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Using Goteo for your projects enables you to have access to a new model of cofunding distributed collaboration through the network. We invite you to publicise your project and share it with a community of people who, like yourself, are interested in open and free projects which offer new opportunities for the constant improvement of society and benefit the commons.
Also, through Goteo you can:
- Give visibility to your projects, ensuring that the community participates right from the start, bringing their collective knowledge to it.
- Receive advice to improve the public communication of your projects: adapting them to the free and open philosophy, or to think about appropriate social commitment.
- Have access to specific social media tools and post content to spread your work through the Internet.
- Form part of a specialised social network, with local impact and international reach from which numerous synergies and possibilities can emerge.
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Goteo can be used by any person or organisation which is searching for funding or collaboration for a project designed, produced and/or distributed in terms of free and open parameters.
There is only one indispensable requirement: you must be over 18 (if this is not the case, your project can be presented by your tutor or legal representative).
(Even though holding a bank account in Spain is no longer indispensable, if your bank account is outside Spain you must take into account the variations of income due to the currency exchange rate - if this is the case -, and the spike in service charges for international transactions, which you must cover yourself).
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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. Distribution of rewards, communication of results and shared materials
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Firstly you have to register your project, filling in the form you will access from the "
Create Project" section. This is a detailed description of the project and aims, of yourself or the project promotors, the minimum and optimum sums of money required, as well as collaborations needed. Also you need to include work phases, tasks and time-frame, taking into account the tasks related to the management and production of the individual rewards you propose. Also, if shared materials have been generated, we invite you to add them to your project dashboard.
To help you in this phase, Goteo has an assistant to guide you through the whole process, explaining the importance of the decisions you need to take 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 individual rewards and the shared materials (many crowdfunding projects get in trouble for not having foreseen this issue well enough).
- Don't forget to consider the current commissions: 5% in terms of services provided by Goteo, and an average of 2% in terms of service charges, be that through bank transfer or PayPal.
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Goteo segments the cofunding campaign of a project into two rounds of 40 days each. For this reason, when making a budget, it's necessary to divide it specifying a minimum and an optimum:
- The minimum budget is the capital necessary to develop the initial, critical and indispensable parts to start the project rolling.
- The optimum budget is for the additional parts of the project, which improve or refine it (increase production, translate to different languages, offer it in different mediums etc).
This is one of the differences with other platforms and dynamics of crowdfunding that we studied when designing Goteo. We believe that is possible and necessary to go further with the relationship between micro-financers and project promotors, and that a system based on trust and transparent results could permit posterior funding rounds once significant advances had been reached in projects.
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These limits are tentative and there may be exceptions, since they will be better determined with more accumulated experience:
- The minimum amount in order for a project to be published on Goteo is around 3.000€. For smaller projects, we understand that, generally, it might not be worth the effort to maintain a funding campaign of up to 80 days. Nevertheless, each project is a world unto itself, and must be analysed in detail regarding the possibility of covering its minimum costs.
- There is no upper limit, but the person or people who lead the project must gauge their capacity for management and response carefully. Also, we need to be realistic and understand that the crowdfunding process though Goteo will develop progressively, gradually generating a community and a climate of trust which will allow us to engage with larger projects.
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Shared materials, as something complementary to individual rewards are really the main point of Goteo which pursues the social profitability of the investments made via the platform.
It's about the development of common good through the creation of rewards oriented to the commons, which permit the reuse, remixing, new uses and values from what has been created. At the same time as seeking the viability of the projects for the promotors, Goteo also looks for the best possible benefit for the community with the objective of creating social capital and that other people can create opportunities, products and and economically sustainable services derived from the projects.
The shared materials can be very diverse: share knowledge and free access to source code; derivative resources or services; training through didactic manuals, workshops and/or via Internet; rough materials, files and digitizable content (e.g. a template/pattern, a design, methodology or programme) that can be replicated, reused, remixed etc.
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Opening up the projects, making them accessible, generating useful and valuable shared materials for the community involves effort, resources, and extra time. This is why you should bear this in mind when planning and budgeting your project.
