘Publish’ and make sure everything looks good—you launched your very own crowdfunding campaign!

Setting a Funding Goal

In order to launch a successful Kickstarter campaign, it’s essential to set a realistic and achievable funding goal. The funding goal should accurately reflect the amount of money needed in order to complete the project, cover related costs, and adequately support your team. Keep in mind that any amount of funds raised beyond the goal can be used to improve the project further with additional features or materials.

When deciding on an appropriate funding goal for your project, consider the following:

    • How much money you will need to cover costs related to production
    • Marketing/promotion costs
    • Shipping rewards to backers
    • Taxes
    • Additionally, evaluate different cost-saving strategies such as:
    • Partnering with other companies
    • Seeking out grants/sponsorships

Once you have taken into account all of these different factors and estimated your total costs accordingly, then you can move forward with setting up your crowdfunding campaign.

Choosing Rewards

Before creating your campaign, you need to have a good idea of the kinds of rewards you will offer. After setting your goal and deadline, the next step is to figure out what rewards your backers will receive. Rewards are an important part of any successful crowdfunding campaign, so it pays to be thoughtful and creative when coming up with incentives for backers.

When creating rewards, ask yourself these questions: What are unique rewards I can offer based on what I’m doing? How many different levels of reward should I offer? What can I give away that is both valuable to my backers and makes sense for me to produce/distribute?

Think beyond physical goods — services are effective rewards, too. Consider how big or small a pledge must be in order for the reward to make sense for both parties — having too wide a range and too many options can create confusion for potential backers.

Your most common reward tiers should be in the $50-$250 range, with some higher-priced tiers offering more exclusive items (think VIP treatments). Be reasonable and reasonable but generous when determining how much people will pay for each item. Don’t forget to set aside additional funds from your target budget that you’ll need to manufacture, ship, or package any physical items you plan on giving away as rewards.

    1. What are unique rewards I can offer based on what I’m doing?
    2. How many different levels of reward should I offer?
    3. What can I give away that is both valuable to my backers and makes sense for me to produce/distribute?
    4. $50-$250 range

Promoting Your Campaign

Once you have launched your Kickstarter campaign, you will need to start promoting it to the right people. You can use a range of different methods to reach potential backers, such as email marketing, social media campaigns, and even traditional advertising. This section will discuss the different ways you can get the word out about your project and how to make sure you target the right people.

    • Email marketing
    • Social media campaigns
    • Traditional advertising

Leveraging Social Media

Leveraging social media to promote your campaign is a great way to reach potential backers and create a buzz around your project. Social media can be used to target specific audiences and advertise across platforms.

Here are some tips for using social media most effectively when promoting your campaign:

Create engaging content: Create interesting, shareable content that will draw backers in such as teaser post, behind the scenes shots, or even funny memes relevant to the project.

Focus on strategic networks: Research what social networks are most popular among your target audience. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have been used successfully by many Kickstarter creators.

Utilize influencers: Enlisting the help of influential people in your field can increase visibility for your project greatly. Utilize their existing followers by teaming up with them and helping spread the word about it.

Monitor user engagement: Keeping track of how well certain posts or types of content perform will aid you in tailoring future posts accordingly and targeting the right audience better. Monitor how well certain hashtags do or use analytics tools like Hootsuite or Google Analytics that track user demographics and what content works best with whom.

By leveraging these elements strategically, you can ensure that you create a successful advertising campaign for your Kickstarter project that reaches as many potential backers as possible!

Utilizing Influencers

In order to promote a Kickstarter campaign, it is important to think of creative ways to raise awareness. Utilizing influencers can be an effective means for building excitement for a project or initiative. These influencers may be key opinion leaders in the relevant industry, or individuals with a large and engaged social media following.

By partnering with these influencers and having them help spread the word about a campaign, you can tap into their existing audience and reach new potential backers. Furthermore, working with the right individuals can also lend credibility to a project and give it more legitimacy in the eyes of potential donors.

