Kickstarter Late Pledge: Guide to Extending Crowdfunding Success

If you’re a Kickstarter creator, this day has been a long time coming. The platform now offers a beta feature called Late Pledge, letting creators collect pledges even after their campaigns have ended. This guide will walk you through the entire process of utilizing this feature efficiently.

What is Kickstarter Late Pledge?

Late Pledge is an innovative feature that allows creators to keep their campaign pledges open for a negotiated period after the project’s actual end date. This extended window caters to backers who discover a project post-campaign or to those who missed the original deadline.

The Late Pledge window is not just a second chance for late discoverers. It can serve as an additional income generator during a crucial period—especially for projects with significant post-campaign actions, such as polishing the product, setting up manufacturing, or organizing backer rewards.

Pros and Cons of Kickstarter Late Pledge

Pros:

• Expanding your funding cycle can potentially bring in more revenue, offering additional financial resources for your project.
• Allows you to make specific rewards available after the campaign has ended.
• Offer rewards for the same amount or more post-campaign.
• Boosts morale among the team and stakeholders by maintaining a continuing presence of backers who show their support.

Cons:

• May slightly complicate the logistics of reward fulfillment, requiring more detailed planning and possibly additional resources to manage.
• Once the end date has passed, the option to re-enable this feature is not available, thus requiring careful and strategic planning to maximize its benefits.

4 Easy Steps to Create a Kickstarter Late Pledge Campaign

Implementing Late Pledge sounds complex, but it’s quite straightforward. Here are the steps you need to follow.

Step 1: Enable Late Pledge Before Your Campaign Ends

Navigate to your project basics and toggle the Late Pledge feature on. You’ll find this setting under your project’s General Options.

*NOTE: Late Pledge is a beta feature. Therefore, it’s important to note that it’s not available to all. Specifically, it will only be available to those who’ve specifically applied to opt-in by contacting Kickstarter support. If you’re a TCF client, rest assured, we’ll have that taken care of.

Step 2: Revise Your Rewards

Before your campaign ends, visit the Rewards section to make sure you have offerings for your Late Pledge period. You can adjust the cost slightly to recoup any potential additional expenses from a delayed pledge.

Step 3: Manage Add-Ons and Launch Overdraft Rewards

Do you have products or bonus items that weren’t originally available in your campaign but could entice late backers? Include them in your Late Pledge offerings for an extra edge.

Step 4: Keep Backers Posted

Utilize Kickstarter’s communication tools to keep your backers in the loop, even during the Late Pledge phase. Regular updates can sustain enthusiasm and further commitments.

Kickstarter Late Pledge vs Indiegogo Indemand

While Kickstarter Late Pledge and Indiegogo InDemand both provide platforms for extending the fundraising period beyond the original campaign timeline, each has its strong suites:

Indiegogo InDemand allows you to:

• Promote your campaign in the platform’s newsletter with ease. As opposed to Kickstarter, being featured in the Indiegogo newsletter is a process you, as a creator, can initiate. This means you can apply to IGG and be offered several promotion packages (e.g., being featured in the IGG newsletter will cost an additional percentage from raised funds.) By contrast, this option is not available on KS where the platform maintains sole editorial discretion.

• Bring in a new audience. Kickstarter is a great platform for hosting your campaign. But when you take it from Kickstarter to Indiegogo InDemand, you introduce it to a whole new base of potential backers.

• Enable Secret Perks. Indiegogo is well known for its Secret Perks, which allow you to make certain perks available to some but invisible to others. (This can come especially handy when targeting VIP groups on WhatsApp or when working with influencers to promote your product.)
• You can restart InDemand anytime. Provided the campaign meets certain criteria, you can opt back in for Indiegogo InDemand after you’ve opted out.

Kickstarter Late Pledge lets you:

• Collect weekly payouts. This is a major benefit compared to Indiegogo, which only issues payouts on a monthly basis. Since you may want to be more flexible with your post-campaign timeline, this is especially useful.
• Reuse the same ads. When you take your campaign from Kickstarter to Indiegogo InDemand, the ads you used to promote your original campaign will no longer be valid since the link will be entirely different. By simply extending your original Kickstarter campaign into its Late Pledge stage, you’ll be able to continue reusing the same ads.

• Stay consistent. Hauling your campaign from Kickstarter to Indiegogo is very doable. In fact, it’s been the standard practice until recently. However, if you have the option of keeping all your information and promotional activities connected to the same platform you used to launch your campaign, why not do it?

How Will the Crowdfunding World Benefit from Late Pledge?

For creators, this new feature means increased funding potential, extended momentum, and the opportunity to build a stronger community. Late Pledge offers creators a chance to raise additional funds beyond their initial campaign goal. This can be crucial for reaching stretch goals, improving project quality, or even covering unexpected costs.

A project with Late Pledge can maintain a buzz even after the official campaign ends. This can attract new backers and keep the project visible for a longer period. Meanwhile, engaging with late backers can help creators build a larger and more loyal community around their projects. This can be valuable for future endeavors or even for establishing a customer base.

