The very non-profit theatre where I work needs to replace speakers in the sound system.

I have had good success with Power2Give at National Capital Trolley Museum, but P2G is not available for this campaign.

I would like from people and organizations who have used crowdfunding for your projects. Which if any of the vendors listed (or others) would you recommend?

I am not looking for general commentary on the virtues of crowdfunding in general. I am looking for info on reliability of the vendor, etc.

Thanks!

Wesley

I am not looking for general commentary on the virtues of crowdfunding in general. I am looking for info on reliability of the vendor, etc.

Thanks!

Wesley[/quote]

Wesley-understand that you don't want commentary on crowdfunding virtues, and I'll respect that. But if it helps, I recently participated in crowdfunding via Kickstarter, and had some feedback which you might-or might not-find of interest:

1. Kickstarter can attract funding. However, it's back-end reporting is not great (one .CSV file for each level of backer, rather than one comprehensive file, for example), and if you want to communicate to all of your backers, you can-but you can't do attachments;

2. There is an emotional content to all of this. Specifically, Kickstarters feel entitled (with some justification) to regular updates[i][/i]-which they define-and instant and correct answers to any question they ask.
Example: my experience was in a music endeavor-one of our rewards was providing music download files. We did so with mp3 files-only to be greeted with howls of protest because we didn't provide FLAC/lossless files...and/or that our mp3 files were not 320kbs mp3's. I am just a helper in this endeavor, and personally don't know FLAC from flack.

This is/was my first and last time to participate in such an endeavor.

John,

Thanks for a helpful comment. Exactly what I was looking for...

Wesley

I answered "other" because a website called "MainStreetCrowd" was used to the crowd-fund the Silverton Northern Interpretive Center Phase 1 project.

Here's a thread about the project over on the Narrow Gauge Discussion Forum:
NGDF: Silverton Northern Interpretive Center

Chris,

Thanks. I have not heard of MainStreet funding.

Wesley

It boils down to the technical issues relating to how they support charities, how they run campaigns, how they pay, etc. For instance Kickstarter won't work with 501c3's (or rather won't do that important part that is required for citizens to take the tax deduction). You might find you can't use Indiegogo because they authenticate charities via some third-rate Guidestar competitor who doesn't know about you. Or their policies disagree with how you'd like to run campaigns. I get snagged up on things like that a lot.

There are also "network effects", i.e. what makes eBay or Facebook THE ONE site where everyone goes to do those things - that's where the people are. Any 16 year old with an AWS account can create a crowdfunding site like Indiegogo, the question is, where are the giving sort of people likely to stumble upon you?

That brings in another question. Are potential small donors, after all we're talking about crowdsourcing, affected by the ability to take a deduction of $50-100 for instance. Isn't saying that the organization is a 501(c)(3) good enough & give via Kickstarter in any case.

If someone wants to run with this, let's put this into another thread.

The whole concept of charity vs profit making in taking deductions and how it attracts donors should be explored in depth.