- Hi, this is Emma from The Journey
and probably like you're doing I'm at home,
working in my San Diego office here in California.
- I'm Darlene. I'm from GoDaddy's How To,
and I'm also working from home in sunny Chandler, Arizona.
- Love that backdrop.
(laughs)
- Thank you.
- So, what if you need financial support?
And maybe more support than your personal community
can offer or the government can provide.
Well, good news.
Crowdfunding is worth considering as a strategy.
But you might be asking yourself,
what is Crowdfunding?
- Well, Crowdfunding is an online platform
that lets you share a concept to a large audience
and they can donate money towards a cause
or invest in your business idea.
It's basically a way for people
all over the world to hear your story,
and possibly give you money.
And the bigger the audience,
the less each individual needs to chip in.
- All right so, platforms allow you to create a page
with all the information about your story,
you know, why are you doing this?
Make a case.
And I definitely, I recommend a video.
I think videos are really compelling.
So, if you can do that and just explain your situation.
I know sometimes that can be pretty vulnerable
and difficult to do.
Asking for a money is an uncomfortable situation.
But share your case, and why people
should actually donate to you.
And sometimes people make Crowdfunding pages
on behalf of someone else.
- And look, we know these platforms aren't free.
They're businesses too.
But depending on which platform you choose,
you'll see a small percentage of the money
that you raise go to the company.
I've seen anywhere from two and a half percent
to 15 percent of your donated funds
taken out as a fee.
So, do your research and read the terms of service
carefully before you choose a platform
and build out your page.
- Yeah, great advice.
And here are actually a few of the most popular examples.
First up, Kickstarter. Ever heard of it?
This is one of the big ones,
and it's geared toward creative projects.
So, think in mind, what are you doing?
Are you inventing something?
And so if you have new business
that you want to get off the ground, Kickstarter,
that's I think the inception of the name, I love it,
Kickstarter is the way to go.
And, you don't get to keep your money,
unless, unless, you reach your goal
through financial pledges.
Next up is Indiegogo.
This Crowdfunding platform is similar to Kickstarter
where you can pitch an idea in technology or creative arts.
But you can also ask for funding
for a local business, or a non-profit.
So this is great for brick and mortar shops
that might be effected by the COVID-19 closures.
You can reach out to your community
and ask for help from your customers
who wanna support your business,
even if they have to stay in their homes right now.
Indiegogo also offers flexible funding,
which means you get to keep the funds you raised,
even if you didn't reach your goal.
So, our next Crowdfunding platform is Patreon.
And this one's a little different
because it helps you support a person
on a monthly subscription model,
which is really unique, I think.
But, if you're a blogger, a podcaster,
or maybe you even have a band, which is rad.
If you do, then what you wanna do
is give your fans opportunity
to sponsor you on a monthly basis.
So, you can start this Patreon account,
and drive people there to support you.
And this could be your central hub, right?
So then what you would wanna do
is drive all of your social media feeds
to supporting your Patreon account.
And, people can donate as little as one dollar.
Like, one dollar a month. That's it.
So this can be a rather small request, right?
And a lot of entrepreneurs and people who work
on their own personal projects, they flock
to this platform, I think exactly for that reason, right?
But, the key is you.
You have to be making something of value or popularity.
It's perfect for YouTube creators,
or musicians or artists, as the people who support you
will be like your fans of your work, right?
They love, they love your podcast.
They love your music, your tunes.
So, this isn't really the platform
for local businesses, or just asking
for help with your bills.
- But what is perfect to ask for help with the bills
among other things is GoFundMe.
This is a great platform, for just, asking for help.
GoFundMe is great for personal emergencies,
or for short-term sponsorship of a project or goal.
Right now GoFundMe doesn't charge a fee for the platform,
but there are fees associated with transactions.
For example, when someone donates $100
through GoFundMe, the payment processing fee
would come to $3.20.
It's 2.9% of the total, plus 30 cents per transaction.
Again, the fees are different for every platform,
so please read the terms of service.
- It's really important that you choose one platform,
one platform to run your campaign.
And it will focus social sharing
into one space to collect donations,
and truly set you up for greater success.
And one tool that you can also leverage
is your business website or your personal website.
And if this is a place where you do have fans,
or you already have traffic,
people seeing your homepage, great,
you can skip a lot of the fees
by simply fundraising directly from your website.
- There are a couple of word press plugins
that we can call out that a lot of people use
when asking for donations.
The first one is GiveWP.
And unlike other Crowdfunding platforms here,
GiveWP doesn't take any of the fees
based on what you raise.
But, since this plugin uses Stripe and PayPal,
there may be some processing fees.
The other plugin in Charitable,
which is similar to GiveWP, but has a lot more features.
More options for payment gateways,
reoccurring donation setup,
newsletters and marketing to name a few.
- And speaking of marketing,
if you are using GoDaddy's Websites
Plus Marketing solutions, we have another video.
It will show you step by step, this is awesome,
instructions on how to add a PayPal button,
or a GoFundMe link to your personal website.
Well, thanks Darlene.
It was so awesome to see you.
- Thanks Emma, it was good to see you too.
- And listen, we realize it's a difficult time
for everyone right now, and we wanna give
our support to our community and businesses out there.
And if you do have questions,
you can always call our GoDaddy support.
Stay healthy, stay safe.