Finally, influencers are often experts in their field who can provide valuable resources regarding promotion tactics or additional opportunities where campaigns can be showcased. Leveraging these perspectives is beneficial not only in increasing backers but also in getting great exposure for your cause outside of traditional avenues like search engine optimization (SEO) and direct outreach tactics (i.e., email marketing).

When considering potential influencers to work with on promoting your campaign, it is important to evaluate whether their experience is relevant to your niche and if they have an engaged audience whose interests are aligned with yours.

Additionally, ensure that content guidelines are clear and agreed upon by both parties so that there are no misunderstandings throughout the collaboration process. Ultimately, finding the right individuals who share common interests and objectives as your own will enable you maximize exposure and ultimately improve the chances of hitting your crowdfunding goals.

    • Evaluate whether the influencer’s experience is relevant to your niche
    • Look for individuals with an engaged audience whose interests are aligned with yours
    • Ensure content guidelines are clear and agreed upon by both parties
    • Find individuals who share common interests and objectives to maximize exposure

Email Outreach

Email outreach is a great way to get the word out about your new campaign. You’ll want to identify influencers, bloggers and vloggers who can help spread the word about your project, as well as individuals and companies who are related to your sector.

When reaching out via email, be sure to personalize each message and explain why you think the recipient would be interested in your campaign. Outline how it could benefit them; for example, if you’re asking someone to help promote it, explain how they personally would benefit from their involvement. Let them know exactly what support you need (e.g., a blog post or newsletter feature).

Also consider targeting media outlets with compelling press releases or interesting stories they can write up on the topic. If that’s not an option for you yet, then set up an email list and send regular updates throughout your campaign so that supporters can stay in touch with your progress.

    • Personalize email messages
    • Outline how recipients could benefit from involvement
    • Target media outlets with press releases or interesting stories
    • Set up an email list for regular updates
    • Attend events and conferences related to your sector

And don’t forget about good old-fashioned face-to-face networking! Reach out to people in person by attending events and conferences related to your sector — this could provide invaluable exposure for your project.

After the Campaign

A Kickstarter campaign can be great for those who are looking to raise funds for projects or businesses. Once a campaign is finished and the funds are raised, there are several steps that need to be taken in order to ensure the rewards are sent out and the funds are handled correctly. In this section, we’ll go over some of the most important things to keep in mind after a Kickstarter campaign.

    1. Ensure you send out relevant rewards
    2. Set up a payment system to collect payments from backers
    3. Follow up with backers if needed
    4. Organize and manage the data from the campaign
    5. Promote and market the campaign to reach a wider audience
    6. Keep track of changes in the project

Fulfilling Rewards

Fulfilling rewards is arguably the most important aspect of your project. You might want to create a plan for how you will manage fulfilment and seek advice from an expert.

Here are a few tips to get you started:

Begin looping in early supporters as soon as possible. Request feedback from your fans on the design or perhaps invite them to join your production process.

Engage a delivery partner in advance (if applicable), so that products can be shipped out quickly upon completion.

Keep backers informed of progress via monthly updates, being especially mindful of those patiently waiting for delivery of reward items.

Understand turnover times and order quantities for production so that no backers miss out on their rewards due to delays caused by the manufacturing process.

Prioritize support requests that require more time and attention such as those filed by collectors or previous Kickstarter backers seeking special offers or exclusive products.

Use survey software if available, which can help to streamline the tracking process while making it easier for you to view responses in one place.

You are expected to fulfill all rewards promised during the campaign, including limited edition items and collector’s items.

Analyzing Results

Once your campaign has run, it’s important to review your results and identify any areas that could be improved upon. Analyzing the outcomes of your campaign can help you gain insights into what works and what doesn’t, allowing you to experiment with different tactics or strategies in the future.

Your analysis should include an examination of key metrics, such as impressions and click-throughs. These numbers provide a good indication of how successfully your message was delivered. You should also look at data related to segmentation and performance by device to get a more granular understanding of how people responded to your message.

