Please note: The Kickstarter Pledge Manager will only become available after your project has launched.
Kickstarter’s Pledge Manager is an easy way to gather all the information you need in order to fulfill your backers’ rewards in one place, including collecting taxes and shipping costs closer to fulfillment time. There is no up front cost to using this tool. Kickstarter will deduct our usual fees from any payments made within the pledge manager.
If your project meets the criteria to use the Kickstarter Pledge Manager, you can start setting up the pledge manager for your campaign after it launches by selecting ‘Pledge manager’ from the creator navigation bar, located on the left side of your project page.
The pledge manager consists of sections that need to be completed before launching it. Some are optional, and you can choose to skip these. When you’re ready to begin completing a section, simply click the “Start” button next to it.
- Welcome message (Optional)
The ‘Welcome message (Optional)’ section will be automatically set up with a generic introductory message to your pledge manager, that your backers will see. You can personalize this to make it more relevant to your project, including adding images or embedding links. This space can be used to thank your backers, share additional information, or direct people to your website.
- Configure rewards and add-ons (Optional)
You can use this section to configure specific reward tiers and add-ons to be available for backers through the pledge manager. This includes the option for backers to upgrade their reward, choose add-ons, and even make it possible for new backers to purchase available rewards after your campaign has ended. You can set your pledge manager to be available for new backers by toggling it on at the top of the page:
In this section you’ll see a list of your project’s existing rewards and add-ons. For each one you can select whether or not to offer it in the pledge manager, as well as set the price and quantity limits. You will also be able to add brand new rewards and add-ons to be available specifically in the pledge manager.
When a backer adds or upgrades a reward in their pledge manager order, their survey will update to include any questions relating to the items that make up the reward. As with when your campaign was live, physical add-ons will only be available for backers who pledged to a physical reward tier.
- Create survey (Optional)
The backer survey helps you collect your backers’ addresses, reward preferences, and any additional information you need in order to fulfill rewards. The steps for completing this section can be found here.
- Finalize shipping costs
If you chose not to charge shipping during your campaign backers will have been shown an estimated shipping cost range for their pledge, but no shipping fee was charged. Now is the time to finalize the shipping amount each backer will need to pay, based on their reward tier, any add-ons, and their location.
You will have the option to charge weight-based or flat rate shipping for each reward. More information about charging shipping through the pledge manager can be found here.
If shipping was charged at pledge, you can review these costs in the pledge manager. However, please note that it won’t be possible to make any changes to the previously set costs. Backers will only be asked to pay additional shipping costs if they upgrade their reward, add available add-ons to their order, or change their shipping country before completing the pledge manager checkout.
- Add tax information for your items
Kickstarter’s Pledge Manager (which is operated by its subsidiary Project Partners, LLC) is legally required to calculate, collect, and remit applicable sales/use tax on your behalf. To help us accurately calculate this, we’ll need you to complete the following for each reward item:
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Select a category. To help us understand what each item is, choose a category from our list of commonly offered items.
- If you can’t find a category that matches your item exactly, choose the closest option from the list. When you submit your pledge manager for review, our team will review these item categories and reach out to you if they have any questions.
- Add the market value. This amount represents the MSRP (Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price); or the cost you would sell it for individually in the market.
- Add a tariff surcharge. This option will only be available for creators who have requested use of the Tariff Manager tool.
- Configure your shipping origin.
To help us correctly determine certain (but not all) taxes owed by a backer and who is responsible for remitting those certain taxes, we need to know where you will be shipping their reward from. You can add as many shipping origins as needed.
When adding a shipping origin, you will need to enter both the ship-from address and the countries this location will be shipping to. For example, if you have a shipping origin in France, you may only plan to ship to other European countries from this location, while your shipping origin in Canada may be used for all North American countries.
Every country selected by one of your backers must be assigned to a shipping origin. If there are countries missing an assigned location, they will be displayed under ‘Not assigned’.
If you only offered digital rewards, the shipping origin should be the address where you intend to send the digital assets from. This may be your home or an office address.
- Add your tax information
Please note that this section will only need to be completed if you are a creator shipping rewards to or from the UK or EU.
The pledge manager offers the ability to collect sales tax or value-added tax (VAT) on transactions for backers who reside in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the European Union.
Here you’ll need to enter your UK VAT ID or EU One Stop Shop (OSS) VAT Number, or let us know if you do not have a VAT ID, to help us calculate the tax for certain transactions. If no VAT ID is provided, and you are not an EU or UK-based creator, you must check the box to opt-out and confirm that applicable VAT collection is being facilitated through a shipping company.
