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Publishing projects in FECD makes it possible to access a new model of collective financing and collaborations distributed through the network. We invite you to make your project public and share it with a community of people who, like you, are interested in innovative projects, which offer new opportunities, and which generate positive change in society and the common welfare.
Additionally, through FECD you can:
- Give visibility to your projects , involving their potential community from the beginning, supporting you on their knowledge and recommendations to contrast and test them.
- Receive advice to improve public communication of the projects to propose adequate collective returns.
- Access specific tools of "social media" and publish content to spread your work on the Internet.
- Be part of a specialized social network , with local impact and international diffusion, in which numerous synergies and complementarities can arise.
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FECD can be used by any person or organization that seeks funding and collaboration for a project thought, produced and / or distributed based on quality parameters and responsible accountability.
There is only one essential requirement: be over 18 years old (if not, the project can be presented by your guardian or legal representative).
It is essential to have a bank account in Ecuador, if your account is outside Ecuador you must take into account the variations in the collection due to the currency exchange rate -if it is the case-, and the increase in commissions for international transactions, that must be covered).
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The process consists of four differentiated phases, which every project must go through:
1. Sign-up and detailed description
2. Selection and, in the case of being accepted, revision
3. Publication and two rounds of co-financing (40+40 days)
4. Communication of results and rewards
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The first thing you have to do is upload your project, completing the form that you will access from the section "
Create project ". It is about making a description as detailed as possible of it and its purposes, of yourself or your team as promoters and of the minimum and optimal financing, as well as the necessary collaborations. Also of the work phases, tasks and execution period, taking into account the tasks related to the management and specific production of the collective returns and the individual rewards that you propose.
To help you in this phase, FECD has an assistant that guides the entire process of uploading projects, explaining the importance of the decisions you must make at each step and the type of information to provide.
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You must provide a budget that is as detailed as possible. The more transparency, the more trust you will inspire in your potential co-financiers.
When elaborating the budget, we have the following recommendations:
- Break-down diligently the fees (yours, and those of your collaborators), material costs, sub-contracts, etc. Be careful with budget planning, since the amount of money you ask for cannot be modified once you have started the crowdfunding campaign.
- Take into account the costs derived from management and production of the collective and individual rewards (many crowdfunding projects get in trouble for not having foreseen this issue well enough).
- Don't forget to consider the current commissions: 4% in terms of services provided by FECD, and an average of 4% in terms of service charges, be that through bank transfer or Paypal.
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FECD segments the co-financing campaign of a project into two rounds of 40 days each. Therefore, when setting the budget, it must be divided by specifying a minimum and an optimum:
- The minimum budget has to do with the capital necessary to carry out the initial, critical and essential tasks to start the project.
- The optimal budget has to do with additional tasks for the production of the project, sophistication or improvement (increase production, translate into other languages, offer it in other media, etc).
That is another difference with many of the crowdfunding and matchfunding platforms and dynamics that we have studied to design FECD. We believe that one can and should go further in the relationship between micro-dozen and project drivers, and that a system based on trust and transparent results can allow subsequent rounds of funding once significant progress has been made in the creations.
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These limits are tentative and there may be exceptions, as they will be set with accumulated experience:
- The minimum amount of a project to be published in FECD is around US $ 3,000 for smaller projects, we generally understand that an effort such as the one involved in maintaining a recruitment campaign of up to 80 days may not be profitable, or that sufficient resources are not dedicated to sustainably generate collective returns of value for the community. However, each project is different and must be analyzed in detail regarding the possibility of covering its minimum costs.
- There is no maximum limit, but the person or people who promote the project must measure their management and response capacity well. In addition, we must be realistic and understand that the co-financing process through FECD will develop progressively, gradually generating community and a climate of trust that will allow us to undertake ever larger projects.
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Collective returns, as something complementary to individual rewards, are ultimately the great bet of FECD, which pursues the social profitability of the investments made through the platform.
