Reflecting on the Year: The Innovations that transformed Kickstarter for Creators in 2023

You may recall our mid-year progress report titled 'Here Are All the Ways We’ve Improved Kickstarter for Creators So Far in 2023'. We are excited to present another edition with a focus on the last six months of 2023 as we approach the end of the year. At Kickstarter, our community of creators and backers is at the heart of everything we do. Their feedback guides our decisions, from product releases to the overall user experience. This year has been transformative for us as we have worked hard to introduce new updates and strengthen the foundation of our platform.  

We still believe that Kickstarter is the best platform for crowdfunding your creative projects, and we are committed to keeping it that way. This year, we have improved core features to help you tell your story, introduced new policies to foster trust with potential backers, united our community to help make important decisions for creators, and launched new integrations with incredible partners. So if you're ready to launch your next big project or venture into crowdfunding on Kickstarter - read on!

Crafting a Compelling Project Story Has Never Been Easier.

This year, we have launched a new and improved text editor in Project Build. It is a powerful storytelling tool that enables creators to capture their project story more effectively. It also allows backers to navigate through all the components of a project with ease. As you draft your campaign, you can use an intuitive toolbar for easy customization. You can also directly embed media from your favorite platforms and add page anchors for quick story navigation. Your project story is the first impression you make with potential backers. Therefore, it is essential to convince them that your idea deserves their support. You can use some simple but powerful tactics like creating an engaging project video or leveraging our images as headings functionality to elevate your campaign page for maximum engagement.

Build Trust With Potential Backers Through Transparency

The world is constantly evolving, and artificial intelligence (AI) has played a significant role in this wave of innovation. Earlier in the year, we introduced an AI policy to assist backers in making informed pledging decisions and to enable creators to leverage AI in their work while being as transparent as possible about their inclusion of AI directly within their project page. To support the new policy, there is now a section called "Use of AI" within the Story tab of project build. Here, you will answer questions before submitting a project for review. Backers will then be able to view this information on your live project. This is part of a broader effort by Kickstarter to create a safer space for creators and backers alike on our platform and in crowdfunding as a whole.

Set Funding Goals You Can Feel Confident About

Setting achievable funding goals is crucial for the success of any crowdfunding campaign. To support creators in this process, we have introduced a goal helper feature in project build. Our research and analysis of historical data revealed that projects with overly high pledge goals often fail to secure funding. Therefore, we have developed this tool to prompt creators to reconsider their goal amount if it seems unrealistic. Now, creators just like you will be prompted if the goal you’ve entered hits a threshold that may make successful funding challenging. If you need further assistance, you can refer to our Help Center article to learn more about how you can set systematic project goals.

Meet Your New Community Advisory Council Cohort

This fall, we installed 12 new creative visionaries into the newest CAC cohort:  Allison O'Toole, Patrick Crotty, Cristian Reed, Hanna McPhee, Natacha Seroussi, Robin Block, Julia Kwamya, Jenny Nordbak, Justin Jacobson, Thomas Bidaux, Krystal Banner, Adetokunbo "T" Oyelola. The Kickstarter Community Advisory Council is made up of a diverse group of Kickstarter creators who are able to offer insight and expertise across a wide range of creative industries, and who can help us identify issues we may not be able to see on our own. This council was founded with the goal of giving you and all creators a voice in feature development, public dialogue, and problem-solving for concerns unique to the Kickstarter creator community. As always, we extend our heartfelt thanks to them for their dedication to keeping Kickstarter as useful, welcoming, and inclusive as it can possibly be.

A Win-Win: Audiobook Rewards Simplified with Findaway Voices by Spotify

As an author seeking to launch an audiobook, you're either in need of funding to make your project a reality or need assistance figuring out how to host your book. To help authors publish and distribute their audiobooks globally, Spotify's Findaway Voices has partnered with Kickstarter to provide thousands of authors with access to the necessary tools to overcome the hurdles that come with launching an audiobook. This partnership gives your backers a way to redeem audiobook rewards through Spotify, which provides a seamless redemption experience for both you and them. This not only provides them with access to more potential backers but also gives them greater control over how they shape and tell their story throughout the campaign journey.

We are excited to see how creators are utilizing all the improvements and updates we have launched this year. And there's much more to come! Our goal is to make it easier than ever for Kickstarter creators to build, launch, run, and fulfill successful campaigns.

To stay up-to-date with our latest improvements, follow us on Twitter (X), Threads, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Let's work together to bring your creative visions to life!