Kickstarter bills itself as a way to fund ideas, events, and endeavors. It’s a way to fund anything from a school trip to a small business, just by listing your project and asking for money. And if you enjoy supporting creativity or just helping out, it’s a great place to find new projects to donate to. As a project creator, you can do almost anything to get the word out about your project, such as offering rewards for certain pledges. Those who pledge money get project updates so they can track the progress of the project.

On Kickstarter, people pledge money through Amazon, but they don’t have to pay a thing unless all of the money is raised by the target date. While it’s true that raising $2,000 when you need $10,000 won’t help your project, it seems hard to lose out if you raise $9,999. Kickstarter is currently free, though you will need an invite to start your creative or inventive project. In the meantime, it’s fun to browse the projects already listed and see how much money has been raised.

Practical Uses:

• Get sponsorship to buy costumes for your high school play
• Fund a church mission trip
• Raise money for your next short film
• Find a community project to support

Insider Tips:

• You can only start projects if you sign up for the site (currently invite-only)
• Marketing is key to making sure you raise the money you need; if you don’t, you get nothing
• Use the ‘Manage Your Pledge’ button to adjust or cancel the amount pledged to a project
• Use the on screen status bar to get an at a glance view of how project funding is going

What we liked:

• Payments are processed through Amazon, which most people know and trust
• The size of the project you need funded doesn’t matter
• If you pledge money, you can change the amount at any time before the project ends
• Communication is handled through Kickstarter, so your email address is kept private

What we didn’t like:

• It’s not easy to know for sure if project creators will/are using the money as communicated
• You cannot pledges anonymously
• A goal that is “almost there” doesn’t count; if your project is $1 short of the funding total requested, project creators get nothing

Alternatives:

• GoBig Network – gobignetwork.com
• Kiva – kiva.org

Company Info:

• Launched: April 2009
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: Brooklyn, NY
• Founded by: Perry Chen, Yancey Strickler, Charles Adler, Lance Ivy, Andy Baio
• Web site: www.kickstarter.com

Costs:

• Free (in beta)

Rating:

• 3 out of 5 (good)