FAQS
You're viewing all FAQ's within the project-owners-projects category
- What Fees Do PleaseFund.Us Take?
We take a flat 5% fee, but only if the project is successful. If the project is unsuccessful all the money is returned to the people that have pledged towards the project and we take no fee at all (there are sometimes paypal costs when a refund is issued). If you are a project owner you should budget about 8% for the PleaseFund.Us fees and the Paypal (payment processor) fees. If you have any questions about this or the process to receive your payment just drop us a message to hi@PleaseFund.Us.
- Can a project be deleted?
Alas yes, we very occasionaly do take a project down for the benefit of our community. Sometimes projects are not suitable for PleaseFund.Us or an event has changed the project owners ability to fulfill his pledge rewards. We are here to help our project owners deliver and we will never just delete a project.
- Can projects raise more money than the target funding?
Yes, they often do! The only thing that will limit the amount of funding that you can raise will be the generosity of the crowd and the number of each type of pledge that you set when creating your project.
- How do I set my target for funding?
Very easily, you send in the amount of money you would like to raise on the PleaseFund.Us platform and it is entered into your project. When working out your funding target you need to consider the costs of the pledges that you are offering to people as well as the percentage that Paypal and PleaseFund.Us take. If you would like some help working out what you should put your target funding level at drop us an e-mail at Hi@PleaseFund.Us. Alternatively, why not check out our Project Incubator for some ideas on setting your target and how to shape your project.
- Can a project be blocked?
Sadly, some projects are not suitable for our platform. We try our hardest to make sure that only the genuine projects get onto the platform if you think that a project has slipped through the net, please let us know and we will have a good hard look at it. If you are not sure if your project is suitable for PleaseFund.Us, why not look at the Project Guidelines page.
- Who can come up with a project?
Me and you! Seriously, if you have an idea and want to make it happen, drop us an e-mail at Hi@PleaseFund.Us and we will try and get it going for you as soon as possible.
Or you can start creating your project here and now.
- Can I change the target funding level?
At the moment no. We don't think that you should be changing the target funding level in the middle of a fundraising campaign. It is really important that project owners think really hard about the target funding that they need before they start and are absolutely sure about the costs of the pledges that they are offering to their supporters.
- What currency does the project have to be in?
PleaseFund.Us is based in England, so our website shows it in GBP, that being said projects can come from anywhere as can funding.
As a project owner all you need to have is a bank account that can be linked to a paypal account. Anyone wanting to pledge, paypal accepts all kinds of credit and debit cards for one off payments without even needing you to have a paypal account.
- Can I change my project after it has gone live?
Normally no, you are allowed to get in touch with the PleaseFund.Us team and beg us to change something. So long as we don’t think that it is substantially changing the nature of the project or what was offered we will happily get the tweaks in place right away.
If you have a glaring typo up there, we will be happy to change it for you. If you have offered someone a ride to the moon and your name is not Richard Branson, we probably wouldn’t have let you post it anyway!
- Can I pledge in my own project?
The idea is to garner the support of your friends, family and the wider community. It is pretty impossible for us to stop people pledging towards their own project or getting a family member to do so on their behalf, but we feel that you should be trying to raise all of the money that you have outlined in your target.
- What are PleaseFund.Us fees?
We skimp 5% off the top of your project. This flat rate applies only to successful projects, if a project hasn't met it's target, then all of the money is refunded to the backers (minus the refund fees applied by the payment processor).
Don’t hate us, it is pretty clear and if someone raises £500 on the site, our two months of work for that project net us a total of £25.
The payment processor fees range between 1% and 3.5%.
So any project owners beware, you need to make sure that your funding target includes the fees that we will take and that paypal will take.
I.e. if you want to raise £1,000, you will need to set the target at £1,080 to make sure that after fees you receive all the money that you need for your project. Keep it simple!
- What are the project updates for?
You are embarking on a journey. The people backing you are the wind behind your sail. Keep them updated on what you are doing. For more information on how to post updates check out our PROJECT INCUBATOR.
- What are the best ways of raising the profile of my project?
Well in addition to the work that we will do in terms of putting it in front of our loving community, you should try and use your social networks to make your friends and fans aware of what you are trying to do.
This might mean posting links on your facebook profile, getting in touch with local papers, blogging about your new idea, tweeting every day with updates. Essentially, you are the only person who is going to make absolutely sure that your project succeeds. You need to think of competitions and prizes that you can run online whilst your project is being funded to keep the community interested.
Keep updating your project with any news that you have no matter how small. People are parting with their cash to help you, keep them involved in your journey.
- What can I offer as rewards?
Anything, be creative as you want! Please don't be too naughty though. Try and think of what you are going to be doing with the money and don't just say that any surplus funding is going to go towards a charity.
The most creative ideas get the funding they deserve and we will help promote them even more if we find them interesting!
- Who decides whether a project lists on PleaseFund.Us
The very scary PleaseFund.Us moderation committee! Click here to have a look at their barnets.
- If a project is successful can a project owner end it early?
If a project is successful the project owner can get in touch with us and let us know that they are happy with the funding target level having already been reached and request that we transfer the funds over sooner rather than later. Should this happy situation arise, we will notify everyone that has supported the project and update the project listing showing that funding has been reached and the funds are being handed over to the project owner.
Normally, we would advise against this as whilst your project is still live on PleaseFund.Us you still have the chance to raise more money that can always be useful in promoting and developing your project once you have the funding.
- Can I have more than one project live on PleaseFund.Us at a time?
Yes you can, but we would advise against it. The reason being that this is an All or Nothing platform, so if you fail to reach your target all the money gets returned to the backers and you are left with nothing.
What we recommend is that you finish one project and then you can move onto the next one as soon as you would like. This way you are not splitting your crowd and can concentrate on the task in hand.
Be careful not to over crowd your crowdfunding campaign either!
- Do projects need a funding target and end date?
Yes, it helps put the pressure on you and the crowd to support you.
- What do I need to put in my project video?
This is your chance to shine. You are trying to persuade people that you have the most brilliant idea and that they should be putting their money behind you. Explain what you are doing, why you are doing it, how long it is going to take you to do it and then how much it is going to cost you to do it. Once you have got that out of the way, explain what you are offering up as your pledges. It is really important to be clear and explain fully what each pledge involves and why someone would want it.
Remember be creative with your pledges, most of us have enough coffee mugs. Saying that if it is a particularly good one, I could always do with another!
- What is the maximum someone can pledge?
Creativity is the limit. If you inspire someone, who knows they might pledge. We don't. No limits.
- How do I share my project on social networks?
Every project that goes live on the PleaseFund.Us platform has exclusive access to the PleaseFund.Us vault where there are widgets, icons and graphics that can be posted up on your social networks, website and offline promotion.
In addition to this every project page has a social network toolbar that links to twitter, facebook, digg it, linked In and many other social networks, all you need to do is click on them and share the links to post it automatically to your social network. It really is very easy to get thousands of people to see your wonderful ideas in a matter of hours!
- How do I get funding for my project?
Three simple steps: 1) Log In. 2) Read the Guidelines. 3) Submit Your Proposal.
Ok there is a 4), you are going to need to tell everyone that you know about your project as well.
If you are keen to get started now just click on this link: Create A Project.
- What projects are not allowed on PleaseFund.Us?
If it is street legal then it is fine by us. There are no boring people, just boring projects.
