Greenlit - helping you create

Crowdfunding is a powerful tool to help bring your creative idea to life. Hundreds of creatives all over the world have funded their projects with Greenlit over the last two years. We offer both the platform and the coaching you need to make your project a reality. Follow this FAQ to discover how to find your audience, and fund your work!
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What does Greenlit do?

Greenlit is a platform and community for creative people. We help filmmakers, musicians, theatre creators and game builders negotiate the challenges of funding, creating and taking their work out into the world.

Our core product is crowdfunding - enabling our creatives to build a community and raise money from their supporters to bring work to life.

We are also currently developing a full marketplace, where creatives will be able to sell virtual and physical goods, as well as video on demand services, with a variety of payment options.

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1-to-1
What is crowdfunding?

Crowdfunding is at the heart of what we do - it’s about raising money, from the community, to bring a project to life.

Typically, the process begins with a creative building a page on Greenlit, or one of our competitors. This will contain information about the project you’re hoping to create - images, a written description, audio, and video. This will help people coming to the page understand and visualise what you are trying to do.

Supporters will then be able to pledge money to support the project. This could be in the form of a donation, or in exchange for a “reward”. This could be something as simple as a “thank you” on social media, a physical bit of merchandise, or an experience such as attending a gig or film premiere.

At the end of the campaign, we’ll forward cleared funds to the creator - to go create!

This is known as “rewards-based” crowdfunding - there is no need to share ownership of the project or any revenue that is generated. This is different to “equity” crowdfunding that you might see on platforms such as Crowdcube or Wefunder - we don’t offer this type of funding, but hope to in the near future.

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preparation
Who can use Greenlit? Is my project suitable?

Greenlit is different to the other, large crowdfunding platforms in that we only deal with creative projects. We launched in 2019, specialising in film projects, and have successfully branched out into theatre, live and recorded music, visual arts and gaming.

So if you’re looking to raise money for anything that has an audience (rather than “customers”), then Greenlit is the right platform for you!

It’s also important to note that we don’t immediately take on every project. We never make judgements about your work; however, we do have to have reasonable confidence that you can deliver (roughly!) what you plan to make, in terms of both the project and the rewards. We also reserve the right to reject projects that breach our values - basically no pornography, hate speech, or misleading medical information.

We also require that you take the business of crowdfunding seriously - it’s hard work, and a half-hearted campaign helps nobody. But don’t worry - our expert team will help you make sure everything is in place ahead of your launch.

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Launch
Why should I come to Greenlit?

When it comes to crowdfunding, one size does not fit all types of projects, and we respect creative people. You're not a commodity to us, unlike the larger platforms. We recognise that crowdfunding is about more than raising money - it's about building and engaging your audience and your community. We're here to help, and you'll get a level of training and support throughout your campaign and beyond that you won't find anywhere else.

So how are we different? First of all, we understand creatives, be it filmmakers, musicians, artists... Our team have been there, done it, got the crew t-shirt. Greenlit is optimised to help you through the creative process. We have partnerships with providers of kit and services across the board to give you discounts and a sympathetic ear. We can advise on, and make introductions to, other sources of funding. Our regular events will help Greenlit-funded projects get in front of industry, press and audiences to build a buzz. We aim to build a great community of fellow creatives and enthusiasts, where you can receive and offer advice, as well as seek contributions in-kind, such as props or locations. Our platform is set up to offer campaigns for any stage of production.

Secondly, we aim to make crowdfunding easy. Well, as easy as possible - because it's going to be a lot of work if done properly. Our strategy is to give creatives all they need in terms of training and tools to maximise impact, from the planning stage, through to launch and throughout the campaign. We will help with budgeting, social media and advertising strategy, press and PR management, and with the planning and promotion of rewards.

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Funds
How do I create a project?

The first thing you’ll need to do is register with Greenlit or, if you have an account already, log in via this link. We also need to verify your email address is current - your welcome email will contain a link to do this. If you haven’t received this, you can request another one here - but please check your spam folders as well.