If you are a creator with multiple VAT IDs, after finalizing your shipping costs and configuring your shipping origin, we’ll automatically show you which countries require a VAT ID based on the information you have provided.
Additionally, you’ll verify your office address (the address currently associated with your project). If you need to make any changes to the address we currently hold for you, simply click the “Edit in Stripe” button to update this through our payments processor, Stripe.
To learn more about how Kickstarter is approaching tax collection, check out our VAT and US sales tax articles.
- Preview pledge manager
Once all required sections have been completed, you will be able to preview what the pledge manager will look like as a backer. To do this, scroll down to the bottom of the Pledge manager page for your project, where you’ll see a “Preview” button. Click this button to begin the preview process, and make the following selections:
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- Backer entry point: Choose when the backer whose experience you’re previewing backed your project. This may be during the crowdfunding campaign, through late pledging, or as a new backer through the pledge manager after it has launched.
- Backer location: Select where your hypothetical backer is located.
- Reward tier: If you chose “Crowdfunding campaign,” select which reward tier the backer pledged for.
- Add-ons: If you chose “Crowdfunding campaign” and selected a reward tier, add any add-ons that your hypothetical backer may have included in their pledge.
Once your selections have been made, click “Preview as backer” to launch the preview. In this view, you will see all of the steps your backer will go through when they complete the pledge manager. As you navigate through these steps, you will also see a running tally of the order total, including the cost of rewards, add-ons, and any shipping or tax that is due.
Please note: This is a preview only and you will not be able to complete the pledge manager in this view. Additionally, at this time it isn’t possible to preview the pledge manager as a specific backer of your project, however we may add that capability in the future.
- Launch pledge manager
Once all required sections have been completed, we recommend double-checking everything is correct before launching. You can do so by clicking “Edit” or “Resume” on a section from the main pledge manager page. When you’re ready to launch your pledge manager, click the “Submit for review” button. The pledge manager review by our Trust & Safety team can take up to 5 business days. In the event that they have questions about your pledge manager during the review phase, they will contact you directly via email.
When your pledge manager is approved for launch you can go ahead and click the “Launch” button to send it to your backers. Once launched you will be able to view the information added to each section of your pledge manager by clicking the “Settings” button.
After launching your pledge manager, your backers who have paid in full will be notified by email that they need to enter the pledge manager, finalize their address, review their order, and pay any applicable shipping and taxes. If you have enabled Pledge Over Time and there are any backers who have not completed all of their payments yet, they will not be able to enter the pledge manager until all of their payments are complete. Those backers will be notified via email when they are able to join the pledge manager.
You can keep track of how many backers have completed their order on the pledge manager page. After you launch, you can also see all of your pledge manager configuration by clicking the Settings button.
- Close the Pledge Manager
Your pledge manager must remain open for at least 3 weeks for all backers. After that time, you can go back to your pledge manager page and click “Close pledge manager”. We will then send an email to any backers who have not yet completed the checkout process informing them that they have 48 hours to complete it. Once you close the pledge manager, you’ll then be able to lock backer addresses when you are ready to begin fulfilling rewards.
When should I launch my pledge manager?
The pledge manager should be launched when you are ready to begin production and fulfillment of your rewards, and you need to start collecting item preferences and shipping addresses. You can configure and edit your pledge manager before that time, but only click “Launch” when you’re ready to fulfill those orders.
Please note: After your pledge manager has launched it won’t be possible to make any changes. We recommend double-checking everything is correct, and that nothing crucial is missing, before you send it to your backers.
How do Late Pledges work alongside the pledge manager?
To launch your pledge manager you will first need to end Late Pledges. When you launch the pledge manager, a notification will be sent to everyone who has backed your campaign so far.
Ending Late Pledges doesn’t mean new backers can no longer join your project, though. When configuring the rewards in your pledge manager you will see an option to allow new backers at the top of this page. When this toggle is turned on, we’ll automatically activate your project’s Spotlight page with a button linking to your pledge manager. You can also share the URL of your launched Kickstarter Pledge Manager with any potential backers and they’ll be able to pledge for available rewards.
Related articles:
- How to build your Backer Survey
- Can backers update their shipping address?
- How will Kickstarter approach VAT collection in the pledge manager?
- Tax Collection in the United States
- How do I know if a reward item is taxable?
- Where can I find my backer’s pledge manager or survey responses?
- How can I use the downloaded backer report?