It is about the development of common goods through the generation of rewards oriented to the commons, which allow reuse, recombination, obtaining new uses and values from what has been done. Looking for the viability of the projects for their promoters but also the greatest possible benefit for the community, with the aim of creating social capital and that other people can generate derived opportunities, economically sustainable products, and services.
Collective returns can be very diverse: sharing free knowledge; derived resources or services; training through didactic manuals, workshops and / or online consultancies; raw materials, files, and digitizable content (for example a pattern, a design, a methodology, a program), which can be replicated, reused, remixed, etc.
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First of all, think about what anyone could learn or use from your project, and then come up with a transferable format (text -manual, storytelling, recipes, process description ...-, source code, design, drawing, audiovisual, etc).
Opening the projects, making them accessible, generating useful and valuable collective returns for the community requires extra effort, resources and time. That is why you must take it into account when planning and budgeting your project.
The way to formalize the collective returns depends on the nature of each project. If it's code, we recommend repositories like
Github . In the case of documents, you can share the drafts and alpha versions on a wiki or online publishing service, or upload them via FTP to an address where they can be downloaded. If it is a video, we recommend Vimeo, Youtube, Giss.tv or Makusi.tv (the latter under construction) to publish it.
In general, when considering web spaces where you can work and host content related to your project, choose platforms that are as accessible and open as possible, in order to maximize their dissemination and consistency with the commons. If instead of digital returns (online) they are physical (offline), think of public spaces and try to apply the same principles of openness and accessibility.
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Individual rewards can be offered (or not, in FECD they aren't obligatory) by the project promotors to cofunders in exchange for their financial contributions. They can be important to achieve the participation of the highest number and variety of cofunders possible.
These rewards can be tangible (an object related to the project, a publication, a t-shirt, etc.) or intangible (appearing in project credits or other high visibility spaces in the project, "premium" or advance access to contents, specially adapted services, participation in the production, private passes, invitations to parties and presentations, a share in the ownership of the project and possible benefits, etc.)
The rewards should be attractive, exclusive, and original and there should be possibilities both for the small cofunder and those people or organizations who can give more. We recommend not offering too many levels of contribution and ensuring that they are clearly differentiated and scaled to facilitate the decision of the cofunder.
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Rewards must be attractive for those that co-finance an initiative (e.g. access to something exclusive, or as an advantage, as indicated in the previous answer), but you must measure them well, and promise goods or services that you can offer without compromising the production capacity of your project. It is very important to bear in mind the economic resources and costs involved in their production, shipping, etc., so that we they can be incorporated in the minimum contribution you will ask for in order to proceed with the project.
In the project's sign-up formulaire, you will be able to set and define in detail the contributions related to each reward, their typology and how many units of each are offered to co-financiers. Later, when the project has achieved its funding objective, in the platform you will have access to a series of tools in order to manage shipping and make effective the individual rewards you have committed to.
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In FECD, in addition to monetary contributions, you can request additional collaborations to develop your project. From specific skills that you need from third parties (translators, testers, prescribers) to loans of material resources (transport, equipment), through infrastructures (spaces, facilities).
Collaborations are requested at the time of registering the project, but they can be changed and new ones added throughout the campaign process. Remember that among your co-financiers there are real talents and agents willing to accompany the project, so value the people who support you financially as well as the work of volunteer collaborators.
Never lose sight of the community - that's the engine of FECD. Every contribution counts! Try to integrate the collaborators in the growth processes of the project, thinking about possible collective returns, individual rewards, or even economic considerations that you have not initially foreseen.
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Once you have registered your project, it enters a selection process that takes into account all the projects registered up to that moment on the platform. This selection is carried out by FECD team in close collaboration with a community of experts and collaborators from different fields.
The process takes into account the aims, theme, type and origin of the project; its relevance and innovative or differential character (it is important that the set of published projects make up an ecosystem as diverse as possible); an estimate of the collective return it generates; and also the competence or experience of the promoter.
