12 Best Crowdfunding Websites in Nigeria: How to Raise Money

If you’ve got a brilliant business idea but lack the financial power to support your vision right, here are is our list of best crowdfunding websites in Nigeria that can help you raise money for your business, or other purposes such as medial treatment, education, legal aid, charity giving or course.

Have you reached out to friends and families, only to discovered they lost their houses and jobs during last year’s flooding incidence, or during the national protest? Have your banks failed you by asking for collateral that never existed? This post will let you understand how to raise money for your worthy cause or business using the best crowdfunding websites in Nigeria and across the world.

Contact us for a free consultation if your want to grow your business online. We are leading digital marketing agency in Lagos Nigeria that offer website designs, social media marketing, corporate branding, pay-per-click advertising and search engine optimization (SEO) to grow your business, increase your online visibility and make more sales.

 

What is Crowdfunding?

Crowdfunding is a method of raising money from a large number of people or crowd through the use of the internet. It allows individuals, startups, or organizations to solicit small contributions from a broader audience, rather than seeking substantial investments from a few wealthy backers.

Crowdfunding has been around since 2003. And during its early stage, musicians, artists and movie makers were the main forces behind the initiative. It was used for mass producing content for fans, paid by other fans via free-will donations. This fundraising method in recent years has shown to become a truly viable source for funding creatives, charity and business projects alike. It is also used for raising funds for individual or personal needs like weddings, birthday partis, burial ceremonies and memorials.

Before now, people who need money for diverse projects are subject to the funding conditions of the traditional methods such as individual borrowers, angel investors or the commercial banks loan officers. Today, crowdfunding provides a new strategy for individuals, nonprofits and startups or early stage companies to pitch their business plans or ideas to the crowd in a way to solicit for funds.

Here are common types of crowdfunding you need to know:

1. Reward-Based Crowdfunding: Donors receive rewards, such as products or services, in exchange for their contributions.
2. Equity Crowdfunding: Investors receive equity or shares in the company in return for their investment. This is often used by startups looking to raise capital.
3. Donation-Based Crowdfunding: Individuals donate money to support a cause or project without expecting anything in return. This is common for charitable causes and personal projects.
4. Debt Crowdfunding: Also known as peer-to-peer lending, this involves raising funds from multiple lenders who expect to be repaid with interest.

 

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How Does Crowdfunding Sites Works?

Crowdfunding has become a popular alternative to traditional funding methods, allowing for a more democratic approach to financing projects and ideas.

However, the first step to leveraging this opportunity is to determine whether it is the right for your kind of project. To successfully raise money using the crowd funding process; you need to draw your crowd in a form of social exercise. Thus, some businesses and community projects are perfectly suited for this form of social financing.

If you are a small business owner or a celebrity thinking of using your group of friends to finance your business, cause or political idea; these best crowdfunding websites in Nigeria are connecting startup entrepreneurs with investors; and persuading individuals to give donations in support of causes or charities they believe in.

Generally, the way crowdfunding sites work is that individuals or organizations pitches their ideas by describing what the money will be used for, setting fundraising goals and deadline for raising the funds on the selected crowdfunding websites; share their fundraising pages to potential contributors, friends and families on social media, email and other networking platforms or events. These will encourage more donors to support through secure online donations.

 

 

12 Best Crowdfunding Websites in Nigeria:

Here is our list of popular crowdfunding websites in Nigeria for startups businesses, NGOs, personal fundraising, social advocacy and charity projects:

 

#1. ImpactHub

Impacthub is Nigeria’s #1 online crowdfunding website that facilitates the collection of public funds for worthy causes, socio-political advocacy projects, and nonprofit initiatives.

This platform connects fundraisers with potential donors in Nigeria and all over the world by providing tools for creating campaigns, accepting online donations. It offers additional features and services like social sharing, campaign merchandising, advertising, and volunteering opportunities.

 

#2. Kickstarter

Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity.

Kickstarter exists to help bring creative projects to life. This crowdfunding website is a home for film, music, art, theater, games, comics, design, photography, and more. This platform focus on help artis and creative professionals get access to funds from nonprofits and foundations related to their visions.

 

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#3. Quickraiz

Quickraiz is a crowdfunding and fundraising platform in Nigeria designed to help individuals and organizations setup campaigns to raise funds for projects that matter to them.

With this website, you can raise money for anything that interests you. From medical aid to charity,  community projects, education to creative ideas or nonprofit projects

 

#4. Indiegogo

Indiegogo is an American crowdfunding website founded in 2008. The site is one of the first sites to offer crowd funding in USA.

Indiegogo allows people to solicit funds for an idea, charity, or start-up business. It crowdfunds innovations in tech and design before they go mainstream. This platform also support entrepreneurs that are working to bring their dreams to life.

 

#5. Naijafund

Naijafund is a donation-based crowdfunding website for Nigerians to raise money online for what matters to them. They help you create a campaign, share your crowdfunding page with friends and family on Facebook  and WhatsApp and receive donations online.