For backers, Late Pledge offers a longer period to discover and get the support they need. Late Pledge allows people who discover a project after the deadline to still show their support and get the rewards offered. This can be a win for both backers who find exciting projects and creators who receive additional backing.

Also with Late Pledge, backers have a wider range of projects to explore and support, even if they miss the initial campaign window.

In general, Late Pledge revolutionized the crowdfunding ecosystem by:

• Restructuring and extending traditional campaign timelines, allowing more flexibility and potential income bursts.
• Enabling project creators to refine and tailor rewards based on community feedback and late-stage developments.
• Facilitating a smoother transition into post-campaign activities like finalizing orders and preparing for project shipping.

Conclusion

The Kickstarter Late Pledge feature opens up a world of new opportunities for creators to extend the crowdfunding experience beyond the initial campaign. It’s a tool to be handled carefully, but it has the potential to significantly enhance a project’s scope and success.

If you’re considering launching a Kickstarter campaign – factoring in Late Pledge could be the differentiating factor in your project’s long-term prosperity. To find out if the Late Pledge option is right for you, tell us more about your campaign here, and we’ll reach out to map out the best strategy for your latest product.

FAQs at a Glance

Here is a collection of the most frequently asked questions and their answers to deepen your understanding of the Late Pledge feature.

Why are the Late Pledge being introduced?

Late Pledge is introduced to facilitate continued funding for successful campaigns, allowing creators to capture late attention and potential pledges missed at the campaign’s end.

How will Late Pledge benefit creators?

Successful campaigns can keep collecting funds even after the official closing. This allows you to potentially reach stretch goals, generate more buzz, and ultimately bring your project to life with additional resources.

As a creator, Late Pledge will allow you to:

• Offer rewards for the same amount or more post-campaign*
• Automatically roll into the Late Pledge period (provided you’ve enrolled into the feature while in draft mode or during the live stage of your campaign)
• Receive weekly payouts to your bank account as new pledges come in

*Kickstarter recommends a 10% increase to incentivize backing during the live campaign. However, this number is up to you. Note: Creators will not be able to offer the same reward tier for less than it was offered during the live campaign.

How will Late Pledge benefit backers?

People who discover a project after the funding deadline can still show their support and get the rewards offered. This can be because they just heard about the project or because they were on the fence and needed more time to decide.

It offers a second chance for missed pledges, potential new rewards, and increased connectivity with creators.

What payment methods can be additionally used for Late Pledge on Kickstarter?

There actually aren’t any additional payment methods available for Late Pledge on Kickstarter.  Kickstarter currently only accepts pledges made with debit or credit cards from specific issuers:

• Visa
• Discover (US only)
• JCB (US only)
• Mastercard
• UnionPay
• American Express

Late Pledge uses the same payment system as regular pledges. So, if you were able to pledge during the campaign with a credit card from one of these issuers, you can use the same card for a Late Pledge.

Will creators be able to adjust their reward offerings during the Late Pledge phase?

No, creators cannot adjust their reward offerings during the Late Pledge phase on Kickstarter.

There are a few reasons for this:

• Campaign Integrity:  Since the campaign has already concluded and backers made decisions based on the presented rewards, changing them midway through Late Pledge could be confusing or unfair to those who pledged earlier.
• Logistics:  Managing changes in rewards after the campaign ends would be complex for creators, potentially leading to fulfillment issues.
• Platform Consistency:  Keeping the reward structure consistent ensures a smooth Late Pledge experience for both backers and creators within the established Kickstarter framework.

However, there are a few things creators can do to incentivize Late Pledge:

• Limited-time offers: They can announce special offers or bonuses available only during Late Pledge (think: free shipping or an exclusive add-on).
• Highlight remaining rewards: Creators can emphasize which reward tiers still have spots available to encourage late backers to choose those options.

Overall, while reward adjustments aren’t possible, creators have other strategies to make Late Pledge an attractive option for backers who discover their project after the deadline.

Are there any limitations/restrictions on what project categories can use Late Pledge?

Kickstarter hasn’t announced any limitations or restrictions on project categories that can use Late Pledge as of yet.  The program is still relatively new, and Kickstarter might be keeping an eye on how it works across different categories before implementing any exclusions.

What are the fees for Late Pledge?

There are no separate fees for Late Pledge on Kickstarter. The same fee structure applies to both Late Pledge and regular pledges made during the campaign.

Here’s a breakdown of the fees you can expect:

• Kickstarter platform fee: Kickstarter takes a 5% cut from the total funds collected, regardless of when the pledge is made.
• Payment processing fee: Stripe, Kickstarter’s payment processor, charges an additional fee (between 3% and 5%) to process the transaction.

There’s a slight variation for pledges under $10: they have a discounted micro pledge fee of 5% with a flat $0.05 added per pledge.

Essentially, if a project is successfully funded, these fees apply to all pledges, including Late Pledges. You can find more details on Kickstarter’s fee structure on its website.