Indiegogo would not be where it is today without our incredible community of backers. You come together on our platform to make the ideas that matter to you come to life. You’re changing the world every time you contribute to a campaign, and we want to make sure that you feel confident that those amazing projects that you’re excited to back will come to life. Back in December, we shared what our Trust and Safety team does to make sure Indiegogo is a place you can trust. But our work didn’t start or stop there. Because of what we’ve heard from you, we’ve made some changes in the ongoing effort to make sure our backer community always feels supported.

Disclosure of Product Stage

What makes crowdfunding special is that backers are making it possible for brand new ideas to exist. This means that when these projects launch, they can be anywhere in the product lifecycle – from the concept stage, all the way to shipping and even retail. We’re proud to help entrepreneurs wherever they are, but we understand that because every project is different, determining the risk associated with it can be challenging, especially if you’ve never done it before. Our goal is to give you the context you need to make a more informed decision before backing a campaign.

We want to make it easier for you. We now require Tech and Innovation entrepreneurs to select which Product Stage they are in, from Concept to Shipping. We’ve also clarified exactly what each stage means and the risks associated, especially for concept-stage campaigns. We value quality, honesty and accountability, so we are committed to verifying that entrepreneurs really are where they say they are in product development, and make changes if necessary.

Monthly Backer Updates

Once you’ve backed a campaign, we know how exciting it is to get updates on the projects you support. When you contributed, you signed up to see what goes on behind-the-scenes. When you buy a product in a big-box store, you don’t get to connect with entrepreneurs and hear their stories. We want to make sure that you get all of the nitty gritty details, so we made some improvements to entrepreneur communication.

We now require our entrepreneurs to update their backers at least once a month about the status of the project. Photos of warehouses, videos of the team at work, we want it all!  Learn more about our policy changes here.

Experts to Help You Get Your Perks

We also know that when you back a project, you want to get the perk that was offered to you by the entrepreneur.

Thanks to a group of amazing partners including IBM and Arrow Electronics, we’re making it easier for entrepreneurs to navigate the complicated process of creating, manufacturing, and shipping a product. We also want to make it easier for you to see the ideas that inspire you make it into the world.

We can’t make any promises on behalf of the entrepreneurs on our platform, and we can’t guarantee that every incredible idea will come to life, but we’re doing everything we can to help with any challenges that come up. In the rare occasion that our Terms of Use are violated we will even use collections agencies, but we hope that we never have to.

Every day, our community of backers discover and delight in the innovations on our platform. We know that to keep this magic going, we have to make sure it’s easy for our backers to assess the risks of backing, stay updated along the way, and ultimately get the perks and products they helped bring into the world – like the ones that started shipping last month.

Together, we’re bringing the world the newest ideas and the most ingenious innovations. Thank you for joining us, we can’t do it without you.