Kickstarter Launches $1 Million Culture Fund

Kickstarter has launched the Kickstarter Culture Fund, a $1 million program offering direct financial contributions to live campaigns by independent creators in Art, Fashion, Film, and Music. The fund, financed entirely by Kickstarter, is open worldwide and is intended to support hundreds of creators. Applicants can apply when a Kickstarter campaign is live or while a project page is in draft. The initiative also brings partner organizations into the fund, beginning with Creative Scotland, which is contributing £67,500 for eligible Scotland-based projects.

Direct Support for Live Campaigns

The Culture Fund is part of Kickstarter’s Power of Belief campaign. It will provide financial contributions directly to active creator campaigns, helping projects build support while their teams are raising funds from backers.

Creators in the fund’s four core categories can review eligibility and apply through the Kickstarter Culture Fund.

“Creators across all industries – especially artists, musicians, filmmakers, and designers – are facing increasing challenges finding the resources and support they need to bring their ideas to life. The Kickstarter Culture Fund is our commitment to addressing that problem because when fewer ideas have the opportunity to break through, culture, the economy, and society all suffer. By putting resources directly behind creators, we're helping more ambitious ideas find the support they need to become reality. This is just the beginning.”

Creative Scotland Joins Fund

Creative Scotland is the first partner to launch a dedicated initiative under the Culture Fund. Its Creative Scotland Forward Fund expands the organization’s 2023 Kickstarter fund and will contribute £67,500 to eligible campaigns in film, comics, music, radio and podcasts, games, publishing, and design.

Applicants must be based in Scotland, run a live Kickstarter campaign in an eligible category, and demonstrate a clear connection to Scotland through primary creative activity and beneficiaries in the country. Further eligibility details are available on Kickstarter’s Creative Scotland fund page.

More Partners Planned

Kickstarter plans to bring in additional organizations that want to support independent creators. Those partners will introduce their own funding initiatives under the Culture Fund in the coming months.

“The Kickstarter Culture Fund is a meaningful expansion of the ways we have historically supported creators on their journey. This time, we're reaching into our own pockets to provide additional resources to creators at a critical moment when it feels harder than ever to bring a creative idea to life. We believe every creator deserves the opportunity to share their ideas with the world, and the Culture Fund gives us another way to help make that possible.”