Experiment

Experiment funds science: a researcher posts a hypothesis, a budget and a method, and backers pay for the work rather than for a product. Every project is reviewed by a person before it goes public, and funding is all or nothing, so a project that misses its number charges nobody. What backers get back is the result, usually a paper or a data set. Anybody looking for a reward tier will find this a strange place.

Starting a project costs nothing. If it funds, Experiment charges 8 percent plus payment processing that its FAQ puts at roughly 3 to 5 percent, so a fully funded project gives up something around 11 to 13 percent in total. The all-or-nothing rule means an unfunded project costs the researcher nothing and returns every backer's money. Both figures sit in the FAQ rather than on a pricing page, which is the only place either appears.

A researcher without institutional funding, particularly for the small, awkward project that a grant committee will not touch. The review step is the reason a backer trusts the page, so it works for people who can state a hypothesis and a budget clearly. Anybody crowdfunding a product, a film or a business is on the wrong platform and will fail the content review.