This platform empowers individuals and entities by providing the necessary tools to raise funds online for anything; removing the physical barriers associated with traditional financial support.

 

#6. GoFundMe

GoFundMe is the world’s leading crowdfunding platform that offer diverse fundraising options —from memorial tributes and funerals to medical emergencies and nonprofits fundraising.

Whenever you need help, or you’re raising money for yourself, friends, family, or charity, this website can be of great help to you. GoFundMe is an American for-profit crowdfunding platform that allows people to raise money for events, celebrations and more.

 

#7. Donate-ng

Donate-ng is the “go-to” portal for crowdfunding in Nigeria. They help charities and individuals raise funds online.

As one of the best crowdfunding websites in Nigeria, you can fundraise for medical, academic pursuits, charity, community services, disaster reliefs, sports tournaments, politics, legal support.

 

#8. Fundable

Fundable is a startup fundraising platform that helps you start and manage a professional fundraiser to attract quality accredited investors.

The platform connects startups businesses with public facing profile to accredited investors to get investment capital. They provide education and tools to walk aspiring founders through the entire startup process.

 

#9. GoGetFunding

GoGetFunding is a crowdfunding website that lets you raise money for anything that matters to you. From personal causes and events to projects and more.

Thou not Nigerian owned, this platform have helped people from all over Nigeria to crowdfund for the things that matter to them most. From personal fundraisers, to acts of kindness, emergency relief, and more.

 

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#10. FundACause

Fundacause is a collaborative platform designed for individuals, groups and organizations to raise money and donate funds towards worthy causes in a transparent and secure environment.

It is one of the best crowdfunding websites in Nigeria that offers the simplest ways of giving back to causes you care for. This website is designed and developed by SystemSpecs Technology, the company behind Remita and other tech products in Nigeria.

 

#11. Donate.NG

Donate.ng is a fundraising and empowerment platform for charitable organizations who are helping the less privileged in the communities.

Powered by Paga Tech Company, Donate.ng helps organizations raise awareness and access financial support from donors both locally and abroad. The funds raised on this platform go directly to the organizations, fostering transparent and accountable.

 

#12. Crowdfunder

Crowdfunder is a UK number one online fundraising and crowdfunding website.  They offer crowdfunding for business and charity projects and grant funding.

.With Crowdfunder you can harness the power of your community through donations and rewards, prize draws or community shares. They supported thousands of people to raise millions for good causes and great ideas.

 

How to Raise Money for Business or Cause Using Crowdfunding Sites: 6 Steps Guide 

Now you know the best best crowdfunding websites in Nigeria that can help you raise money for your business, cause or idea right? Understanding the crowdfunding concept and how it works is the best way to maximize our crowdfunding campaigns to meet your financial goal.

In most crowdfunding campaigns, people are not investing in the project or business; rather, they are funding it. One thing to know is that these sites may request you to pay some percentage of the money raised as commission or processing fee. Though rules may differ from site to site, or due to regulations. Below is our proven step-by-step guide on how to raise money for your business or cause by using crowdfunding sites.

 

#1. Target the Right Audience

Many of the successful projects on crowd funding sites target a specific, narrowed audience. So, it’s not a waste of time to first understand who your targets audiences are before using these techniques. Doing your market research and focusing on a passionate niche can help you succeed, launch start and grow the business.

Again, having a good knowledge of the project itself is perhaps the key to crowdfunding success. This is because your product is the first step to understanding your market. Knowing what your target audience wants and how you plan to achieve their needs with the product or service define everything about crowd funding campaigns.

For example;

Your target audience might be focused in a particular geographic area, community, religion, or industry that shares a common background. They may be male or female within a particular age group who must be interest in what you have to offer! This market segmentation would help you respond to everyone quickly enough; and pre-write answers to the questions of each audience groups.

 

 #2. Craft Outstanding Elevator Pitch

It is often shown that people who contribute to a crowd funded project are not only buying into the project idea, they are also buying into the person(s) or personalities behind it. How do you rise above the crowd and stand out? Who are you and why do you want the money? What makes your project different from the competitions?

If you don’t have an engaging story to tell them, then your crowd funding bid could be a flop. Your brilliant elevator pitch is your one chance to make a first impression among other projects simultaneously running on the same platform or site as yours. Your pitch is a description of your project, product or campaign; specifying what benefits or rewards the supporters or donors will achieve if the fundraising exercise turns successful.

In some crowd funding campaigns, donations are usually sought in return for special rewards. So what are you going to give back to your community or constituency? This could mean free products or even a chance for them to be involved in designing and distributing the products or services, ro even delivering the dividend of democracy to your political promises.

In addition, make sure you create and use compelling brand name, logo, product description with high resolution beautiful images as part of your project designs. These will help your funding campaigns stand out from the crowds. Again, remember to include video pitch, case studies or testimonials; keep things short and concise – with a clear call to action: Donate Now!

