edwiser-bridge domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home/f4c3x1c2/public_html/focus4learningco/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6114bbpress domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home/f4c3x1c2/public_html/focus4learningco/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6114instagram-feed domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home/f4c3x1c2/public_html/focus4learningco/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6114eduma domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home/f4c3x1c2/public_html/focus4learningco/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6114The discussion in this forum section should solely serve the purpose of building a Charity, volunteering website.
The main CMS we are using is WordPress, and the best Charity WordPress Theme for this field is Charity WP.
Feel free to give us your thought.
]]>Build a stable Crowdfunding WordPress Website
The first step is always easiest – Build a website. To do this, you can choose from downloading free themes on the Internet, or downloading pre-built Premium themes, or hiring your people building your site.
The optimal solution is to choose one of the best Charity WordPress Theme to do this. Because you will both:
Everything is already pre-made for you, so all you need to do was just making content and sending your website to your friends.
Run Crowdfunding Campaigns On Your Website
It should come as no surprise that MakeUseOf runs regular crowdfunding articles. The ease with which it is possible to back interesting new projects – the majority of which would never get off the ground a few years ago – is exciting for many, offering the chance to put someone’s dream into action with a small pre-sale contribution that might grab you a credit or a copy of the item being produced (depending on the project of course). Able to contribute more? Then your reward will be greater once the project has completed (remember that not all crowdfunding projects make it to the end).
This is the beauty of crowdfunding, the collaborative finance system made possible by the Web.
Contrary to perceived wisdom. However, you don’t need to spend time setting up a page on Indiegogo, Kickstarter or any of the successful crowdfunding websites, or paying the fees for a successful campaign (for instance, Kickstarter charges 5%).
There are particular types of project that you can set up and attract funding for using just a page on your website, with arguably greater ease than on a well-known crowdfunding site.
Assessing Demand
What is the topic of your blog or website? Do you have a large, regular readership?
There are several ways you can spin off products that your readers might be interested in buying. Books, comics and magazines, movies, even CDs and t-shirts can be custom made and sold through your website. Naturally, some of these will involve a lot more work than others, but those that are easier to produce will make nice benefits when you launch your campaign.
Assessing demand for your crowdfunded project can be difficult. It mostly depends on your readers’ passion and the nature of the product. If for example, you’re a tech website launching a new app or device, with backing required for mass production or promotion, you’ll probably find that with loyal readers you can attract enough interest to start crowdfunding.
Similarly, any site with a burgeoning newsletter subscription list can leverage this following to its crowdfunding benefit.
On the other hand, if your niche is less cerebral and doesn’t add any real value to your reader’s everyday web browsing, raising the funds for your campaign may prove difficult (and the same will be true of launching the campaign on a mainstream crowdfunding site).
Researching Price, Offering Bonuses and Benefits
One of the most important aspects of any crowdfunded campaign is the amount of money you need to raise to make the project a reality.
To get this crucial figure ready, you should spend as much time as possible researching every aspect of the production of your project. Then – and only then – should you consider speaking to your team (assuming you’re not going it alone) about what benefits and bonuses might be available for backers who pledge more than the standard amount.
You might, for instance, have an artist working on your project, one who can isolate some images and use them for t-shirts. A fundamental contribution of $1 for early access to the finished product might then be stepped up to $2 for early access plus a t-shirt.
If you’re short of ideas for coming up with bonus benefits, using brainstorming or mind-mapping websites and techniques should help.
Promoting Your Crowdfunding Campaign
There are several ways in which you can support any crowdfunding campaign, and these methods are just as important when the project is being hosted on your site.
Facebook and Twitter accounts, pages and groups are vital to the success of your campaign, but so are regular updates. For the best results, you should have a dedicated category on your website for the project so that all updates are easy to find.
If your site has a podcast then you should use this to help promote the campaign, while networks that you are already involved with (perhaps online groups, forums, even LinkedIn) are also good ways to spread the word, and even find people to help contribute to the project if there are any openings.
The most important aspect of promotion, however, is that it should be constant. Don’t stop. Make it a daily task to find new people who might contribute.
Case Study: One Website, Three Successful Campaigns
Everything being shared here is based on my experiences managing three print projects on my website.
In 21, I launched a crowdfunded/pre-order campaign to fund the printing of a book, Ultimate Regeneration (now available on Amazon). The initial sale price was much lower than that currently found on Amazon, and the target for funding the printing was achieved within a couple of weeks.
Summer 212 saw me tied up with a second project, a limited edition charity comic book that was funded in the same way, with all profits going to charity.
In late 213, I set up yet another crowdfunding project. Consisting of another limited edition graphic novel as the primary product with a version including additional exclusive content and a t-shirt for those wanting to pay more, this is also a project where the profits will be donated to a prominent charity.
Every tactic and concept described above have been used in the planning, launch, and execution of these projects, which have all met their production costs and proved successful. All you need to do to take payment is set up a payment button — PayPal is an attractive option in these circumstances. If you run a blog, then you might also consider an e-commerce plugin.
