Frequently Asked Questions

Support Our Story is a crowdfunding platform for creatives that provides automatic coaching to support you on your crowdfunding journey.

10% is our platform fee, this is to cover the coaching we provide you and cover other costs. Stripe, charges a credit-card processing fee of $0.30 per transaction, plus 2.9% of the transaction amount for domestic credit cards and 3.9% for international cards. Our 10% platform fee can be covered by your supporters when they make a contribution to your campaign. On average over 80% of supporters cover the 10% fee.

Yes! Our automatic coaching is covered in the platform fee. In fact, it is designed to provide you with everything you need to run a successful campaign. You will also receive two one-on-one 15-minute coaching sessions with a live coach if you’d like to talk to a human.

Coaching will be sent to you almost daily (via email or text, your choice); you will receive a pre-launch phone call after we approved your campaign, active campaign monitoring and two follow-up calls during your campaign if you want to talk to a coach.

We want to give creators the control to set your goals. This feature allows you to set the minimum amount you need to fund your project. Think of it as your skeleton budget. You must reach this amount to keep the contributions you have received.

Support Our Story currently supports English.

An individual that helps fund creator’s projects by contributing money to their campaign.

Supporters can receive special incentives that the creators offer.

Click on sign up and fill out the information requested.

We are a platform specifically for creatives. With Support Our Story, you can set a minimum goal, actual goal, and stretch goal inside your campaign page. Our most unique feature is the integrated automatic coaching that will support you to reach those financial goals.

You can support a project by contributing money to a creator’s campaign.

Simply click SUPPORT and make a contribution of your choosing using your debit or credit card. You can also scroll down, select an incentive, and then make a contribution.

Your card is charged right away.

You will receive an email confirmation. You can also check your bank statement.

You can check with your financial institution. If the problem persists, please contact us.

There’s no maximum.

There’s a minimum contribution of $1.00.

The charge should say Support Our Story.

To protect everyone’s privacy, there’s no way to contact creators within the Support Our Story platform. You should contact them outside of the platform (for example, on social media).

Once a campaign ends you will not be able to contribute any more funds to that campaign.

No. At this time we only accept credit or debit cards for campaign contributions.

No. At this time we only accept credit cards for campaign contributions.

No, only the creator will be able to see your contribution amount, along with your email address and name (and mailing address if you have supplied it).

Please contact your CPA but most contributions will not be tax deductible since creators are not charities.

At this time we only accept US Dollars. If you’re located in a country outside of the US your contributions will be converted to US currency.

Write to us and we will be able to assist you.

The creator of the campaign will be contacting you to confirm your address prior to shipping your incentive.

If a campaign you supported fails to reach their minimum crowdfunding goal then your contribution is refunded to you.

The creator is responsible to pay for shipping costs.

We screen all campaigns prior to launch.

Simply click on launch a campaign and fill out the information requested. Once you’re ready, submit your campaign for review.

Support Our Story is specifically designed for creatives.

As you start your crowdfunding journey, you will receive automatic coaching in your email box or via text (your choice). This coaching has been designed by a team of experts who have helped raise millions of dollars for countless creative projects. Once your campaign has been approved, you will have a check in with a live coach before your campaign goes live. If you choose to, you will also get two live coaching sessions throughout your campaign. We also monitor all of the campaigns and reach out if we believe you can benefit from receiving additional coaching.

Our platform fee covers three coaching sessions with a live coach: once before you launch, and two during your campaign.

You will be able to access your coaching on your dashboard.

No, our 10% fee covers coaching as an included feature for the Support Our Story platform.

No, the coaching is designed to support you while your campaign is running.

Yes you can, but we strongly suggest you follow the coaching. We have found that creatives that follow the coaching raise much more.

Yes you do, we will give you advice through our coaching on how to create and deliver incentives but you are responsible for them.

The minimum crowdfunding goal should be the least amount of funding your project needs in order to be made. Think about your network and how much you think you can raise. The minimum should be a “doable” goal.

The target crowdfunding goal should be the amount of funding you need to make your project. Think about everyone you can reach to support your project, the target should be an amount that will require work to reach, but not a “Pie in the Sky.”

This should be your dream budget. Be specific as to how you would use these additional funds.

You can edit most of the content on your page except for your financial goals and the time left on your campaign. There are not extensions.

Once a campaign has been launched it cannot be deleted.

If your campaign fails, you can send a request to launch the same campaign to the Support Our Story team and we will decide whether it can be relaunched or not. We will most likely suggest changes to support you the second time around.

You can make an update through the update tab on your campaign page.

No, you gain contributors through your own network. The coaching will teach you how to maximize your reach.

On our coaching you will receive guidance on the best ways to create incentives for your campaigns.

Most support will come from your own network. The Support Our Story team shares some campaigns on social media or newsletters depending on the theme we’re working with.

The campaign will be on your account dashboard or you can find live campaigns by looking them up through the search bar.

You will be able to see a supporters contact information by going to your creator dashboard.

Contact the Support Our Story team.

All campaigns last 30 days.

You should include the shipping cost as part of the incentive.

Absolutely! There is no limit to the amount of funds that a campaign can raise.

No. You can only run one campaign at a time on this platform. By using Support Our Story, you agree to not use any other platform at the same time.

Supporters can contribute from anywhere but you can only launch a campaign in the US.

There is no maximum limit to the amount you can crowdfund on Support Our Story.

The minimum amount that a campaign can crowdfund for is US $1,000.

No.

At this moment only English is available. You can provide a translation to any other languages if you choose to.

We encourage you to use your own materials, if you sample any materials that don’t belong to you, you need to clearly credit the owner.

It takes 14-21 business days to disburse the funds to you.

You cannot crowdfund a project on another platform while your campaign is active on Support Our Story.

Click the "Terms of Use" link at the bottom of this page or any page.

As a rule of thumb, you cannot offer a job for payment, any adult services, or controlled substances.

You are not allowed to crowdfund for charity, non-creative projects, pornographic content, or projects that violate the terms of service.

You can use a US Tax ID.

You can use your US Tax ID instead.

A chargeback is a return of funds back to the account of the person that was charged.

A supporter may occasionally dispute a charge with their card issuer after we’ve transferred the funds to your bank account. If this happens, you’ll be notified that a dispute has been filed and will be able to provide evidence to help us resolve it in your favor. If the dispute is found valid, you authorize us to charge your contingency credit card for your share of the initial pledge. (If the amount of the dispute is $500 or greater, we will charge your card when the dispute is opened and issue a refund if and when the dispute is found invalid.) Supporters can dispute a contribution by contacting their card issuer after funds have already been transferred to your bank account. In this instance, the Support Our Story team will notify you of filed transaction disputes. You can provide evidence to our team to resolve the dispute in support of you. If the charge dispute is established to be valid, then we are authorized to return the contribution through your contingency credit card. (In case $500 or more is in dispute, we are authorized to charge you when the file is opened and issue a refund if the dispute is established to be invalid.)

Yes, if our terms of service are violated then your campaign will be suspended.