Indiegogo

• 0% Platform Fee for Charitable Causes
• Funding Options to Meet Specific Needs
• No Maximum Fundraising Limit
• Personalized Campaign Insights and Data
• Indiegogo Enterprise Program
• Expansive Experts Directory
• Extend Your Campaign with InDemand
• Backer Protection

0% Platform Fee for Charitable Causes

If you are seeking to raise funds for a charitable campaign, Indiegogo will direct you to GoFundMe and you will not be charged a platform fee.

However, if you crowdfunding for an entrepreneurial project or idea, you will be charged a 5 percent platform fee on the funds that you raise and to cover third party payment processing.

Funding Options to Meet Specific Needs

Indiegogo offers what they call Flexible funding, where you can choose either "Keep what you Raised" or "All or Nothing" funding types. Flexible Funding means you keep all the money you raise, regardless of your goal.

Or you can choose Fixed Funding, which means you have a specific funding goal that must be met, which can be a good choice for technology and products that require set funding to enter production.

No Maximum Fundraising Limit

There is no maximum amount of funds that you can raise, but Indiegogo recommends breaking very large funding goals into several series of campaigns. This may or may not be best for your situation, so having the option to do as you choose is a good crowdfunding feature.

Personalized Campaign Insights and Data

For everyday fundraisers needing help along the way, Indiegogo will answer questions and give you pointers on your campaign via email. The company prides itself on being able to contact customers in search of information within 24 hours.

This is an incredibly fast turnaround time for a customer service department in a number of industries, especially crowdfunding. Indiegogo also has online articles covering tips on how to run and contribute to a campaign.

One thing that sets Indiegogo apart from other crowdfunding companies is the data driven insight it provides for users. Especially since crowdfunding is a relatively new idea, it is extremely helpful for campaigners to have access to important tips — such as which days work best to launch a campaign and what the ideal campaign length is — so they can feel empowered and make the best decisions possible.

Indiegogo Enterprise Program

To assist entrepreneurs who need assistance bringing their products to market, Indiegogo offers its Enterprise Program.

Through this program, Indiegogo will do the following:

• Help you run a crowdfunding campaign to test and market a new product to early investors.
• An Innovation Challenge to source ideas and activate Indiegogo's community of entrepreneurs, makers, and innovators.
• A curated, branded sponsorship program to support your campaign.
• Real-time customer feedback before investing in manufacturing
• Help entrepreneurs understand their customers by turning research from a cost into an opportunity for pre-sales and customer acquisition
• Assist you with building awareness around your brand by helping you to effectively connect with and engage customers and their networks.

Another helpful and convenient feature offered is the automatic emailing of tax-deductible receipts for donations made to a U.S. 501 (c)(3) nonprofit. Separate receipts may also be issued from the beneficiary nonprofit, depending on the organization.

Expansive Experts Directory

To help grow your campaign and/or business, you can connect with Indiegogo-vetted companies in various industries to receive assistance in launching your campaign and bringing your product or service to the market.

Through Indiegogo's expert directory you can receive expert assistance for various areas of your campaign, including:

• Creative services
• Fulfillment
• Marketing and communications
• Prototyping and production
• Retail, licensing, and distribution

Indiegogo understands that launching a campaign/business may be new territory for many users and will provide service and support at every step.

Extend Your Campaign with InDemand

Even after your Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign concludes you can continue to raise funds and extend your community reach with InDemand.

Indiegogo InDemand seeks to bridge the gap between crowdfunding and commerce by allowing you to continue raising money and building your campaign online. You can even expand your reach to new audiences and receive continual consumer exposure.

Backer Protection

When you choose to back a campaign on Indiegogo, you are also choosing to take a risk. Indiegogo has no way to ensure that a campaign will not experience any hiccups or delays, and some campaigns may not result in success.

That being said, Indiegogo will take a look at how a campaigner communicated throughout the campaign, and may take action to remove the campaigner from the platform, especially if they were not communicative with backers and their campaign failed. This can provide some assurance that the campaigns you see on Indiegogo's website are trustworthy, but you still must decide whether or not you feel a campaign has merit before you contribute.

• Delayed Fund Dispersal
• Campaign Deadlines Required
• Negative Customer Reviews

Delayed Fund Dispersal

Indiegogo disperses funds within 15 days of a campaign's expiration. Some other crowdfunding sites provide funds within 48 hours of campaign expiration.
In addition, you cannot access your campaign funds until the campaign closes. Other crowdfunding sites may allow early withdrawals as needed.

Campaign Deadlines Required

Indiegogo requires a campaign deadline. Campaigns can run for up to 60 days. For larger goals, it is recommended to break fundraising goals into chunks.
The company recommends a campaign length of 30 to 40 days for the following reasons:

• Momentum — Your campaign should be long enough that you have time to build interest and reach your audience, but not so long that it becomes background noise.
• Engagement — The longer the campaign, the harder it is to continue to keep your audience engaged, excited, and contributing.
• Urgency — Seeing that a campaign has just a few days remaining creates a sense of urgency for potential contributors, motivating them to act now, rather than later.
• Resources — Take into account that you'll be closely managing the campaign through its duration; you may not want to dedicate 40 days to it.

Some other crowdfunding sites allow campaigns to be open indefinitely. This allows users to revisit accounts to collect additional, straggling contributions.

While this deadline requirement can be a drawback for some campaigners, many platforms have encouraged this distinction of time to be made because it can actually increase the success of a campaign in a much shorter amount of time. The time limit can influence more funding to occur before a specific date, benefiting the owner of the campaign.

Negative Customer Reviews

The majority of Indiegogo reviews are negative, with the majority of customers awarding the company one star.

Of these reviews, many customers complain that the company is not transparent, and the platform is rife with scams and con-campaigns, suggesting that Indiegogo does not thoroughly vet campaigns.

Most of the reviews were left by Indiegogo campaign backers, not necessarily campaign creators. Thus, it is difficult to know what the process is like to create a campaign page and launch a crowdfunding project.