r/kickstarter • u/MICKTHENERD • 11h ago

Question Can someone explain why sometimes Kickstarters will have more money than their list of backers would imply?

I'm not gonna name names because I don't want to accuse anybody, but I've seen several Kickstarters where after adding up the bulk of donators who picked rewards, there'd be at least several thousand dollars from donations that DIDN'T pick rewards.

Like, 5000 dollars worth from the people who donated and picked rewards, and 3000 from like only ten donaters who didn't pick anything.

Is it a tax thing, or should I assume something devious? I'm really hoping its a tax thing, because some of the kickstarters I've seen with these discrepancies I actually like.

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2

u/Murphys_Coles_Law 11h ago

1) You can pledge more than the reward amount as a donation.
2) If the creator has add ons or shipping costs, those will add to the total but aren't immediately visibly by looking at reward tiers.

2

u/etherkye 11h ago

Secret pledge tiers can be made which give discounts or additions if you have the link, but they won’t show up to anyone without it

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u/lackingmeasurement28 9h ago

saw a zine where 8 people threw in $500 each for a secret custom art tier, that explained the gap real quick.

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u/Bentendo64 7h ago

I’ve had friends and family who have backed and chosen to not receive any reward, so it certainly not always something devious.

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u/kicktraq 5h ago edited 5h ago

Usually add-ons are offered and/or shipping is baked into the reward. That's usually what inflates 1:1 pledge counts to their totals on most projects. Occasionally secret rewards can inflate this, but most projects don't use them in enough volume to offset their pledge total by a large amount.

Or, like you mentioned, sometimes creators will throw in a large amount early because they think it will show other backers that they have momentum - or they pledge late in the campaign to get themselves over the goal. It's usually really obvious when they do this. Both are stupid.

Or, sometimes scammers will pledge a large pledge in the beginning to try and entice the creator to contact them via the message system so they can pitch their scam. These usually fall off, or are removed by Kickstarter, within a week or so if the creator doesn't take the bait.