A Kickstarter Profile for Nonprofits: How to Engage Backers Online

This is a study of backers on the crowdfunding website Kickstarter. Crowdfunding is a new form of e-philanthropy that has nonprofits wondering how they can use it to their advantage. Kickstarter is one of the most well-known and stable websites and has strong connections to the arts, making it ideal for testing. I use a quantitative survey to determine demographics and motivation of backers on the site. I found that a significant amount of work is needed to run a Kickstarter campaign, even though it is simple to use. Kickstarter cannot be used by nonprofits to build or fill holes in a budget. Its format is not designed to generate intrinsic or donor mindsets in its audience. Backers on Kickstarter have a consumer mindset build around the creation of a project. Nonprofits can still use Kickstarter for projects tailored to the site, but they need to thoroughly examine if Kickstarter is the right tool for them.M.S., Arts Administration -- Drexel University, 201