The way to formalise the shared materials depends on the nature of each project. If it is code, we recommend repositories such as
Github. If it is the case of documents, you can share the drafts and alpha versions on a wiki or an online publishing service, or upload them via FTP to some server where they can be downloaded. If it is a video, we recommend publishing it on Vimeo or YouTube.
In general, when considering online places to work or host content related to your project, choose platforms that are as accessible and open as possible, in order to maximise their promotion and coherence with the commons. If, instead of digital (online) materials, it is a case of physical (offline) ones, think about 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 Goteo 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 organisations 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 Goteo, apart from monetary contributions it is possible to ask for additional collaboration to develop your project, ranging from concrete abilities from 3rd parties (translators, testers, advisers etc.) to the loaning of material resources (transport, equipment etc.) and use of infrastructure (venus and other spaces etc.)
The collaboration is requested when registering the project but can be changed, and new requests can be made, throughout the campaign process. Think on that among your cofunders there are real talents and agents willing to accompany the project, so you need to value equally people that help you financially and those who collaborate as volunteers.
Never lose sight of the community - it is the motor behind Goteo. Every drop counts! Try to integrate collaborators in the growth process, thinking about possible shared materials, individual rewards or even shares that hadn't been initially foreseen.
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Once you have registered your project, it enters a selection process which takes into consideration all the projects registered up until this moment on the platform. The selection is carried out by the Goteo team in close collaboration with a community of experts in a wide range of fields.
The process takes into account aims, theme, background; pertinence and degree of innovation (it's important that the projects taken together are the widest ecosystem possible); an estimate of the collective return it will create as well as the experience and abilities of the promotor/s.
If considered necessary, during this process revision and advice may be given to optimise the project - about the best way to promote the initiative through Goteo or other media (mainly digital), how to configure or adapt the project to free and open philosophy (types of license, products and derivative services etc.) or what are the appropriate collective returns.
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We will get in touch no later than approximately 7 days 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 Goteo 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 Goteo's knowledge network.
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While the rest of the crowdfunding platforms operate with one round of financing per project, in Goteo there are two, each one of 40 days (40+40).
- 1st round: this is for the minimum budget you've presented: the capital necessary to develop the initial, critical and indispensable parts to start the project rolling. This is an "all or nothing" campaign - financial contributions are only transferred if the minimum budget amount is reached. If not, no financial transactions are carried out and the commitments entered into by both parts are cancelled.
- 2nd round: if the minimum budget has been reached or surpassed in the 1st round, a second round of funding, also of 40 days, takes place for the optimum budget. This is for the additional parts of the project and those which improve or refine it. This second round can reach more people and above all allows the project to be seen working in real time, showing the development openly (something that can have direct repercussions through greater visibility and contributions). In this round, all financial contributions are transferred at the end of the round if the optimum budget has been reached or not.
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During the first round at Goteo, what you do is an "all or nothing" fund-raising campaign, so if you don't reach the minimum budget in 40 days, the committed financial contributions don't become effective. The project won't be able to continue with a second round, either, and will have to be archived, yielding its space of attention on Goteo to other projects.
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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 explain at your co-financiers how you will use the money, and also you will have to achieve the objectives 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 shared materials and manage the shipment of individual rewards.
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You not only can, but you should do it. The success of your crowdfunding campaign in Goteo depends on the interest and quality of your project, but also on your capacity to effectively communicate and canvas for it, and thus attract possible co-financiers and collaborators, reaching your target audience that can benefit from your proposal as effectively as possible.
Regular updates and a dynamic, transparent, empathetic communication can be very convenient in drawing attention to your project and helping receive wider support during the two 40-day rounds.
You must have a little canvassing plan, taking into account what complementary information to contribute about yourself or your team, about the origins and virtues of the project, about the production process, etc. This information is incorporated in the "News" section through messages, articles, photos, 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 great deal of the canvassing for your project during, while it is campaigning, should b done extending your field of action beyond Goteo. For this purpose, we have a
Guide to Project Communication which we update regularly and which we highly recommend.
In this sense, aside from harnessing your contacts and formal and informal networks, the possibilities offered by online platforms and social network, both the more central and the more specific ones, is crucial.