In addition to analyzing analytics, it’s important to collect feedback from customers directly about their experiences with the campaign. This can be done through surveys sent out after the promotion or interviews conducted with customer service representatives who interacted with customers during or shortly after the campaign. These conversations can provide valuable insights into any issues that may have been encountered or adjustments that were made on-the-fly due to feedback from customers.

Finally, identify any lingering questions or areas for improvement before creating a plan for future campaigns and initiatives. By taking the time to analyze performance during and after each engagement, you will be in a stronger position for future campaigns as well as when it comes time for budgeting decisions down the road.

Leveraging Learnings

Now that you’ve completed your Kickstarter campaign, it’s time to analyze the data, adjust to the feedback and determine how you can make your next campaign more successful.

By leveraging learnings from your campaign, you can create a better product and/or experience for potential backers and maximize the success of subsequent campaigns.

One of the most important lessons you can learn from a successful or unsuccessful Kickstarter campaign is understanding why people backed your project. Ask yourself questions such as:

    • What features were key selling points for backers?
    • What rewards resonated best with them?
    • What resonated least?
    • What incentivized them to share the project with their friends?

By identifying these factors, you’re better equipped to revise product features or rewards packages as needed before beginning subsequent campaigns. Additionally, use analytics tools during and after your campaign in order to measure its overall reach — understanding how many people saw your project across various marketing channels helps inform future endeavors. Utilizing data acquired through surveys is also helpful when creating a demand forecast which can help with production planning.

For example, understanding early on if there is a lower demand than expected will allow you time to adjust production levels accordingly in order to avoid releasing an overstock of products with no buyers in sight. Leveraging learnings allows brands to remain agile throughout each phase of their development process and makes any corrections along the way easier.

Tips for successful campaigns

With careful planning and research, you can ensure that your Kickstarter campaign will be successful. Here are some tips to help you get started:

Have a clear mission statement: Before launching a crowdfunding campaign, it is important to know exactly why you’re doing it and what your goals are.

Gather the right team: Assemble a team that has the skills needed for all stages of setting up, managing and implementing your project.

Research campaigns similar to yours: Looking at how successful campaigns have been handled can give you ideas for more attractive rewards, more effective promotion strategies or what mistakes to avoid.

Set an achievable goal: It’s important that your goal is realistic as there are financial consequences for failing to reach or exceed it.

Develop an attractive reward system: Create incentives (such as discounts or access) that motivate people who support the project by making donations or pledges in return for benefits such as special merchandise or access levels based on their donation level.

Promote your cause online through various channels: Take advantage of social media channels like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as well as other websites such as Reddit or Medium by showing off the project’s concept with videos/infographics/short stories etc., and reaching out influencers who could promote it in their communities. Lastly, create an email list of interested supporters so they can be notified regularly on progress being made with the campaign.

FAQs

Starting a Kickstarter campaign is an exciting and creative experience. In order to ensure that your project reaches its audience and fulfills its goals, there are a few rules and requirements you’ll need to keep in mind.

Here are some frequently asked questions about who can start a Kickstarter campaign:

Who can start a Kickstarter campaign?

Anyone aged 18 or older with an active bank account may create a Kickstarter project. This includes registered nonprofits as well as businesses, organizations, and people looking to raise funds for their projects.

What types of projects can be funded on Kickstarter?

Creative projects such as artwork, comics, dance, design, fashion, film and video, food, games, music, photography, technology products or services can be funded on Kickstarter. The complete list is extensive – please see the site for more details about what type of project will be accepted by Kickstarter.

Can I use my bank account for my project?

Yes – you may use any valid bank account from any country to complete the verification process when you set up your project page with Amazon Payments on Kickstarter. However please note that all pledges made from backers must come from an individual person’s bank card or PayPal account they control themselves – no joint accounts allowed. If backers pledge via another method such as check or wire transfer their name must match the name listed on the pledge payment source used during checkout on the campaign page in order for us to release funds to your designated Amazon Payments account linked with your project.

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