FAQ
Most frequent questions and answers
Anyone that meets the creator requirements is eligible to launch a project on Kickstarter.
We encourage you to browse through the Kickstarter Resources Compendium and Creator Handbook for tips on structuring and running your project, as well as a thorough list of resources we’ve made available for our creators. Make sure you take a minute to check out their rules too.
For helpful tips, stories from creators, and other resources that could be useful as you start building your project, take a look at their category-specific articles from their Educational Resources for Creators.
When you’re ready, simply head to our start page and begin building – we’re excited to see your creative idea come to life!
Kickstarter is open to backers all over the world. Nearly anyone, from anywhere, can support a project as long as they have a major debit or credit card and a Kickstarter account.
Creators may currently launch projects from the following countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
You may still be able to launch a project now by establishing a business where Kickstarter is available, like by doing so with Stripe Atlas in the US.
Creators must also meet the following requirements:
All individuals must be 18 years of age or older. Individuals under 18 may participate in the creation of the project under the supervision of the project creator.
If raising funds as an individual, you must be a resident of the country where you launch your project. You also need a government-issued ID from that same country.
If your project country is in the European Union, government-issued IDs from other European Union countries are acceptable.
If raising funds as an entity (business or nonprofit), you must launch your project in the country where the entity is registered. The individual setting up the project on the entity’s behalf must be an owner or executive of the entity and have the authorization to represent it. All beneficial owners of the entity, and directors as requested, must also be disclosed and verified.
You need government-issued IDs and tax documents for the primary entity raising funds for the project as well as for all individuals and other entities you verify.
You need a supported bank account located in the same country you set up your project. This account must be owned by and in the name of the individual or entity raising funds. This must be a checking account that supports direct deposits in the currency in which you raise funds.
European projects raising funds in Euros can use an IBAN in these eligible countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom
You have a major credit or debit card registered to the individual or entity (or entity’s owner) raising funds for this project and in their name. Canadian projects can only use credit cards.
The bank account used for your project must be owned by and registered in the name of the verified individual or entity raising funds. You must also be authorized to link it to your project.
Your bank account must be a checking account that supports direct deposits in the currency you’re raising funds. We don’t support wire transfers, savings accounts, or virtual bank accounts, and using them may lead to payout failure.
Some countries have additional things to be aware of:
In the United States, your bank account must be able to receive ACH direct deposit transfers
In Japan, only “Futsuu” bank accounts are accepted
European projects raising funds in Euros can use an IBAN in eligible countries. For example, if your project country is Denmark and you’re raising funds in Euros, the IBAN can be in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, or the United Kingdom
If you have questions about whether or not your bank account is set up for these types of transfers, we recommend checking with your financial institution before linking it to your project.
In some instances, bank account details will be formatted by issuing banks with a combination of placeholder zeros as extra digits, dashes, and spaces. If you’re entering your bank details into the Payment tab of your project and they are not being accepted, you’ll want to try to enter the same bank information with no dashes, spaces, or placeholder zeros, just digits — particularly when it comes to entering the bank account number itself.
This should address the issue, however, if you continue to experience difficulty adding a bank account to your project, please contact Kickstarter’s Support team.
When entering your bank account information, we highly recommend taking extra care to ensure that you have input the correct details. Failure to enter accurate and supporting information can lead to payout failure.
In certain cases, we may be able to help with updating the bank account.
If your project has not yet launched, contact the Kickstarter Support team to see if they can help with resetting your bank account information
If you’ve already launched your project, contact the Kickstarter Support team to see if they can assist with updating your bank account
If your project’s payout was already initiated, Kickstarter can no longer update the bank account or beneficiary details on your project
Running a successful project requires a lot of dedicated time and attention. Accordingly, we recommend focusing your efforts on managing just one campaign using one platform.
Kickstarter is all-or-nothing, and bringing all your backers to a single place increases the chance of getting funded. Using a single platform for your project will eliminate the confusion of sending multiple links, and this will help get your idea off the ground.
We see projects succeed where creators have a focused and comprehensive outreach strategy — which could be diluted by spreading your efforts across multiple funding platforms running at the same time. While you may find your community is enthusiastic about backing you on one platform, they may be less inclined to support you in multiple places.
If your project is successfully funded, Kickstarter’s Terms of Use require creators to complete their project and fulfill all rewards as promised. If you are unable to fulfill all of your project’s rewards, you should make every reasonable effort to find another way of bringing your project to a satisfying conclusion for your backers. Steps should include offering refunds, communicating with your backers, and posting an update that explains what work has been done, how the funds were used, and what is preventing you from finishing the project as planned. For more information, see Section 4 of Kickstarter’s Terms of Use.
If you realize that you will be unable to follow through on your project before funding has ended, you are expected to cancel it.
For projects that launched before August 13, 2020, please see Kickstarter’s previous Terms of Use.