Allow withdrawing funds at any point. People like to feel in control, and this setup eliminates the need for the fundraiser to have a deadline.
For longer-term projects, let funds accumulate interest at slightly below market rates. The difference is pocketed by the crowdfunding platform. Customers get to feel financially smart while also contributing to a cool idea.
Yep, it’s important to allow the canceling/changing of pledges, Kickstarter already allows that until the last 24 hours of the campaign where you can only cancel/change your pledge if it doesn’t make the project go below funding level. How do you do refunds without a deadline though?
Can you explain the second Idea a bit more? I don’t think I understand it.
The platform invests the funds at market rate, collects a small percentage of the interest, and pays the rest as dividends to the backers in proportion to their contribution.
Hmm… that requires the backer to actually give the money to the platform the moment they make a pledge, even if the project isn’t yet fully backed, instead of how it’s usually done now, where if at the deadline the project is fully backed, the platform charges everyone, and otherwise no one ever gets charged.
If you’re allowed to cancel a pledge at any point, there’s really very little reason not to just fund anything with a refund bonus the moment it posts, aiming to cancel your pledge if it looks like it might succeed.
Possible modifications:
Allow withdrawing funds at any point. People like to feel in control, and this setup eliminates the need for the fundraiser to have a deadline.
For longer-term projects, let funds accumulate interest at slightly below market rates. The difference is pocketed by the crowdfunding platform. Customers get to feel financially smart while also contributing to a cool idea.
Yep, it’s important to allow the canceling/changing of pledges, Kickstarter already allows that until the last 24 hours of the campaign where you can only cancel/change your pledge if it doesn’t make the project go below funding level. How do you do refunds without a deadline though?
Can you explain the second Idea a bit more? I don’t think I understand it.
The platform invests the funds at market rate, collects a small percentage of the interest, and pays the rest as dividends to the backers in proportion to their contribution.
Hmm… that requires the backer to actually give the money to the platform the moment they make a pledge, even if the project isn’t yet fully backed, instead of how it’s usually done now, where if at the deadline the project is fully backed, the platform charges everyone, and otherwise no one ever gets charged.
If you’re allowed to cancel a pledge at any point, there’s really very little reason not to just fund anything with a refund bonus the moment it posts, aiming to cancel your pledge if it looks like it might succeed.