Kickstarter opens for UK projects
Howard Lake | 11 October 2012 | News
Kickstarter, the US crowdfunding platform for creative projects, opens today for UK projects. Project details can be entered from today, but the fundraising won’t begin until 31 October.
In the USA Kickstarter has generated over $350 million from more than 2.5 million people for 30,000 projects since it launched in April 2009.
There will not be a UK-specific Kickstarter site. UK-based projects will be listed together with all other Kickstarter projects. People from around the world can make pledges to UK-based projects. The projects will be listed in sterling: pledgers from other countries will see an approximate conversion rate before they pledge.
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Kickstarter say that “the mechanics of Kickstarter (all-or-nothing funding, rewards, etc.) are identical for US and UK projects”. One difference though is that backers of UK projects will enter their payment information directly on Kickstarter rather than through Amazon Payments, with all pledges being processed “securely through a third-party payments processor”.
Fees for Kickstarter in the UK
The charging process is the same as the USA: Kickstarter charges a 5% fee to successfully funded projects and no fee to those projects that do not reach their target.
For UK projects payment processing fees are:
• Pledges less than £10 are charged 5% + £0.05
• Pledges of £10 or greater are charged 3% + £0.20
What can Kickstarter be used to fund?
Kickstarter does not allow charity, cause, or “fund my life” projects. It does allow creative projects in the worlds of @Art, Comics, Dance, Design, Fashion, Film, Food, Games, Music, Photography, Publishing, Technology, and Theater”.
How to get started
UK users of the site can start building their projects now by clicking on the “Start a new project” button on the Start page and selecting the UK as their country.
www.kickstarter.com
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.