 

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#3. Choose Best Crowdfunding Websites

If you are thinking of how to raise money using crowdfunding; then you would need a web-place to tell your story. There are a multitude of crowdfunding websites across the internet that can facilitate your funding project, and each caters to a specific audience.

There are different websites out there with different services, different rules and different charges. Some of them are best for general creative arts, films, games, music publishing. Others are best fits for charity projects, entrepreneurship, political campaigns and humanitarian projects. So you can research and find out the platforms that best supports your idea and your funding project.

Choosing the best crowdfunding websites in Nigeria for your cause or business would help you target the Nigerian audience. Do you want rewards based crowd funding – where contributions would unlock rewards? Or an equity based service – where funding party becomes a shareholder? Do you need outright donation to help you crate a big impact that count in your community or society?

Be sure to check out the following crowdfunding websites that offer opportunities to generate funds for businesses events, charities and causes in Nigeria. Most crowdfunding websites charge 1.5% commission if you meet your funding goal; and if a campaign is unsuccessful, no money is charged. It’s your responsibility to review the terms and conditions of such sites carefully before submitting your campaigns!

 

#4. Set Funding Goal and Timeline

On most crowd funding sites, donations are made with credit cards. In some cases, if someone is backing a project, his/her card won’t be charged until the project is successfully funded. That is; if you don’t reach your funding goal within its deadline, no money will be charged. This allows creators to test concepts without risk.

Therefore, to succeed in your campaign bid, make sure you create a funding goal that is easily achievable. Your funding goal should be realistic. If it’s a larger project, you can break the project into bits and campaign for small funding say $25 or $100 at a time instead of higher bids. 30 to 60 days is the most effective time period to run vast majority of crowd funding campaigns.

It could be even worse if you meet your goal but then realize you underestimated how much money you needed. So, you probably need more than what it costs to achieve your project? In that case, you need to have a good financial projection or campaign budget regard your project. If you are rasing moeny for a business, these issues are covered by creating a good business plan for your business at the very start.

 

Just as Craig Mod put it:

 

#5: Be Clear on How to Spend the Money

Most people aren’t going to fund your campaign out of the goodness of their hearts. Your close friends and family will, but the rest of the world want to get something valuable or achieve a goal at the end of your project executions. So what is the benefits of contributing to your project?  For the most part, crowd funding has been used to fund new companies or products in exchange for equity in the company: or simply to receive initial product offerings.

Again; no matter how cool or excited your idea is, most people will want to know if you’ve got a plan that would get you there. You may present a short business plan and an explanation of why the money will take your cause to the next level.

 

Ricebowl project suggests that you:

 

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#6: Leverage Your Social Networks

When it comes to marketing your business online, you need to know who your target audience are and how best to reach them. You need to also decide how far you need to reach out. The best starting point is your circle of trusted friends, families and colleagues who can help spread the word of mouth. If you can get them on board with your idea, they can be your greatest evangelists and project ambassadors.

From there, you’ll have to move beyond friends and convince those targeted audience that will boost your project to its funding goal. This goes back to understanding your product and its targeted audience. Now, ensure you appeal to their interests and reward them by ensuring you fulfill benefits or promises to your project. Offer your audience the rewards they will love to taste, use, hear or feel.

• Are they people who love sports or movies?
• Are they people who love cooking or travels?
• Are they people who want to see a change in the society?

Collaborate with industry social influencer with extensive social network of friends and families who will contribute to get the ball rolling. However, it’s important to note that most of your audience may not be familiar with the crowd funding campaign strategy and how it works. So, tap in to our social media marketing strategy that can easily help you to succeed.

Chances are you’ll also need to use email marketing, and bulk SMS messaging to drive community engagement and build your support networks. Not-for-profit organizations like NGOs can recruit volunteers that can help promote your crowd funding campaign and take your message to the grassroots. Most importantly, be prepared to stay active on social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, X (formally Twitter), YouTube and the rest of them until your crowd funding campaign is completed.

 

Wrapping up: Best Crowdfunding Websites in Nigeria and How to Raise Money for your Cause

Now you have everything you need to choose the best crowdfunding websites in Nigeria and raise money for business using these crowdfunding sites. So what next? If you are confident that your idea is a solid crowd funding candidate, you must prepare to create a campaign by pulling together all the information you’ve got. Just go ahead, setup your campaign on your chosen platform, get approved, and out shine your competitors to win that online donations you need.

Having a big followers on social media to draw from and the ability to offer incentives like branded campaign items like t-shirts or caps are going to be great advantages. You have a finite period to get a large group of investors or supporters to rally around your cause and it is up to you to nail it with all the tools at your disposal.

From knowing your product and its benefits, the people; and with social media to email broadcast…that is how you get your projects noticed and funded. A quick look at the active projects on Impacthub will show that you’ve got a lot of fundraising tools to use. So, you need to stand out, engage your community and close the deal. Let us know if you need help setting up your crowdfunding campaigns. Our fundraising consultants can help your create the best perfuming campaign from start to finish.

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