Now you're registered, verified and logged in, you should see a new button on the top right of this page to Create A Project. Click this and you’re good to submit your project on Greenlit! (But please read the FAQ below about how our process works)

What’s your process for launching a campaign?

We only collect a few details about the project at the first stage of submission, so that we can get an idea of what you’re trying to do, and of how prepared you are to run a worthwhile campaign.

Once you’ve submitted, we’ll be notified, and one of our community team will be in touch to talk about how to proceed, and about the preparations to make your campaign as successful as possible. You won’t be able to edit or start building your campaign until approved by an admin - this is to ensure you’re up to speed with how our systems work, and to get our advice on how to optimise your material.

Please note this might take a few days. Often, creatives will approach us with the idea of launching immediately; this is rarely a good idea, as a successful campaign will involve planning and the preparation of a lot of supporting material. Our community team will be happy to discuss the options, and offer our advice on how to move forward.

We’ll also agree a date to launch, both privately (see below) and to the public. Only admins are able to launch projects, so we’ll work together to start your campaign with a bang.

A successful crowdfunding campaign needs to grab people’s attention straight away, so there are a few things you need to start collecting. Images and visual materials are essential - nobody likes big blocks of text.

Also you’ll need to create a “pitch video”. Ideally around 2’30” - 3’ long, you should be trying to help people visualise what the finished project will look like. It’s also important to feature yourselves - backers support people as much as they do projects, so explaining why the project is so important to you helps develop trust. You don’t need to explain everything - rathermore your pitch video is like a film trailer, you want to make people curious and want to find out more!

Do I need to hit my target to receive any money?

Some crowdfunding platforms require you to set a target, and then raise that total before you receive anything. Other platforms allow a flexible option, where you keep whatever is raised.

On Greenlit, we allow both types of campaign, “All or Nothing” or “Flexible”. In many ways, flexible is the safer option if you’re not sure how much you might raise. However, All or Nothing campaigns are more effective, and tend to raise more money - potential backers are reassured that the project will come to fruition, and it also tends to focus the creative team on doing the hard work of fundraising!

How long should a campaign last?

We find that the optimum length for a campaign is 30 days. Less than that, you might not reach all the people potentially interested in supporting you. Longer than that, you may find the team runs out of energy, as running a campaign is a very intensive period of hard work.

We are also able to keep campaigns open on an ongoing basis, as it suits certain types of project. We’ll happily discuss the options and try to identify the best duration for your project.

Where can I be based?

Greenlit can manage payments in GB Pounds, Euro and US Dollars. We can work with creatives in any country using those currencies. 

How do I manage my project?

When you’re logged in, click on your profile picture at the top-right of the screen. On the dropdown menu, there’s a link for “My Projects”. Click this, and you’ll be able to view and edit all your projects, and add rewards and updates.

How do I cancel a project?

Please contact our community team for further details on how to cancel.

What about copyright and ownership?

Greenlit currently offers rewards-based crowdfunding. Under this model, you continue to own all the rights and revenues from your work.

How do I get paid?

After your campaign closes, we have to wait for all the money to be cleared by Stripe, our credit card processor. This can take up to 14 days, but is generally quicker. After all payments have been cleared, we will initiate a transfer to the bank account we have on file for the project. This can take up to three more days, so the overall period of time from the closure of your campaign until you receive the funds can be up to three weeks.

This timetable is set by the banks and card processors - unfortunately there’s nothing we can do to speed it up.

We will also send you a full report with a breakdown of everyone who pledged, and all their contact details.

What are your fees?

In common with other crowdfunding companies, our platform fees are 5% of the total pledged.

Our payment processors, Stripe, also levy fees for handling card transactions. There is a flat rate charge of 20p per pledge, and a further commission of 1.65% for European cards, and 3.15% for cards issued in the rest of the world.

We do not charge any other fees, for example for withdrawal, or for keeping an account open.