In order to make this work easier for you, at Goteo we offer you tools that allow you to share your project on different social networks, paste its direct link anywhere you want, even a widget code with a visual summary of what your proposal consists in and how its funding is progressing, in order to embed it in blogs, webs, etc.
If your project has an important offline aspect, related to a specific geographical area, you should also thinks about formulas to allow your campaign to gain visibility: presentation, flyer distribution, searching for visibility in local media, etc.
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Yes, in Goteo there two types of commission you should bear in mind when creating the budget for your project and which will be deducted from the total amount obtained:
- From the Goteo Foundation, we charge a commission of 5% of the total funds collected over the two rounds of 40 days for services rendered (publication and use of management tools on the platform, project promotion, consultancy on all aspects of project presentation and communication). Here you can find further information about the reasons of our 5% commission.
- Commissions for financial transactions. The bank charges 0.8% for payment processing on each payment. In case of payments made through PayPal, the commission is 3,4% + 0,35 € for each payment.
These commissions are only applied if your project gets financed and the payments are made. If not, using Goteo has no charge for the promotor.
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For the sake of its own economic sustainability, Goteo deducts 5% from the total funds raised by each project, as well as the amount that corresponds to the bank transaction charges derived from the campaign.
This 5%, in terms of administration costs, specifically contributes towards covering the following costs derived from the operation of the projects on the platform:
- Project web hosting.
- Server costs (database server, email server, content server and http server).
- Web traffic and bandwidth costs.
- Daily server administration.
- Daily data backup.
- User accounts and inbox administration on Goteo.org.
- Daily control of PayPal and credit card transactions, and resolution of issues derived thereof.
- Real-time resolution problems and issues with the project leader team or co-financiers during a campaign.
- Managements of the contract and documentation with project leaders.
- Elaboration of a final fundraising report.
- Payment to projects via PayPal or via bank transfer.
- Management of donation certificates with all project co-financiers.
- Massive emailing campaigns to contributing users.
- Extraction of statistical data from the database.
- Follow-up actions on projects in terms of the fulfilment of their commitment to their co-financing community, the shared materials and the promised individual rewards.
- Fundraising
Here you will find more information about our expenses and how the commission help us to move forward.
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Backers make their contributions by debit/credit card, or through PayPal.
Although having a PayPal account is optional, it is highly recommended. Donations via PayPal usually represent 10% of transactions via Goteo. In order to enable this payment method, you must indicate a validated PayPal account in the online form of your project.
In order to transfer the funds collected during the campaign we will need the following personal information:
Whether you are a
physical person or legal person/entity:
- Digital copy of the DNI/NIE of the person signing the contract (if Spanish resident) or passport (non-Spanish resident) (PDF).
- Certificate of ownership of the bank account (PDF), issued by the financial institution in which the funds collected will be received. In case your bank is outside of Spain, you must also have the IBAN code (if it is an European International bank) and a SWIFT code if it is a non-European Bank.
Also as a
legal person/entity, you will need to attach:
- Digital copy of the CIF of the entity (PDF). In case it is not registered in Spain, a digital copy of the organization's registration in the corresponding official entity.
- Digital copy of the document certifying the power of attorney (i.e power of attorney, the meeting minutes of the association where the name and position of the person signing the contract are stated or sheet of the deeds of the company) (PDF).
Once your project has successfully completed the first round or the single round (if you have decided so), the contract will be activated so you can start filling out it with the information that we have specified before.
When your campaign has been co-funded, either in a single round (40 days) or two rounds (80 days), we have checked all the contributions and we have received the signed contract, you will receive the total amount you collected. In both cases, the commission of Goteo (5%) and transaction costs will be deducted: bank (0.8%) and PayPal only if you have activated it as a payment method (3.4% + 0.35 € per transaction).
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In general, feedback in Goteo takes place through the "News" part of each project where you can post updates and calls for collaboration.
Collaborations take place directly, without mediation from Goteo, so initial contact takes place via the platform but after that in the way that both sides decide.
