Gone are the days when you had no choice but to rely on family or traditional investors or banks to get your new business off the ground. And gone are the days of “starving artists” who were almost guaranteed to struggle financially in the pursuit of their creative passions. Crowdfunding has changed all of that.
Crowdfunding sites allow entrepreneurs, nonprofits, creative professionals, and others to raise money to support projects and causes using peer-to-peer fundraising. That means individuals can get help with medical expenses that would have left them bankrupt in the past. Artists can be financially backed by their fans. And even the smallest of investors can help finance innovative new businesses, products, or services.
If you need to raise money for a personal project, new business, creative pursuit, or your nonprofit, consider crowdfunding. Not only can you find the funding you need, but you can do so while building a community that genuinely cares.
Let’s explore some of your crowdfunding options. Below you’ll find a total of 25 crowdfunding sites and the kinds of projects or causes they allow you to raise money for.
Popular Crowdfunding Sites
Here are five examples of the popular crowdfunding sites. They all have different purposes and allow you to fund different kinds of projects or situations, so choose the right option for you.
- GoFundMe – Personal fundraisers for education, medical expenses, emergencies, pets, charity, and more
- KickStarter – Creative fundraising for filmmakers, authors, musicians, designers, and artists
- Indiegogo – Crowdfunding for entrepreneurs
- Patreon – Creative membership-based / recurring crowdfunding
- Kiva – Small-scale crowdfunded loans for entrepreneurs and personal borrowers in over 80 countries
More Crowdfunding Sites
The crowdfunding sites above might be popular examples showing the range of things crowdfunding can support, but they’re far from your only options. Here are even more crowdfunding sites that might work for you, in alphabetical order:
- Causes – For organizing campaigns, fundraisers and petitions around causes you care about
- CauseVox – Crowdfunding for nonprofits
- DonorBox – a powerful fundraising software that is super simple to set up and attracts more recurring donors.
- CircleUp – Small business crowdfunding
- CrowdCube – Crowdfunding for start-ups and early stage businesses
- CrowdFunder – Venture capital crowdfunding
- CrowdRise – Charitable giving (partner of GoFundMe)
- DonorsChoose – Educational crowdfunding for teachers needing school supplies
- EquityEats – Restaurant crowdfunding
- Experiment – Crowdfunding for scientific research
- FirstGiving – Nonprofit and personal fundraising
- Fundable – Business crowdfunding
- Fundly – Individual and nonprofit crowdfunding
- FundRazr – Crowdfunding for personal, business, and nonprofit users
- Piglit – Education crowdfunding
- Pozible – Crowdfunding for creators
- Rally – Individual, educational, and nonprofit fundraising
- Razoo – Nonprofit and personal fundraising
- SeedInvest – Funding for start-ups – venture capital, angel investing, and equity crowdfunding
- Wefunder – Crowdfunding for start-ups
- YouCaring – Free personal crowdfunding (medical expenses, tuition, emergencies, and more)
No matter what kind of project you’re looking to fund, or what cause you hope to raise money to support, there’s bound to be a perfect crowdfunding site for your needs.
One word of caution: crowdfunding sites usually charge you or donors some kind of fee to support themselves. Make sure you compare those fees carefully before initiating any crowdfunding campaign or setting your funding targets.
Do you have a favorite crowdfunding option not mentioned here? Tell us about it, and your experience with crowdfunding, in the comments below.