Practical and proven tools for crowdfunding success
Free yourself from investors and banks and raise capital directly from your customers through rewards-based crowdfunding. We have a 95% campaign success rate.
Founders invest substantial time and capital into building and marketing their brands. Raising capital is an uphill battle when you’re trying to build a company and adding on the stress of reporting to investors, multiplying their financial returns or paying back an increasing interest on loans is the last thing that you need. Healthy sales and revenue is the foundation of every successful business so why not pool your resources to build demand for your product?
Through the act of raising small amounts of money from a large group of people in exchange for goods and services.
This alternative path to funding helps founders access customers, capital and partners who join early and become invested in the success of the brand.
Best part? You and your community control the direction of your business, not investors.
Instead of simply providing another platform for campaigns to raise money without any help, UpEffect employs industry best practices to ensure founders are creating exceptional campaign pages and building a crowd to back their projects.
In essence, UpEffect allows smaller fish that get neglected on larger platforms to convert their powerful ideas into successful campaigns, not only to meet a funding target but also to successfully launch a product to a loyal customer base. This is especially important for social entrepreneurs who have powerful ideas but don’t know where to begin.
Get tangible guidelines on how to build your campaign
Film script template
Campaign project management: our crowdfunding playbook is made of 100+ milestones designed around your campaign requirements to help you acquire backers and customers
Feedback on all materials
2x Office Hours for 1:1 campaign strategy
Rewards, Pledge, Funding goal, Network calculators
Accountability check-ins to help you meet your goals
One annual Impact Assessment Report post campaign completion
How-to guides on marketing, sales and growth, team, product, operations and more
One review and edit of the campaign page, film script, email workflow, ebook and blog posts
Email workflow of 15 templates for communicating with prospective backers
If your funding goal is (£)
Then the UpEffect initial fee of £199 + 5% success fee (excl Stripe fees) will be £199.00.
If the campaign is unsuccessful, you will only pay £199.
Environmentally friendly clothing inspired by people's stories through artistic expression. 50% of profits are shared with our partner NGOs.
“Using UpEffect for our crowdfunding launch was an important first step for our social enterprise. The UpEffect team gave us the structure and direction needed to successfully reach our fundraising goal of £10,000 - a target that we thought was beyond our reach. With genuine interest in our social objective and close help from their team, we wouldn't be where we are today without UpEffect.”
Aghiles Ourad
Founder of Thraedable
Raised £11,740
When social enterprises are denied capital, we all miss out. We help founders reach socially conscious customers, access our funding pot and learn on our campaign tools for crowdfunding success.
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We were crowdfunding for the first time and UpEffect hugely supported us with personalised coaching and effective tools. With their expert guidance at every step, our campaign was a 100% success! Their entire coaching process was tailored to our needs and has empowered us to execute crowdfunding campaigns confidently.
I loved the professionalism of UpEffect's team, the great pieces of advice on the marketing strategy for the campaign, the way to approach the press and influencers, the feedback on content and visuals. In a nutshell, the permanent strive for making us ready for the launch, maximizing our chances of success.
UpEffect are doing an incredible job for social entrepreneurs, they are a very dedicated, hardworking and supportive team who guided us every step of the way and really cared about our mission. Thank you UpEffect!
UpEffect had amazing one on one support in the lead up and throughout the campaign! Sheeza provided knowledgeable and actionable advice which was very helpful in creating a successful campaign!
UpEffect is very important and is pioneering in creating social change. The platform is great! The team is always available! The UpEffect team has been incredible in answering our troubleshooting questions in split-seconds!
UpEffect has certainly surpassed my expectation for a crowdfunding platform. The team is very supportive and available 24x7, always on their toes, solving issues faster than you can raise them. There are so many social problems in the world, many problem solvers and so many people who are willing to support. Something like UpEffect is so much needed. Many more crowdfunding campaigns to come from me.
My experience with UpEffect was wonderful. From regular Skype sessions, to make sure we were on track, to valuable guidance on marketing and filmmaking, I had a thorough learning experience interacting with you. Once again, I cannot thank you enough for your support. Moreover, your flexibility in times of unexpected issues was extremely helpful and I appreciate you for it.
Using UpEffect for our crowdfunding launch was an important first step for our social enterprise. The UpEffect team gave us the structure and direction needed to successfully reach our fundraising goal of £10,000 - a target that we thought was beyond our reach. With genuine interest in our social objective and close help from their team, we wouldn't be where we are today without UpEffect.
UpEffect opened the doors to our personal and professional networks - avenues all capital hungry social startups must look into
I travel the world and wherever I go, I tell people about UpEffect. The work of UpEffect is very important in helping more people start successful social businesses
My utmost gratitude goes to team UpEffect for being there day and night for the past 4 months of our pre-launch preps. Knowing the fact they only support campaigns offering ethical products that are good for people and the planet. Very friendly and approachable team. Their want to succeed was almost infective as it catches up with you and you won't settle for less after that! It was fun and exciting working with your team.
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Should I crowdfund before raising investment?
Getting feedback from customers is a key component to building a successful product and company. Crowdfunding is an inexpensive way of reaching thousands of potential customers and finding out what they think. Most new businesses depend on some form of marketing to reach customers, with crowdfunding, you're able to create urgency around a funding goal. With this approach, you're able to test demand for your idea prior to investing in manufacturing, inventory, hiring staff, building a website or other expenses. This allows you to focus on revenue, retain ownership and build your business on your own terms which makes your venture more attractive to investors if that is what you're after. Investment has its place in business but we believe having a successful crowdfunding campaign under your belt means you're able to steer the ship in a direction that is on your terms.
