Kickstarter Patrons shifts the focus to deep pocket funders

Kickstarter’s name has become synonymous with crowdfunding since the site launched back in 2009. As it happily notes, it’s helped 14 million backers pledge $3.1 billion in funding over the years. Of late, though, the service has been exploring alternative funding sources, including the relaunch of Drip, which arrived just as Patreon was getting pushback from its fee restructuring.

While it shares a notably similar name, Kickstarter Patrons is a bit bigger picture.In fact, the level of funding it seems to be seeking seems to be something more in line with what you’d see on NPR or public television — connecting big organizations to large projects that require more money to stay afloat for a longer period.

Interestingly, the focus here appears to be a bit more on the funders than the fundees, a marked change from Kickstarter’s usual approach. Likely the the companies involved — which will including both for- and non-profit — are, at least in part, looking at this as an opportunity to raise their profile. But funding is funding, I guess.

Each company involved will get its own landing page and will be required to “mak[e] a public commitment to support campaigns through a series of pledges that are $1,000 or greater.” They’ll receive a landing page in return, like these ones for documentary producer, AmDoc and Pinewood Atlanta Studios, which supports female filmmakers in Georgia.

Rather than putting the onus of discovery on the creators, there’s no application process for receiving funding here. Instead, Kickstarter says it will work directly with the funders to find good matches for their deep pockets.