The Crowd Supply Guide: Your Campaign Has Ended, Now What?

There are three ways a campaign can end: funded, unfunded, or suspended. Below, we describe what happens and what you need to do for each scenario.

After a Campaign Funds Successfully

Stuff Crowd Supply Will Do

Here’s what you can expect from Crowd Supply when your campaign successfully funds.

• Transfer of Funds: Crowd Supply will send you the funds collected from your backers. Note that if your campaign has reached its funding goal before the campaign's end-date you have the option of collecting your funds then or waiting until the official end-date. While it can be advantageous to access the capital early (e.g., you can start manufacturing earlier), there are also downsides such as incurring multiple banking transaction fees or more complex tax liabilities and accounting. For details on fees and pricing, see the "How are Funds Received?" page.
• Transition to Pre-order: If you've reached an agreement with Crowd Supply on the terms of an initial purchase order for your products, then your your crowdfunding page will be archived under the "funded on" link on the campaign page and the project page will be updated accordingly. For example, the pricing, availability, and estimated delivery dates of your products might differ between crowdfunding and pre-order. Note that the URL to your page will NOT change.
• Fulfillment: As soon as we receive product from you, we will start shipping orders to your backers first, and then to anyone who placed a pre-order. There are a couple of details you'll need to take care of to get shipping started:
  • Finalize packaging
  • Coordinate product delivery to our warehouse, including payment for any tariffs, customs, etc.

Stuff You Need To Do

You’ve hit a big milestone, but there’s still lots for you to do:

• Manufacturing plan/progress updates You should have been working all along to ensure your manufacturing plan is on track and that product will available when you've said it would be. In any case, you'll want to issue an update with projected ship dates very soon so that backers know when to expect their stuff. You should continue keeping backers up-to-date on the manufacturing progress via project updates.
• Prepare for shipping and fulfillment Finalize your packaging and make arrangements to ship your product to the CS warehouse.
• Prepare for transition to sales Ideally, every successfully funded product continues to be available on Crowd Supply after the campaign. The way we accomplish this is simple - we buy inventory from you and continue to sell it for as long as there is demand. Before the end of the campaign, you and Crowd Supply should agree to the terms of an initial purchase order.

After Your Campaign Fails to Fund or Is Suspended

So the end date of your campaign came, or you decided to suspend it, and you did not meet your funding goal. Don’t be downcast, you’ve actually accomplished a lot. You can take what you learned about your project and your supporters and use the information to modify your project, your outreach, and/or your price points and manufacturing plans. You probably also received some invaluable feedback from backers and you started to build a community who can help you launch another project.

Stuff Crowd Supply Will Do

Here’s what you can expect from Crowd Supply:

• Backers will not be charged anything.
• You will not be charged anything.
• While we do not release individual backer data, you will be able to update your backers to let them know your status.
• The status of your campaign page will be changed to "Time Expired" or "Suspended". The page will continue to be accessible at the same URL, but will no longer be listed in our "browse" section. In the interests of transparency, we will not take down any campaign pages. Doing so would be re-writing history and would send the message that we don't stand by our work.
• We'll send you a post-campaign exit survey to help understand what happened and help us improve.

Stuff You Need To Do

There are just a few loose strings you’ll need to tie up.

• You will need to publish an update to thank backers, let them know the campaign did not successfully fund, and tell them your plans for the future, as you see fit. This may also be a good time to solicit additional feedback by sending out a survey.
• If you sent us any prototypes or other materials for creating videos, images, etc., be sure to arrange for their return.

Question not answered here? Contact us to see how we can help.

The Crowd Supply Guide: Table of Contents

For Everyone

• Proclamation of User Rights

For Backers

• Supporting Crowd Supply Projects
• Ordering, Paying, Shipping: All the Details
• How are Backers Protected?

For Creators

Getting Started

• When and How Should I Submit my Project to Crowd Supply?
• The Life Cycle of a Crowd Supply Campaign
• Why Projects are Rejected

Before Your Campaign Launches

• Define Your Community, Write Your User
• Building Your Open Source Community
• Why Open Source?
• Set Funding Goals
• Properly Price your Product
• Marketing and PR
• Campaign Photography: Creating Stills and Videos
• Working with Manufacturers
• Understanding CE Certification
• Writing Style Guide

During Your Campaign

• Communicate With Your Backers
• Order Policies & Procedures

After Your Campaign Concludes

• Your Campaign Has Ended, Now What?
• Fulfillment & Logistics
• Solicit Field Reports
• How Are Funds Received?
• When are Funds Received?