The Takeaway: Have A Successful Website? You Don’t Need Kickstarter, Indiegogo, Etc.
As you can see, with a successful website and a loyal, passionate audience you don’t need to rely on established crowdfunding services. The risks of sending your readers off to another site unnecessarily are evident – managing your crowdfunding project from the comfort of a recognised online presence is a great way to keep everything familiar and in-house.
To summarise:
However you plan to proceed, we wish you well and hope that it culminates with the successful completion of your project.
Have you used a crowdfunding service only to be disappointed with the results? Would you consider raising funds for your project from your website rather than a crowdfunding site?
Let us know your thoughts!
]]>So how does a charity get the most out of its website? It needs to let users find out information about the charity, but the main objective of the site is to get people involved with the charity, usually resulting in the user donating money.
In this article, we look at 8 principles that you should follow when creating a charity website.
A quick tagline to sum up what the charity (or charitable event) is about.
Let your users know what you do with their money once they sponsor. They’ll want to know how they’re making a difference to someone’s life.
Help users identify and visualize the people they’ll be helping.
The donate button is most likely the most important asset of a charity website so it should be prominent and obvious. This is the ultimate end goal for users.
If the website is for a specific charitable event, show how much the charity’s raised to date. Current sponsors get to see how useful they’ve been while possible sponsors can see that there are other people already helping and the campaign is active.
If applicable, share your goal. Having a target gives people something to aim for.
Sponsors will want you to keep in touch as they now have a vested interested, so make sure they can. Let people sign up and send them an occasional newsletter about what the charity is up to. This will also be helpful when it comes to looking for future donations.
Donating money is the obvious way people can help, but make it clear they can help in other ways. Suggest fundraising ideas and advise how users can help promote the website and charity via other social networking sites.
Just fulfilling all the above functions isn’t enough. How beautiful your website is should also be considered as a pre-requisite. Charity WP is a Charity WordPress Theme that can do this part for you. It has all the great plugins and all the great design a Non-profit website should have.
]]>Before becoming a blogger, I was a part of a web development company that created two crowdfunding platforms for clients. I know what it’s like on the coding side and have a good amount of experience helping creators.
From my research, I’ve complied a list of websites, tools, and open source frameworks below that can help you create a crowdfunding platform. The coding ability required to implement these solutions may vary.
– Launcht: Launcht is one of the best known white-label crowdfunding platforms out there. They are based in Boston, MA and help customers create crowdfunding platforms for nonprofits, universities, startups, and more. Pricing information: Setup – $495-$5,995. Ongoing – $295/mo & 1% of all funds raised – $495/mo & 1% of all funds raised.
– Invested.In: “Fully customizable. Trusted and used by some of the largest brands and names on the planet. It’s super-simple. We’ll help you set up.” Prices range from $345.9-$995.9 per month. There is also an enterprise tier where Invest.In will help with coding/design work.
– CrowdValley: “Configure and launch your own crowdfunding, peer-to-peer marketplace, or online investment portal. Plug in services and APIs for investor accreditation, escrow accounts, due diligence, regulatory compliance, and financial back office.” Prices range from $99-$1,499 per month.
– CrowdfundHQ: “The fastest, easiest way to create a successful crowdfunding site. No coding required. Best pricing in the industry.” Prices range from $6-$2 per month.
– Towema: “The easiest way to launch a personalized crowdfunding platform.” Prices range from $5-$1,5 per month.
– CrowdForce: “DealRoom: crowdfinancing connects investors and issuers.
CrowdForce: rewards crowdfunding for business or nonprofits.” Pricing information: pending.
– Catarse: Catarse is an open source crowdfunding platform that was created in Brazil. Judging from the last time I used the code base, it will require a good amount of manipulation and bug fixing if you’d like to use it to create a crowdfunding site. It’s easiest to set up with PayPal. Once you do get it working to your needs, it’s awesome and performs the job well. You can see it in action here.
– Spot.us (Crowdfunded Reporting): Spot.us is a community funded reporting platform. There is also an open-source version on github. It uses the Ruby on Rails framework.
For more, see seeing factory’s blog, where there is a good list of open source crowdfunding platforms.
I couldn’t find any Drupal themes/extensions to help with creating a crowdfunding platform, and only one resource for Joomla developers looking to create a platform. If you know of any, then please leave a comment below.
– Self-starter.us: “Selfstarter is an open source starting point for building your own ad-hoc crowdfunding site. It was put together by Lockitron after they were turned down from Kickstarter.”
– CrowdtiltOpen: “Launch your own crowdfunding platform without touching a line of code.” CrowdtiltOpen was launched by Crowdtilt.
For more, see the “continue fundraising” section of 22 websites to help post-kickstarter with reward fulfillment and product sales.
Be sure to publish a free press release through CrowdfundingPR.org and leave a comment below if you have any questions about the links I’ve included in this article. If you found this article to be helpful, leave a comment below and let me know!
In addition, I highly recommend checking out our other article on how to get projects for your crowdfunding platform.
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