Kickstarter on Tuesday announced a new set of creator tools designed to breathe new life into the crowdfunding platform. Perhaps the most interesting of the bunch is the “Late Pledge,” which represents a fundamental change in the service’s status quo. The new feature allows campaign creators to continue collecting money even after the campaign is closed.
Kickstarter began piloting the feature in April, noting that one participating creator was able to raise an additional 35% over their original goal two weeks after their campaign closed. The Late Pledge will only be available to those creators who have reached their initial goal.
The new feature is now available to all creators. Before its arrival, those using the platform had to rely on third-party services to continue raising funds. Late Pledge is another piece of Kickstarter’s goal to expand into a one-stop shop, leveraging various peripheral aspects of crowdfunding that previously found the site effectively leaving money on the table.
It’s part of a broader push that began when the company appointed Everette Taylor as its new CEO toward the end of 2022. The company notes, “The Kickstarter we’re building today is more than just a crowdfunding platform. we are evolving into a comprehensive funding and distribution platform that supports independent creators and innovators at every stage of their journey.”
These moves will create problems for some of the services that have sprung up specifically to plug holes in the crowdfunding process. This includes campaign marketing, which is now covered by the platform’s new Performance team. Like Late Pledge, the group has already been tested with selected accounts.
“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,” Kickstarter says. “As we support creators’ marketing needs before, during and after their campaign, we go beyond the basic crowdfunding model to help you engage and bring your idea to life.”
The other change here is a more robust survey tool that can collect backers’ addresses, clothing size and color preference for reward fulfillment purposes. The ability to pay shipping and taxes through the Kickstarter mobile app is also on the way.
