What is the Local Business Relief Program?
The Local Business Relief Program (the “Program”) is Indiegogo’s way of supporting local businesses who have been impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak. We are doing this by waiving our platform fee for the campaigns who have been accepted into our Local Business Relief Program. See below for more details on the Program!
Who can participate in the Local Business Relief Program?
New or existing campaign owners who create draft campaigns that are accepted into the Program can participate, as long as they meet all of the required criteria below. The Program is open to small businesses in the service industry such as restaurants and beverage businesses and businesses focused on the arts such as theaters. It is not open to tech and hardware campaigns including those that would otherwise fall into the Program guidelines such as a tech and hardware campaign for a business in the service industry.
How do I apply?
It is very important that campaigns be left in draft mode for consideration into the program. If your campaign is launched and goes live, your backers will have to be refunded and a new campaign be drafted in order to qualify for consideration into the program.
The rest is simple! When you are creating a draft campaign anytime between March 18, 2020 and April 18, 2020, make sure that you both select the Local Business Category and designate a business entity as the recipient of your funds in the Funding tab. This will automatically surface your campaign to be reviewed by our Trust & Safety Team. The Trust & Safety Team will reach out to you within 4 business days of your draft campaign creation to let you know if you have been accepted into the Program or they need more information from you before making a decision. Once you have been notified of your acceptance into the Program, you can launch your campaign. Please note if you are an existing campaign owner, you will need to create a new draft campaign.
For all new campaigns:
- The campaign owner must be a small or local business and the “Local Business” category must be selected when you are creating your draft campaign;
- The funds are going to a business entity with a business tax ID and this information is added to the funding tab in the Create/Edit section before launching the campaign; and
- The campaign complies with our Terms of Use and related policies including the Community Guidelines.
For existing campaign owners, you must meet all of the above criteria for potential campaigns plus these additional requirements:
- All of your campaigns must be in good standing on our platform. Good standing means that you: (a) post substantive updates at regular intervals and at least 1 time a month, (b) respond to substantive questions and comments on your campaigns, and (c) have fulfilled all perks.
How long will the Local Business Relief Program last?
The Local Business Relief Program will apply to campaign owners who fit the application criteria and who create a draft campaign and launch that campaign beginning March 18, 2020 and ending April 18, 2020.
Will all of my fees and other policies be waived if I am accepted into the Program?
We will waive Indiegogo’s platform fee and will not apply our Reserved Funds policy to campaigns in the Program, but these campaigns will still be subject to payment processing fees and all other applicable policies in our Terms of Use. Please see this article for more information on fees.
What if I made a mistake while setting up my draft or existing campaign?
If you forgot to select the “Local Business” Category when creating your campaign, please write in to our support team here but be aware that the review time for your draft campaign for acceptance into the Program may be longer than our standard 4 business days. If you forgot to designate a business entity with a business tax ID in the Funding tab, unfortunately this cannot be edited once you have launched your campaign; if this happens, you would need to refund any contributions received and start a new draft campaign.