Why we picked YouCaring to Crowdfund

We have a new fundraiser and we are kind of asking for a LOT of money. For the sake of transparency, I wanted to talk a little bit about why we are doing the fundraiser on YouCaring and not indiegogo or some other crowdfunding platform.

The last fundraiser we did was on Indiegogo and it was a great experience. We raised all the money we asked for within a day. Amazing. Almost a year later and the perks from that campaign are ALMOST (but not quite) finished being fulfilled. The perk system for crowdsourcing has its benefits and its downsides. The biggest downside is the additional labour and effort it takes to fulfill the perks. Also the additional money, which then can’t be spent on the business itself.

One of the biggest reasons why Biyuti Publishing is structured the way it is to ensure that creators are compensated for their labour. The perk system with Indiegogo somewhat depends on individual creators donating time/money — without compensation — for the campaign. Precisely the sort of thing that runs contra to our business philosophy.

We do expect that we will fall short of the $10,000 goal because of this. This is also why we picked wecare, since we receive money as people donate and there are no fees (other than the paypal ones). However, since our editor is bravely making fundraiser videos (despite being camera shy), we are hoping that this will help compensate. If things get close… we might start offering some perks to people who’ve already donated (or run an Indiegogo campaign for the remaining funds).