Crowdfunding has become one of the most open ways to raise money for concepts and talents. Crowdfunding platforms that facilitate the entire process take a commission from the donations and pass the rest to the beneficiary. It is quite obvious that crowdfunding facilitation is a lucrative business opportunity.
Building a crowdfunding platform, however, can be a cumbersome and daunting task. Alternatively, you can consider using a white label crowdfunding platform. A white label crowdsourcing software is easy to customize and can be made available in a short time.
Even if you were to go for a white label solution, there are a few questions and considerations that need to be addressed.
What is the crowdfunding model you choose?
There are different crowdfunding models that are active today.
Some of them can be donation platforms where people donate to companies and initiatives without any expectations and only for a moral satisfaction, and in some cases, for tax exemption. This includes but is not limited to the money raised for environmental projects, poverty alleviation, and disaster management.
Donation platforms are typically targeted at business people raising money for their CSR activities, non-governmental organizations that help refugees, patience, and homeless animals, and activists.
Some of them can be robot platforms where people donate for a cause and get a reward that holds them either a tangible or emotional value. This is commonly targeted at entrepreneurs, startups, and programmers, and on the not-so-serious side, musicians, artists, animators, and bloggers who might need some funds for their next creation. They can reward people with some exclusivities like private dinners, autographed copies of creations, and T-shirts.
Equity platforms reward donors with equity which could be in the form of shares in a company or a part of the companies capital respective of the cost for which the funds are being raised. The amount of money raised can be anywhere between a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars. The eligibility to donate on equity platforms is governed by the SEC in the United States and in similar regulatory bodies worldwide. They are targeted at small businesses that might not have the bandwidth to conduct their own IPO and equally so, at large companies that look forward to co-finance their projects.
Asset tokenization platforms, as the name implies, helps break down a tangible asset into smaller representative units. It has gained popularity in recent times after the emergence of the blockchain technology, and its manifestations like the bitcoin and Ethereum. These tokenization platforms are targeted at blockchain start ups that need funding, commercial high-value real estate which cannot be easily liquidated, and even farmers who can consider tokenizing their future crops.
Peer to peer lending platforms functions almost like a craigslist for crowdfunding where people lend money without any intermediation from banks and credit agencies. The loan is issued with a higher interest than that of the bank as it causes a higher risk factor. It is targeted at people who do not have a proper credit history and do not trust banks.
How would you like to design your interface?
The interface is responsible for facilitating passive communication between your platform and your customers. In most cases, the language for your platform is just English but it might not be adequate if your platform is targeted at non-English speaking countries. You can consider using different software that supports your language or plugging in a translation tool with your software.
The interface depends on the functionalities you would like to introduce. Make a complete list of features and functions that you would like to integrate in your crowdfunding app by analyzing your competitors and similar sites. One of the most important functionalities that need to be uncompromisingly considered during your crowdfunding platform development is the integration of KYC & AML procedures. It helps strengthen your legal stance, especially in jurisdictions that deal with terrorism, high crime rates, and corruption.
How do you intend people to donate?
At the crux of your crowdfunding platform life the ability for people to make their donations. Therefore, your crowdfunding platform should be integrated with a robust and versatile payment gateway that supports multiple methods of payment. You will also need to consider the local payment systems in the region that you expect to target.
There are different payment gateways that are popular in different countries. In China, WeChat and AliPay dominate the payment landscape. In the European Union, the biggest names in the spectrum are ELV, Payone, and iDeal.
How do you want to get it rolling?
Your crowdfunding platform finds its fruition when it is launched. Sometimes, the supplier runs a training program for the staff which could also be a paid exercise. The provider should be able to assist you with the installation, the configuration, and the startup.
In this endeavor, it is highly recommended that you carefully analyze online reviews considering the fact that there might be a few page posts. In addition, you can even consider meeting with past customers and find out how convenient their white-label crowdfunding software is.
In addition, you will also need to ensure top-notch reliability and security. The white-label platform should be immune to cyber attacks like DDoS, NXX, and CSRF. You will also need to have in place, security measures like IP address tracking and two-factor authentication.
It should also be compliant with all the regulatory requirements and general data protection regulations. The provider should make frequent updates possible which will take care of possible security fixes and enhancement of the performance and quality of the software. Your white-label crowdfunding platform provider should also make available technical support across multiple platforms.
How do you intend to spread the word?
As much as launching a crowdfunding platform is vital, so is it to market the platform. The first visible manifestation of your crowdfunding platform the strikes people is the website. Most websites appear quite similar to many mainstream market places but the only difference is that these websites sell ideas and not objects.
To ensure that your website strikes and empathy with the customer, you will have to choose a proper color scheme that goes in line with the endeavors of your project. Simple examples would be going for green color on eco-friendly projects and in blue on finance projects.
You will also need to create optimized content that serves a better presence on search engines for relevant searches. Search engines contribute to more than 60% of site traffic marking a presence there will surely enhance the possibilities of conversions. Therefore, when you choose a white label solution, make sure that you will be able to optimize the contents for relevant searches.
It was not coincidence or happenstance when people said an image is worth 1000 words. Choosing an emotionally gripping image can go a long way especially when it comes to donations for causes like poverty alleviation and animal care.
How much are you willing to pay for your white label solution?
Some white label solutions charge a one-time fee, and some of them have a subscription model. There are crowdsourcing solutions that offer additional services like optimization, content writing, and tuning for an additional cost. Depending on your business requirement, you can choose the right model for you.
Conclusion
As you may have inferred, after all the diligence has been performed, all you need to do is get in touch with a company that specializes in customizing white-label crowdfunding software. They will take care to understand your requirements and create the product specifically tailored to your business needs.