During this process, a review and advisory work is carried out to achieve the optimization of the project. After an initial assessment that we will send you by mail, you must provide complete information in a second phase of the campaign form, trying to take into account the advice that we have sent you. Well about the most effective way to communicate the values of the initiative through FECD or other means (mainly digital); well on how to configure or adapt it; well on how to raise the appropriate collective returns.
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We will get in touch no later than approximately two weeks after the registration of the project, or earlier if possible. Later, regardless of possible communication about revising and optimising the project, the reply about publishing or not publishing your project on FECD will take no more than another week.
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Once the selection process has been completed, the projects will be published organised by their objectives, in different categories or subject matter sections: social, cultural, scientific, educational, technological or ecological (a single project can pursue various objectives and, therefore, be part of various of these sections).
Grouping projects by their objectives is a way for us to avoid disciplinary limits, in order to generate transversal synergies; to gather diverse knowledge in order to engage common objectives; to attract sponsorships and specific calls.
These themed sections have the complicity, the commitment, and the advice of expert agents, people who operate as influencers, consultants or enthusiastic informers, and who constitute FECD's knowledge network.
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While in the rest of the crowdfunding platforms the fundraising campaigns only contemplate one collection period per project, in FECD we propose two rounds of co-financing, of 40 days each (40 + 40).
- 1st round : It is linked to the budget you have established as a minimum: the capital necessary to develop the initial, critical or essential tasks for the implementation of the project. A fundraising is made to "all or nothing", that is, the economic contributions committed by the comecenas only become effective if the minimum budget is reached. If not, the money is returned and the commitments (both yours and the promoter, as well as those of your comers) are canceled.
- 2nd round : If the minimum budget has been reached or exceeded during the first round, then a second round, also lasting 40 days, is started, linked to the optimal budget. This allows to carry out the rest of the tasks for the production of the project and other additional ones, of sophistication or improvement. This second round also serves to open the project to more people and, above all, to work in the open, in real time, reporting progress with transparency (something that has a direct impact on obtaining more visibility and support). In this round, all the contributions that are collected are paid at the end of the term, whether or not the optimal budget is reached.
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During the first round of FECD, an “all or nothing” fundraising is made, so if you do not reach the minimum budget in 40 days, the committed monetary contributions are not effective. The project cannot continue in the campaign in a second round either and must be shelved, giving up its attention space in FECD to another project.
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This is a very good sign! It means that your project is drawing interest and that there are many people willing to support it. Based on this interest, even though you have reached the optimum estimated funding, you can complete the first round and start the second round.
If you obtain a level of funding much higher than the one you estimated initially, you will need to complete the collective rewards which you initially proposed, in a manner equivalent to the possibilities offered by the new funding.
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Each project leader has a control panel as a kind of operational centre ("My Panel"), where they can manage their project's public information, and to communicate and administer it. From this space, you can publish updates and add complementary information (texts, photos, videos, etc.), see how fund-raising and your co-financiers' contributions are progressing, and, later, publish the collective rewards and manage the shipment of individual rewards.
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Not only can you, but you should. The success of your co-financing campaign at FECD depends on the interest and quality of the project, but also on your ability to communicate and stimulate it effectively, and thus attract potential co-financiers and collaborators, reaching the target audience in the most direct way possible. be benefited by your proposal.
Regular updates and dynamic, transparent, and empathetic communication are very helpful in getting the project to attract attention and support during the two 40-day rounds.
You must have a small revitalization plan, considering what additional information to provide about yourself or your team, about the origins and virtues of the project, about the production process, etc. This information is incorporated into the "News" section through messages, articles, photographs, videos, etc.
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You can't change your project details once it is under campaign, except the parts regarding collaborations and your public profile. Nevertheless, you can always update information of clarify some points in the "News" section.
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A large part of the dynamization work of your project, during the time it remains in the campaign, must be carried out by expanding your field of communication action beyond FECD. In this sense, we have a project communication guide that we are updating and we highly recommend.
