Personal fundraising sites allow you to make a pitch for money for a project or purpose that is not business-related but instead has meaning to you, your family, or a group. Personal fundraising does not encompass equity crowdfunding and might involve rewards. In other words, you may give something or a reward to those who invest or receive money from those who feel intrinsically rewarded by providing you with cash. There are many free crowdfunding sites for personal crowdfunding.
Personal crowdfunding also provides a path for people you know, even family, to send you money in an organized fashion. This page covers personal crowdfunding, focusing on online fundraising ideas and your choices in personal crowdfunding sites. Note that these raises differ from peer-to-peer loans in that there is no expectation of payback, or payback is expected to take a long time and is not guaranteed.
Types of Personal Fundraising
Before we go into how to choose between personal crowdfunding sites and how to invest, we should go over some of the types of this type of crowdsourcing that may exist. This is not by any means an exhaustive list, as people have turned to fundraising platforms for a wide variety of purposes that they feel investors or donors may find compelling. Here are five of the more popular possibilities.
Personal fundraising for an event
Personal crowdfunding for an event: This type of crowdsourcing may be used to fund a wedding, bar or bat mitzvah, or anniversary trip. People may be motivated to give money to these requests because they want to support a specific type of person, perhaps someone who has faced certain challenges or comes from a particular background, or they may know the requester and are giving in an organized fashion to him, her, or them. This may or may not be “rewards-type” because you may receive something of value related to the trip or event.
Personal fundraising for a mission trip
This type is self-explanatory. If you plan to go to an underprivileged area or one just struck by a natural disaster, you may turn to the crowd for assistance. Usually, there is no reward beyond perhaps getting updates in photos or videos. You hope that people you know and spread the word to, or even people in the crowd who you do not know but are looking to fund something, will invest in your mission.
Personal fundraising for charitable causes
Like the above, you may look for personal crowdfunding for a charitable cause you are collecting for. Everything from environmental cleanup to helping a family in need to rescuing an animal could be in this category. And like the above, you might be setting up a personal crowdfunding site that you will send people you know through word-of-mouth or hope to promote through search engine optimization.
Online fundraising for a project
You might turn to the crowd for a project you are working on. Maybe you are installing a renewable energy source or building a baseball field in your backyard. Perhaps you are putting together a play or a musical. Or, possibly, you are creating a work of art. In any of these cases, you may need funding, and they all may do well with personal crowdfunding that allows you to keep people updated on your progress and motivate them to invest.
Why Personal Fundraising Sites?
Personal crowdfunding sites have become more popular recently, and for good reason. It is difficult to get traditional loan funding for personal purposes and even harder to get funding that is not expected to pay off. Grants are quite challenging to find and get as well. Most of the purposes listed above don’t have a specific piece of collateral (such as a house or car), and they don’t have a particular reason that the funding itself will make you more likely to pay the loan off (such as a better education leading to a better job). Thus, banks are hesitant to give personal loans over a minimal amount. When they do, there is usually a very high interest rate. Enter individual crowdfunding sites!
Donors in the personal crowdfunding area are willing to give money as either a very favorable-term loan or even a donation to your project with no expectation of payback. These investors can look into more profound factors than the project or purpose itself since sometimes they see this as a way to give back.
Applying to Personal Fundraising Sites
Getting personal crowdfunding is not a complicated process, but it does require time and effort. You need to spread the word about your cause or project and set things up so people who might invest can find you. Unless you are quite good at building a website and doing search engine optimization, it usually involves finding the best personal crowdfunding sites for your purpose and picking among them. There are three steps to applying for personal crowdfunding:
Crafting Your Pitch for Personal Fundraising Sites 
There is a lot of competition when it comes to personal fundraising, so you need to craft the most compelling pitch possible, one that gives investors an idea of what you are looking for and why quickly. You must ensure you have written a detailed description of what you will do with the money and why. There needs to be a timeline that shows how realistic your planning has been. This pitch must be brief enough that the crowd will not lose focus but with enough information that they can differentiate your pitch from others.
Communicate with Donors through Personal Fundraising Sites
As people donate to your personal fundraising pitch, show them how much you value them and respect their decision to donate. Stay up-to-date with updates to make these existing donors happy with their choice (and maybe they’ll invest more!). This may also help you attract new support as people looking at your pitch see how you treat already invested people. Even if you receive a direct question, if it’s something you think others might want to hear about, ask that donor if they’re okay with you sending out the answer more generally.
Remain Transparent and Open
It is okay if your plans change a little or your timeline shifts. The important thing is to make sure existing and prospective donors know about this. More than wanting to know that your plan is exactly running on schedule, they want to know that you are trustworthy and thoughtful regarding the goal you are setting. Most investors know that everything may not be perfect on the way to your plan will unfold, but they want to know what you will do when you face an obstacle.
Our Services and Personal Crowdfunding Sites
We provide some guidance and assistance with personal crowdfunding as part of our mission to give back, so we charge only a nominal hourly fee for these services. There are also a lot of free resources out there, such as this nice article from Hongkiat. No matter what, we’d be happy to hear about your goals and provide some consultation and advice. If you are an investor looking into using personal crowdfunding to round out your portfolio or provide some charitable donations, we’d also be happy to advise you as well.
Please feel free to contact us if you’d like to hear more about our services or personal fundraising sites.
