Crowdfunding allows you to raise funds for yourself, someone you know, or your local community. The purpose of a Crowdfunder is to financially support personal or medical costs, improvements to local amenities, and generally finance societal good.
Crowdfunding is very
different to Fundraising on iDonate, where the latter involves raising money for registered charities and causes. There are different procedures for starting a Crowdfunder, here is what you need to know.
How to Register a Crowdfunder
The first step is to fill in your details as requested on the registration page. You will need to add an email address and password that has not previously been used on iDonate, as your login details need to be unique.
In the section labelled "Why you're raising funds", you can write a description of your Crowdfunder which potential donors will see, so be sure to describe the reason for your page well.
You will be required to provide an Eircode and mobile number. These are for verification purposes, so they will need to be accurate.
Crowdfunder Verification
Before your Crowdfunder can go live, you will need to complete some verification steps. Specifically, you will need to verify your email, phone number, and your identity.
To verify your email, you simply need to click on the link sent to your inbox. Phone verification is similar, we will send a code via SMS which you can enter to confirm your number.
The last step is ID verification, which is crucial for preventing potential scams. This is mostly a liveness test, to prove that there is a human being behind the registration.
You can complete this step by logging into your new account, in your dashboard. In the menu on the left side of your dashboard, you'll see an option labelled Verification. Click this, then press the 'Click Here to Get Verified' button.
This will take you through the ID verification process, you'll be asked to provide a picture of your photo ID (driver's licence, passport, etc.) and take a selfie to compare. This is often best done with your phone in order to use the camera.
Add your Bank Details
Once your identity has been verified, your page will be approved and go live straight away. You can begin sharing the page, and taking donations from that point on.
The last step to complete your registration is to add your bank details. This can also be done in your dashboard, on the main page you'll see a prompt to add your bank details, with a link to do so.
Add your bank details here and save them, this is where your funds will be sent going forward. Payments are made monthly, all donations received within a calendar month will be transferred to your bank in a single payment, early in the following month. Payments are sent on or close to the 10th of each month.