What type of crowdfunding does UpEffect offer?
We're a rewards-based crowdfunding platform. We encourage creators to offer tangible goods and services as incentives to backers in exchange for their financial support. Our creators typically create pre-order campaigns to build demand for products and/or services.
How is UpEffect different to Kickstarter or Indiegogo?
UpEffect was founded to eliminate the biggest problems plaguing the crowdfunding industry: low success rates and harmful products. Campaigns on most crowdfunding platforms suffer from limited curation, lack of personalised support and are mass-market focused which is why over 60% of campaigns fail. Furthermore, most platforms do not hold their campaigns or creators to any ethical standards. 9% of Kickstarter campaigns have failed to deliver a single reward to supporters, essentially pocketing the crowdfunded money. In stark contrast, UpEffect’s enterprise solution approach and campaign consultant model drives our 95% success rate, the highest in the crowdfunding industry. Instead of simply providing another platform for campaigns to raise money without any help, we employ industry best practices to ensure founders are creating exceptional campaign pages and building a “crowd” to back their projects. In essence, UpEffect allows smaller fish that get neglected on larger platforms to convert their powerful ideas into successful campaigns, not only to meet a funding target but also to successfully launch a product to a loyal customer base. We understand if you're after a "big" crowdfunding platform. That's not us. We're not on a mission to build a hyper growth business or a unicorn. For us, our creators and backers come first and we have a vested interest in making this business succeed. The two founders are also UpEffect's only shareholders. We have no investors and intend to keep it this way. By building a profitable business and focusing on growing the team who have ownership in the business, we're able to dedicate our time and resources to what is most important to us: supporting socially responsible businesses raise capital to build a better world. We move slowly and modestly at UpEffect; this allows us to test, iterate, improve and create services that cater to the evolving needs of our creators. This also allows us to learn and become students of the process. We believe this puts us in a strong position to equip our founders with the right tools, funding and knowledge to solve global poverty, illiteracy, social injustice, climate change and more.
Am I a fit for UpEffect?
If you are tired of pitching for funding, struggling to navigate crowdfunding, in need of structure and discipline or unsure how to build a profitable business without investment, we're the right platform for you. We're dedicated to improving access to funding for founders bettering our world; this means creating opportunities and removing barriers to entry, in particular ones placed by banks, investors and other crowdfunding platforms that frequently overlook founders of colour, social entrepreneurs and female founders. More details on our criteria can be found here but we encourage you to apply if you're unsure.
What are Stripe fees?
All payments are processed by Stripe and their fee is 1.9% + 20p per transaction for European cards and 2.9% + 20p per transaction for non-European cards.
Is there a minimum term?
For £199, you get 30-days of personalised campaign support. If you find value in our service, we encourage you to opt for additional months of support while you're preparing for your campaign launch. We don't automatically charge creators for additional months; you're only charged for the first 30 days and we will ask you how you wish to proceed once this period is complete. You are, however, contractually bound to run your campaign on UpEffect before leaving for another crowdfunding platform. We pour our heart and soul into helping our creators succeed and we believe it's only fair we share in your success if you decide to crowdfund.
Do I get to keep what I’ve raised?
To create a sense of urgency around the live campaign, we implement an all-or-nothing model, which helps set targets and also offer protection to backers so that campaign creators are only able to collect their funds once they have met their minimum funding goal. This means that entrepreneurs are continuously motivated to ensure they succeed. This is also a good way of building credibility as backers are more comfortable supporting an idea that they know campaign creators are serious about making a reality.
Do you do the work for us?
No, sorry! We believe creators should be at the forefront of building genuine and direct relationships with their audience and no agency or third party will be able to do justice to this. Our £199 fee covers the cost of our Creator Toolkit which includes resources, calculators, planners, accountability check-ins, coaching sessions and reviewing your content. The goal of the Creator plan is to equip you with tools so that you can architect a loyal community and reach 100% of your funding goal. Our 5% success fee covers the cost of our platform, technology and support.
Do I need to be incorporated?
Yes as you will need a verified Stripe Business account to crowdfund with UpEffect
How much time do I need to commit?
This depends on your funding goal but we recommend a minimum of two months. Our Funding Goal Calculator will help you determine what the right goal is for your campaign and based on that, we can advise on the right timeframe. You are only required to sign up for one month of the Creator plan with UpEffect.
What is the minimum or maximum I can raise?
The minimum is £1,000. There is no maximum, however, we recommend setting realistic goals that you can explain to your community of backers. We also suggest calculating how much capital you need to build a profitable business in the next 18 months and using that as your guideline to determine your funding goal. Our Rewards and Funding Goal Calculators available as part of our Creator Toolkit will help you with this.
What countries do you support?
Please see here for a list of companies supported by Stripe
What is a success fee?
We apply a 5% success fee when you complete your crowdfunding campaign. All payments are processed by Stripe and their fee is 1.9% + 20p per transaction for European cards and 2.9% + 20p per transaction for non-European cards. If you don't meet your funding goal, no fees are applied.
I don't have £199. Can I still crowdfund?
If you have a constrained budget, we encourage you to still apply and let us know about your situation. We'll do our absolute best to help you.
Who is behind UpEffect?
We're a small team of three who share a passion for improving the world and have dedicated much of our careers to serving society through non-profits and community work.
How can I contact you?
We’d love to hear from you! You can reach us at hello@theupeffect.com