In this sense, in addition to adding value to your contacts and formal and informal networks, the possibility offered by platforms and social networks on the Internet, both the more general and other more specific ones, is essential.
To facilitate this work of revitalization of the project, from FECDwe offer you tools that allow you to share it on different social networks, paste your direct link wherever you want, even the code of a 'widget' with a visual summary of what your initiative intends and how your initiative is progressing financing, in order to put it on blogs, websites, etc.
If your project has an important offline dimension, linked to a specific geographical area, also think about formulas to give visibility to your campaign: presentations, distribute brochures, seek visibility in the local media, etc.
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Yes, in FECD there are two types of commissions that you must take into account when setting the budget for your project since they are deducted from the total amount obtained:
- From FECD, for the provision of services (publication space and management tools on the platform, dynamization of the project, advice on the best way to present and communicate your project or to set returns and rewards, intermediation, etc.) we charge a commission of 4% on the total money collected throughout the two rounds of 40 days. In the following FAQ (no. 24) you have more information about the why of our 4%.
Projects that publish their campaigns within the framework of a call must take into account that this commission applies to the entire collection, including the capital risk.
- On the other hand, there are the commissions derived from economic transactions. In the case of contributions made via credit card, the commission is an average 3.5% + $ 0.30 for each transaction.
These commissions are only effective in the event that the financing is obtained and the contributions are finally carried out. Otherwise, publishing a project in FECD does not entail any cost for its promoter.
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For the maintenance of the platform, FECD deducts 4% of the total amount collected for each project, as well as the amount corresponding to the cost of financial transactions for the use of credit cards, Stripe, derived from the campaign.
This 4%, in concept of management expenses, contributes to cover, specifically, the following costs derived from the operation of the projects on the platform:
- Digital maintenance of the platform.
- Hosting of the project.
- Cost of servers (database server, mass email server, content server and http server)
- Cost of traffic and bandwidth.
- Daily server administration.
- Daily data backups.
- Management of users and information of the fecd.aroyi.org mailboxes.
- Daily control of transactions via PayPal and cards (POS) and resolution of related incidents.
- Resolution of incidents of the driving team or co-financiers in real time during the campaign.
- Management of the contract and documentation with the promoters of the projects.
- Preparation of final collection report.
- Payments to projects through Paypal and via bank transfer.
- Management of invoices or certificates of donations with all the co-financiers of the projects, required.
- Mass sending of information to co-financing users.
- Extraction of statistical data from the database.
- Monitoring of projects in terms of compliance, at least, of responding to their community of co-financiers, in relation to making the project itself effective, the collective returns and the individual rewards committed.
- Assistance in raising the project and in accountability and during campaigns and execution.
- Fundraising
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People and entities comecenas make their contribution commitments by credit card, using the Stripe payment gateway (4% average) + $ 0.45 per transaction.
To receive the money raised for your project, it is mandatory to indicate a bank account.
FECD privileges donations through credit cards, it is important that you provide us with the aforementioned information prior to publishing your project in FECD. If your project is in the campaign, to resolve any incident and to add or modify your bank or PayPal account, you will have to contact us.
When your project reaches the minimum financing objective, you will receive a notification and you must provide us with your bank details.
If the project has reached the minimum, and after finishing the second round of financing (80 days after the start of the campaign), having verified all the contributions and having received the signed contract, you will receive the total collection of the campaign (regardless of that you have reached or exceeded your optimal budget). In both cases, the FECD commission (4%) and the financial costs of the transactions will be discounted.
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In general, feedback in FECD is done through the "News" section of each project, where you can post updates and make collaboration calls.
The collaborations are made effective directly, without the mediation of FECD, so the contact will be established at the beginning from the platform and, from there, in the way that both parties determine.
For other types of communications, FECD has the possibility of exchanging direct messages between promoters and comers from the My Panel section, allowing one-to-one relationships to be established as far as both parties deem appropriate.