For other types of communication, Goteo offers the possibility to exchange direct messages between promotors and cofunders, enabling a 1 to 1 relationship if both parts wish.
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If the crowdfunding process is successful and you reach at least the minimum quantity asked for you will receive the money and enter into a firm commitment with your cofunders and the Fundación Goteo.
You must carry out the project following the specifications you have given, make the results and share materials public (linking them through Goteo) and deliver the individual rewards in the specified time-frame (in the control panel you have access to the information that each cofunder has specified to receive them).
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If your campaign is successful and you get at least the minimum amount requested during the first round, you must accept, as an indispensable step, a legal contract with the Goteo Foundation, that you must fill out, sign and send us, at the end of the first round. Through this contract you, or the organisation you represent, become responsible for carrying out the social commitments and individual rewards with the cofunders and the Foundation.
In the case that these commitments are not met, and after exhausting other routes based on relations of trust and direct contact with all the agents that Goteo implies, legal action may be taken.
Bear in mind that you are the person with most interest in fulfilling your commitments and in maintaining your reputation so you can continue seeking crowdfunding for your projects in the future.
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Since this is an income which is destined to the production of a project, it is considered an economic activity, liable to declared in your personal or Corporate Income Tax declaration, and taxes are to be paid on the total profit derived from the activity.
- If you are legal bodies, the raised funds are liable to Corporate Income Tax. In any case, you should consult your legal adviser.
- In the case of individual persons, the money raised is liable to Income Tax, and there can be two scenarios:
1. That the raised money is destined to an economic activity, and that you are registered in this section. If this is the case, you can deduct the expenses generated by the project.
2. If you are not involved in any kind of economic activity, and not registered as such, the raised money will be a net capital gain. In this case, you will not be able to deduct the expenses involved.
When receiving the donation from the Goteo Foundation, an entity managed by Goteo, you are NOT subject to Inheritance and Donation Tax, according to Article 3 of the Tax Regulation, which, among other things, declares as exempt "the subsidies, grants, premiums, gratifications and aid conceded by Public or Private Entities with charity, educational, cultural, sports or social action-related goals".
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The Goteo.org platform has a system which allows viewing multiple currencies. On the one hand, from your user panel you can choose a default preferred currency in order to see the Goteo projects, and, on the other, when creating a project, you can choose in what currency you would like to define the costs that will appear in the Needs section on your campaign's public page.
Nevertheless, the Goteo.org platform, managed by the Spanish non-profit organization Goteo Foundation, manages all donations in Euros, according to the exchange rate on the day of the transaction.
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Para publicar adecuadamente los materiales compartidos de tu proyecto, con indicación de su licencia libre/abierta, debes seguir unos sencillos pasos:
1.- Debes indicar el tipo de licencia escogida en cada documento y en lugar bien visible, según las guías que encontraréis en las webs de cada licencia, por ejemplo si se trata de Creative Commons: http://creativecommons.org/choose/
2.- Una vez correctamente indicada la licencia, debes publicar los documentos en tu web o en webs de alojamiento tipo Issuu, Youtube, Bandcamp, GitHub, etc (sin contraseñas ni restricción de acceso)
Si publicas en Youtube, además de hacer constar la licencia dentro del vídeo debes seguir estos pasos:
- ir al apartado Gestor de vídeos (https://www.youtube.com/my_videos?o=U), - ir a Editar/Información y configuración,
- una vez aquí, ir a Configuración avanzada, donde encontrarás el desplegable Licencia y propiedad de los derechos, y aquí puedes seleccionar la Creative Commons que decidas.
Para Vimeo:
- ir a Configuración de vídeo
- ir al apartado Avanzado, y aquí escoger la licencia Creative Commons que prefieras.
3.- Cuando el material ya esté online, debes añadir desde tu panel de usuario en Goteo las urls de enlace a estos documentos. A continuación te detallamos los pasos para poder añadirlas:
- dirígete al menú desplegable de tu panel de control y clica en Recursos.
- ir al apartado Materiales compartidos.
- Añade las urls de tus materiales compartidos, desde el botón: + Nuevo material.
Y ya está, has generado un trocito más para la gestión común del conocimiento.
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