Barnraiser was officially launched in 2018, and has quickly gained a dedicated following. This is a crowdfunding platform based in the US only, for now, and focuses on funding sustainable, healthy food projects. The registration process is simple, and the project page will be posted in a category such as healthy snacks, small batch, gluten free, craft spirits, chocolate, teas, plant-based diets, and so on, depending on the focus of your project. The focus is on sustainable, healthy living, and was founded to support farmers and cooks with this vision in mind. This crowdfunding site is targeted towards food and farming, but journalists, artists, software developers, teachers, and activists can all start a page on Barnraiser, provided that they focus on food, and share the ethos of the site: sustainability and health for humans and the planet alike.
Barnraiser supports projects across the US, and you can search for projects close to you using the localized search function – which keeps with the platform’s focus on supporting local businesses. On the “discover” page, you will be able to filter the projects based on what you want, ranging from everything, to being able to type in the exact product you want, and based on where you’re looking for it – be it across the whole of the US, or right down to the town you live in. This feature is just for finding local businesses, but to check out the crowdfunding projects, you should head to the “contribute” page. Here you can sort the projects by most funded, most popular, and recently added – it would be nice to see a platform with a search filter for projects that need a bit of love, especially as crowdfunding has now become so popular.
The rewards of Barnraiser’s campaigns work just like with the other crowdfunding websites, with the rewards getting better the more you’re willing to support the project. Rewards range from nutritional consultations, to organic soaps, from signed copies of books, to taster packs of the projects you’re backing. Barnraiser claims that it is one of the most successful crowdfunding sites, with an astonishing 82% success rate. This could be due to the fact, however, that the average target funding is significantly lower than most projects on other crowdfunding websites. Barnraiser says this is because farmers and those in food production need a lot less money to make a very big difference. The minimum project target is $1,000, and most projects aim for between $10k and $30k.
Similarly to Kickstarter, Barnraiser operates on a tilt model, meaning that the full amount must be raised for the funds to be deducted from supporters’ accounts, and released to the project creators. This can be seen as an incentive for all to share and promote the project, so that the creators will get the money they need, and the backers get the product they’re happy to pay for and support – and often that they’ll be quite passionate about.