Crowdfunding has become an extremely popular way for entrepreneurs, startups, small businesses, creators, and non-profit organizations to raise funds in recent years. With the rise of popular crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and GoFundMe, crowdfunding has entered the mainstream as both a fundraising method and an investment opportunity.
However, the major centralized crowdfunding platforms charge high fees and commissions, ranging from 5-12% on funds raised. They also impose their own rules, branding, and limited customization options on campaign creators. This is where white label crowdfunding software comes in - it allows organizations to set up their own branded crowdfunding platform with greater control, customization, and lower fees.
What is White Label Crowdfunding Software?
White label crowdfunding software offers a fully developed crowdfunding platform that can be licensed and customized to create your own branded fundraising website. The software provides the full technology backbone and functionality for running crowdfunding campaigns, processing payments, managing backers and submissions, tracking analytics, and more.
The platform is a “white label” product, meaning it comes ready to go with a clean design and no visible branding. The licensee can then apply their own brand identity, color schemes, logos, and name to make it appear as their own platform. This allows the licensee to establish themselves as the operator and face of the crowdfunding site.
For example, a university could license white label software to create their own crowdfunding platform for college projects, charities, startups, and causes related to their student and alumni community. The branded platform would provide a built-in fundraising channel while showcasing the university’s brand identity and control.
Benefits of White Label Crowdfunding Software
Control and Customization - White label software allows full control and customization over platform branding, user experience design, terminology, guidelines, categories, features, and functionality.
Cost-Effective Setup - It is much cheaper and faster to license established white label software than develop a platform from scratch. The software is ready to launch without technical development.
Own Your Customer Data - As the platform operator, you control and own all crowdfunding campaign data, backer information, and analytics instead of the software vendor. This allows you to directly engage and upsell users.
Recurring Revenue - Many white label platforms allow you to charge small administration fees on funds raised for campaigns (e.g 1-5%). This provides an ongoing revenue stream on top of software licensing costs.
Seamless Integration - White label software can be integrated directly with your existing systems and payment gateways for managing users and processing transactions. APIs are offered for deeper integration where required.
Ongoing Updates and Support - Reputable white label providers continuously develop and upgrade the underlying software as crowdfunding industry standards evolve. They also provide technical support for managing the platform.
Turnkey Solution - It provides everything required to manage your own crowdfunding portal with back-end CMS and analytics dashboards out of the box, minimizing development costs.
How White Label Crowdfunding Software Works
White label crowdfunding platforms provide the full technology stack for running a crowdfunding website. This includes campaign submission workflows, backer/user management, role-based access control, payment processing, and automated workflows for campaign moderation.
The software essentially contains all the functional modules you would find on a typical crowdfunding website like Kickstarter or GoFundMe. A generalized workflow is as follows:
1. Campaign Creators sign-up and submit campaign details, descriptions, images/videos, funding goal, rewards tiers and campaign duration.
2. Admins moderate and approve campaigns to go live based on guidelines. Creators promote campaigns externally.
3. Backers browse live campaigns and pledge money to projects they wish to support.
4. Platform processes and collects backer payments through payment gateway integrations.
5. Creators receive funding if targets are hit, otherwise funds returned to backers.
6. Software tracks analytics e.g funds raised, number of backers, popular campaigns based on categories and allows exporting reports.
Additional common features include social media integration, customizable backer reward tiers, collecting backer information, uploading budget breakdowns, storing crowdfunding agreement templates, and more.
Licensing Business Models
White label crowdfunding platforms are offered through two main licensing models:
1) Monthly Subscription
Monthly pricing plans based on maximum number of campaigns, backers supported and features required. Ideal for getting started with lower risk.
2) One-Time License Fee
Single upfront fee for lifetime license, plus optional annual support fees. Better value for high usage with perpetual rights.
The best model depends on expected platform usage. For reference, monthly subscriptions start around $500/mo for starter plans, while one-time licenses range from $5,000-$15,000+
Technical Set-up
Once a white label software solution has been selected from a trusted vendor, the platform can be set up and tested in a sandbox environment before going live.
Key steps for technical launch include:
- Installing software on serve or hosting provider
- Applying branding and design customizations
- Configuring payment gateway for collecting funds
- Integrating mailing lists and analytics
- Importing users and initial campaigns
- Testing and quality assurance checks
- Migrating platform from staging to live URL
Many software vendors offer onboarding services, documentation and admin training to assist with the initial setup and provide guidance on best practices.
In Conclusion
White label crowdfunding software enables any organization to launch their own branded crowdfunding platform at a fraction of the cost and time compared building from scratch. Benefits include full control over branding, user experience and functionality plus ongoing revenue share from funds raised by campaign creators. By licensing established technology and best practices from industry-specialists, organizations can start their own crowdfunding site to support causes they care about.