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In FECD this is a very important aspect. We are committed to accurate, comprehensive, transparent and timely accountability.
If the commencement process is successful and you obtain at least the minimum amount requested, you will receive the money obtained and you will acquire a firm commitment to your commendations and the FECD.
You must carry out the project according to the specifications you have detailed; make public the results and collective returns (linking them from FECD), and make the individual rewards effective within the established deadlines (from the control panel you will have access to the data that each comitee has specified to receive it).
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If the co-financing process is successful and you obtain at least the minimum amount requested, in addition to our congratulations, you will receive the money obtained and you will sign a legal contract through which you will acquire a firm commitment with your co-financiers and with the FECD, the non-profit entity. profit managed by fecd.aroyi.org, created to contribute to the reduction of poverty of the most vulnerable groups and other social actors and its purpose is to ensure the maintenance of the principles of openness, neutrality, transparency and independence in development and maintenance of FECD.
Once the campaign is finished, the process is that simple:
- We will send you the legal contract that you will have to return signed, in which it will be clear that you or the entity you represent acquire the commitment to carry out the project and make the collective and individual returns effective with the people and with the FECD . The person or entity that signs will also be the one who will declare the collection before the SRI. The recruitment process begins after the first round is over.
- We will deposit the respective money in the accounts you provide us (bank), while we will send you a detailed report with all the contributions made, the discounted commissions (commission for using the platform + charges for using credit cards, in the Stripe system ), and the incidents registered. This will be done once the second round is finished, so keep in mind that payments are made approximately 90 days after the start of the campaign and always once the signed contract is received.
- You will receive an invoice from the FECD in the name of the natural or legal person you indicate, along with your original signed contract.
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As it is a collection that aims to produce a project, it is considered an economic activity to be declared in income or corporate tax, and taxes are paid on the total benefits of the activity.
- If you are a legal entity, the collection will be taxed in Corporation Tax. In any case, you should consult a tax advisor.
- If you are a natural person, the money collected will be taxed, and two situations may arise:
1. That the money collected is to carry out an economic activity, and you are exempt for that concept. If so, you could deduct the expenses generated by the project. You also have to find out from your tax advisor.
2. If you do not carry out an economic activity or you are not exempt from paying taxes, the money collected will be a net capital gain. In this case, you could not deduct the related expenses. This also requires consulting with your tax advisor to pay.
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The fecd.aroyi.org platform has a multi-currency display system. On the one hand, from your user panel you can choose a default currency of preference to view the information of the projects in fecd.aroyi.org and, on the other hand, when creating a project you can choose in which currency you want to define the costs that will appear in the Needs section of your campaign's public page.
However, the platform fecd.aroyi.org, managed by the FECD private non-profit institution that works in Ecuador, operates in all cases in Dollars, the country's legal currency, and applies the conversion rate of the day on which perform the transaction.
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To properly publish the collective returns of your project, indicating its free / open license, you must follow a few simple steps:
1.- You must indicate the type of license chosen in each document and in a clearly visible place, according to the guides that you will find on the websites of each license, for example if it is Creative Commons: http://creativecommons.org/choose/
2.- Once the license is correctly indicated, you must publish the documents on your website or on hosting websites such as Issuu, Youtube, Bandcamp, GitHub, etc. (without passwords or access restriction)
If you publish on YouTube, in addition to stating the license within the video, you must follow these steps:
- go to the Video manager section (https://www.youtube.com/my_videos?o=U), - go to Edit / Information and configuration,
- once here, go to Advanced Settings, where you will find the License and rights ownership drop-down, and here you can select the Creative Commons of your choice.
For Vimeo:
- go to Video Settings
- go to the Advanced section, and here choose the Creative Commons license you prefer.
3.- When the return is already online, you must indicate from your user panel in FECD the urls to link these documents, specifically here by clicking on [Url]: https://fecd.aroyi.org/dashboard/projects/ commons
And that's it, you've generated one more piece for common knowledge management.
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