A New Vision for Kickstarter

Kickstarter has always had a very clear mission — to bring creative projects to life. With over $8 billion pledged, we're proud to say we've been true to that mission. 

Thanks to our community of Creators and Backers, we’ve reached some incredible milestones. But we want to do more. We want to show up bigger and better for our community to help bring even more creative ideas to life.

To do this, we’ve zeroed in on one undeniable truth: It takes more than money to bring an idea to life. Creators need solid marketing to reach and grow your audience, a good grasp of fulfillment logistics, constant communication with your Backers, and dependable connections with distributors and manufacturers, among other things.

This truth – the reality of what it takes to bring a new idea into the world – is at the center of Kickstarter’s new strategic vision

The Kickstarter we're building today is more than just a crowdfunding platform; we're evolving into a comprehensive funding and launch platform that supports independent Creators and innovators at every stage of their journey.

To help Creators bring their ideas to life we need to meet their needs across their creative journey. We’re expanding our core crowdfunding service to include a suite of innovative tools and services that support Creators pre-campaign, mid-campaign and post-campaign. 

To support this new vision for the next era of Kickstarter, here are the new and soon-to-come features that we’re putting at your fingertips.

LATE PLEDGES: NOW AVAILABLE TO ALL CREATORS

The end of a campaign shouldn't mean the end of support. 

In April, a select group of Creators started testing Late Pledges, a new feature that allows Creators who successfully hit their funding goal to continue collecting pledges after their campaign officially ends. 

In the past, Creators have turned to third-party services to collect funds post-campaign but our Late Pledges feature is integrated directly into Kickstarter, erasing the need for third-party players and embedding a streamlined process right where your community is already supporting you. 

The early results have been really promising: Within two weeks, one Creator raised an additional 35% of their original goal with Late Pledges.

Today, Late Pledges is now available to all Kickstarter Creators globally. Now, every Creator that successfully meets their funding goal has the opportunity to keep the momentum going, keeping the door open for more support, more Backers, and more success post-campaign.

PERFORMANCE MARKETING TO HELP YOU REACH MORE BACKERS

Spreading the word about your campaign is crucial; it helps you build and engage a community that’s eager to see your idea succeed. 

Our brand new Kickstarter Performance team – a dedicated performance marketing unit that sits inside Kickstarter – helps Creators promote their campaigns to people across the web so that Creators can connect with as many potential Backers as possible. 

The team provides support every step of the way, from creative services and pre-launch marketing support to ad measurement and execution. We know what it takes to run a successful crowdfunding campaign and we use that experience to build and execute customized performance marketing strategies for your campaign.

We’ve been carefully developing and testing our in-house performance marketing service with a select group of Creators, and so far, our Performance team has helped Creators raise nearly $1 million in pledges. 

As we support Creators' marketing needs before, during, and after their campaign, we’re reaching beyond the core crowdfunding model to help you drive pledges and bring your idea to life. 

We're just getting started, and we’re excited to roll this out to more Creators when it’s ready.

IMPROVED BACKER SURVEYS TO MAKE FULFILLMENT EASIER

A seamless production and fulfillment process hinges on collecting detailed and accurate information from Backers so that Creators can get rewards to them efficiently. The information Creators receive helps them address key questions about manufacturing costs, shipping charges, and choosing the right fulfillment partners.

Our current survey tool helps Creators collect this essential information but it’s time for an upgrade. We want to make our surveys easier for Creators to use and more effective at helping them translate Backer responses into actionable data for their production decisions.

So, we're excited to announce upcoming enhancements to our Backer survey tool. In just a few weeks, Creators will experience a revamped survey tool on Kickstarter that:

• Allows Backers to enter their addresses, select item preferences – like size and color – and respond to custom questions directly on the pledge details page.
• Collects comprehensive responses for all items a Backer has selected, including add-ons and multiple quantities.
• Simplifies survey setup for Creators, enabling them to configure their survey once for all Backers, with our tool dynamically presenting the relevant questions based on the contents of each pledge.
• Makes it easier for Backers to submit and update an accurate shipping address.

Kickstarter’s Upgraded Backer Survey: Key Features & Benefits

A first look at our new Backer Survey, from simplified survey setup to effortless SKU management and beyond.

Kickstarter Project Updates BlogKickstarter Staff

MORE TO COME

Backers, we haven’t forgotten about your needs. We’re also working on building one clear location in our mobile app where Backers can see the status of their pledges and provide necessary information to Creators to ensure the successful delivery of the items they’ve supported. 

And soon, Creators will be able to charge for shipping when they’re ready to fulfill and Backers will  be able to pay for taxes and shipping – and add more items to their pledge!

This year, you’ll see us continue to build, launch and refine all of these new features. And next year, you’ll see us lean into increasing Backers’ confidence in the projects they support and developing tools aimed at boosting Creator success, especially for new Creators.

Our vision is clear: We're thinking beyond what crowdfunding is today and reaching beyond the funding period to give Creators what they need to bring their ideas to life. 

Your feedback is critical to building this future and we want to bring you along as we build out the next version of Kickstarter. Learn more about the products shaping our future at features.kickstarter.com

Together, with you, we're going to build something extraordinary. Here’s to the next 15 years.