New iCrowdfund website launched by developers of iDonate.ie

Western Webs, the developers of the ‘iDonate.ie’ website, have launched a new crowdfunding website iCrowdFund.ie.

The new site will differ from international competitors like ‘Kickstarter’ or ‘Fundit’ in that it supports ‘All or Nothing’ and ‘Keep it All’ type projects. All or Nothing means that the full target amount must be pledged, or else nothing is received, whereas the Keep it All option allows for any amounts pledged to be transacted. The initial release of iCrowdFund supports donation and reward based crowdfunding.  An Equity crowdfunding system is under development.

Paddy Coyne explained how the site works: “A project owner registers with icrowdfund and a campaign page is set up with a target amount to be raised. The campaign is then advertised through social media and any other channel open to the project owner and people contribute over the course of the campaign. At the end of the project the system processes the credit cards of those who donated and the funds are transferred.”

The site will use ‘Stripe’, an Irish owned system developed to process credit card payments online and on mobile apps. There are no set up charges for projects on iCrowdFund.ie.  A commission and transaction fee is charged at the end of the campaign.

Paddy Coyne says that the “reward option is of particular interest to service or hospitality business owners. Business owners could offer a reward in the form of voucher or membership to those subscribing. Those subscribing to the campaign are in effect a large marketing team, as it is in their interest that the project succeed.”

Western Webs previously developed iDonate.ie, the largest charity fundraising website in Ireland, supporting over 600 non-profits, with the assistance of over 18,000 registered fundraisers. iDonate.ie has raised over €3 million for Irish charities since it was set up in 2012.

Crowdfunding is currently unregulated in Ireland. Consequently the equity option is not available. The Central Bank is currently monitoring the situation.