BackerKit Crowdfunding Rules

We're cultivating a space where creators can build amazing things with their backers, and creativity and innovation thrive. We invite creators to bring forth and share a variety of projects, including games, gadgets, comics, art, crafts, events, and unique experiences.

Our guidelines do not exhaust all potential uses of BackerKit, but they provide a framework for acceptable conduct. We maintain discretion over determining project suitability for our platform and each project will be reviewed prior to launch to ensure compliance with our rules.

To run a project on BackerKit, you must agree to follow these guidelines.

You must make something new to share with backers. 

You can create something exclusively for your backers or make something more broadly available to the world. What you make is up to you, but you must produce something to share with others. We encourage you to draw inspiration from previous projects. You may adopt an approach from another project, but direct copying is not permitted.

You must be candid in your project presentation and communications.

Transparency and honesty are pillars of our community. Creators must be sincere about what they hope to accomplish and how they plan to make it happen. They must communicate clearly and truthfully and cannot mislead people, misrepresent any aspect of their project, or manipulate the number of backers or amount pledged.

If your project involves manufacturing and distributing something complex, like a gadget, you must follow these additional guidelines:

• Working prototypes are required. Your project must prominently feature images or videos of a working prototype that accurately represents your product's current state of development. You must clearly demonstrate your prototype's present capabilities and limitations and disclose any functionality that has not yet been developed.
• Deceptive images are not allowed. Using computer-generated imagery or special effects to demonstrate non-existent features or functionalities is not permissible. You must not alter videos and photos of your prototype to mimic functionality your prototype does not yet support.

Your BackerKit project must not include any of the following prohibited items or activities:

• Offensive material (e.g., hate speech, calls to violence) or any content that promotes harm, discrimination, bigotry, or intolerance towards protected or marginalized groups
• Substances or products that are illegal, banned, or regulated (e.g. alcohol, narcotics, tobacco, paraphernalia, pharmaceuticals) and any medical practices, claims, treatment, equipment, or related paraphernalia
• Content that is, in our sole discretion, materially false, inaccurate, or misleading in a way that could deceive or confuse others about important events, topics, or circumstances.
• Weapons (e.g., knives, explosives, firearms), replicas of weapons, and weapon accessories
• Equity offers, returns on investment (ROI), money-processing, annuities, credit services, or cryptocurrencies
• Contests, coupons, gambling, raffles, or any activity with an entry fee
• Animals, livestock, produce, or any regulated food or drink items

Due to requirements applied by our payment processors and financial partners, we are required to prohibit any content not listed here that may violate their Terms of Service.

Should your project include items or activities not mentioned here or that you are uncertain about, or may be subject to more specific regulations, we encourage you to contact us at trustandsafety@backerkit.com before starting your project.

Reselling products and duplicate projects are not permitted.

We do not allow creators to launch projects that are duplicates of those previously run or currently running on other crowdfunding platforms, or to repackage a previously-created product without adding anything new or aiming to iterate on the idea in any way. All rewards must have been produced or designed by the project or one of its creators. We do not permit reselling of items acquired elsewhere. 

Products that infringe on intellectual property rights are not permitted.

We do not allow any products or services that directly infringe or facilitate infringement upon the trademark, patent, copyright, trade secrets, proprietary or privacy rights of any third party. This includes the sales or distribution of music, movies, software, or any other licensed materials without appropriate authorization.

You can read more about BackerKit’s approach to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) and copyright infringement in our Terms of Service.

Raising funds solely for a political, charity, or nonprofit organization is not allowed.

Only funds that exceed the goal for a project’s budget that are intended for charity or NPOs may be permitted, and must be outlined on the project before launch. This must be clearly presented for backers, and cannot be added once the project has launched. Any intended recipients of funds raised are subject to review.

Your crowdfunding project must not contain content or assets solely created using generative AI tools.

“AI-generated content" refers to images, videos, and text crafted using artificial intelligence tools trained on pre-existing datasets. When uploading content as part of promotion and the final product of your project, we request that you follow these guidelines:

• The content and all of its assets must be originally created by a human
• AI tools are permissible for making adjustments to human-created content
• Adjustments made using AI tools must not significantly transform the final product to the point where the original human-created content is no longer distinguishable

As part of our review process, you may receive an email outreach from our Trust & Safety team to determine the suitability of content for your project. As part of our standard process, all content will be reviewed prior to launch to ensure compliance with our rules and to set projects up for success.

You can read more about our statement regarding AI-generated content on BackerKit here.

Projects are allowed to include NSFW content.

Creators may include mature or “Not Safe For Work” (“NSFW”) content in their projects, such as text, images, or videos, which may depict violence, nudity, or sexual content. All content is subject to review and may be flagged or removed if it does not meet BackerKit or our payment processor’s guidelines for “prohibited items or activities", such as pornographic content.

BackerKit users are able to set their content preferences for NSFW content here. If you feel your project has been incorrectly designated as NSFW, or have any additional questions or require guidance regarding NSFW content, please contact our Trust & Safety team at trustandsafety@backerkit.com.

Your previous crowdfunding projects must be in good standing. 

If you’ve run crowdfunding projects before, either on BackerKit or another platform, we require evidence that you have either delivered rewards, or made substantial progress toward completing the project. It is in our discretion to disallow projects from creators that have not shipped rewards from past projects or have violated guidelines on another platform.

You must use BackerKit's pledge manager post-campaign in order to fulfill your rewards.

In order to export your data cleanly for fulfillment, we require that you survey your backers via BackerKit's pledge management tool after the campaign.

Projects are expected to follow these guidelines after they have launched. 

If a project is suspected to be in violation of these guidelines after launching, our team may reach out to the creator and the project may be suspended or removed pending review.

If you are unsure if the content for your project meets these guidelines, please do not hesitate to get in touch with our team at trustandsafety@backerkit.com so that we may assist further. Our aim is to ensure that creators using BackerKit are informed about our guidelines, and, provided they adhere to them, are set up for success.