Indiegogo Community Guidelines

These Community Guidelines are incorporated into our Terms of Use by reference and apply to the use of our website and Services.

Contents

1. Community Conduct For All Members
2. Prohibited Content and Perks
3. Campaign Expectations and Requirements
4. Disbursements
5. Policy Violations

The following guidelines apply to all Indiegogo Sites and Services.

Indiegogo Community spaces are provided for all Indiegogo users to interact with one another and discuss crowdfunding. Indiegogo is committed to providing a supportive platform for entrepreneurs and their backers. Prohibited Behavior or Campaign content that promotes any Prohibited Behavior described below is contrary to that commitment.

Prohibited Behavior

Members and users of the Indiegogo platform are prohibited from engaging in the following types of behavior:

• Harassment or Hate speech such as:
• Abusive content and/or comments of any type including videos, images, or text
• Cyberbullying, stalking or sexual harassment of any type including videos, images, or text
• Invasion of privacy or doxing
• Any content or comment containing any form of degradation, subjugation, discrimination or hatred against individuals or groups based on race, ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, sexual orientation, or gender identity
• Nudity or Sexually Explicit Content or comments of any type including images, videos, or text
• Graphically-Violent Content of any type including videos, images, or text
• Spamming including posting the same comment repeatedly or posting a comment solely to promote a link or other online content.
• Explicit or credible threats against Indiegogo or its staff.

As an Indiegogo user you agree that by participating in a community space you have an interest in either the campaign, the topic, or the idea being discussed. Participating solely for the purpose of harassing others will not be tolerated.

Campaign Community Guidelines

Prohibited Content and Perks

The following content, activities, and Perks are prohibited both on and off campaign pages. For further information on certain categories of prohibited content, please review the What Can I Not Offer as Perks Help Center article.

• Gambling
• Lotteries, games of chance or other forms of gambling as your Perk
• Perks or other rewards that are not guaranteed, such as raffles, contests, sweepstakes, random drawings etc. are also considered gambling and we suggest you seek out the advice of an attorney if you would like to run a contest on your Campaign page
• Drugs or Alcohol
• Drugs or drug paraphernalia cannot be marketed on a Campaign or offered as a Perk
• Alcohol cannot be marketed on a Campaign or offered as a Perk if shipping. Please review the What Can I Not Offer as Perks Help Center article
• Words or phrases (including slang names), images or videos depicting drugs, drug usage or associated drug paraphernalia
• Investments or Profit Sharing
• Financial incentives, a return on investment, Securities Offering (as defined in the Securities Act of 1933), or participation in any profit sharing
• Any type of Campaign that could be considered an initial coin offering (“ICO”) or a Campaign that offers cryptocurrency, NFTs, or other digital asset in token form that could be considered a Securities Offering
• Harassment or Hate speech
• We consider harassment to include, but is not limited to, the following:
• Abusive videos, comments, or messages
• Cyberbullying
• Invasion of privacy
• Promoting or representing any individual, group, or organization that promotes hate or uses hate symbols and/or hate terms on their website, as defined by the Anti Defamation League
• Sexual harassment
• Any form of degradation, subjugation, discrimination or hatred against individuals or groups based on race, ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, sexual orientation, or gender identity
• Nudity or Sexually Explicit Content
• Nudity or sexually explicit content, which may include:
• Sexually explicit videos or images
• Links to websites that may contain sexually explicit material
• Graphically-Violent Content: promoting any form of violence
• Weapons, Ammunition and Related Accessories
• Human or Animal Remains
• Air Transportation and Raising Funds for Aircrafts
• Political Campaigns, Political Candidates, any Government Entities or Political Action Committees (PACs)
• Health and Wellness, Medication and Dietary Supplements
• Drugs and medication including herbal and dietary supplements
• Any item claiming to cure, treat, or prevent an illness or serious medical condition. Serious medical condition is defined as an illness, injury, impairment, or physical or mental condition that involves either inpatient care in a hospital, hospice, or residential medical care facility, or continuing treatment by a health care provider.
• Class III medical devices as defined by the FDA
• Products making false or misleading health claims, or being touted as miracle cures
• Promotion of products with names that are confusingly similar to an approved or unapproved pharmaceutical or supplement or controlled substance
• Reselling: You cannot represent products created by others as your own creation, or act as a reseller of others' products.

Campaign Expectations and Requirements

• The following expectations and requirements are applicable to all Campaigns, whether a Campaign is being run by a third party (Agency, etc.) or the original team behind the idea. Agencies seeking to be listed as the Campaign Owner accept and assume all responsibilities of a Campaign Owner.

  Provide Monthly Updates to Contributors

  • Campaign Owners must provide substantive detailed updates at least once a month to their Contributors. For an idea on best practices for updates, please refer to our Update Help Center article.
  • Failure to send monthly updates can result in any or all of the following:
  • We may hold funds raised on your Campaign
  • Increase in your refund requests and chargebacks from Contributors
  • Negative impact on your business and perceived trustworthiness with Contributors
  • Negatively impact your ability to run another campaign on Indiegogo
  • We may also report you to a third-party collections agency to recover Contributions disbursed to you if you fail to fulfill your Campaign Perks.

  Perk Fulfillment

  • You must fulfill any promises or commitments made on your Campaign page and to Contributors (including delivering any Perks)
  • Once your Campaign has ended, Contributors must receive their Perk before you send Perks to any other contributors or backers of a Campaign on any other fundraising or e-commerce website
  • Campaign Owners who are referred for any discounted services offered by third parties in collaboration with Indiegogo, may face denial from the discounted services for violation of Our Terms of Use or any other policy listed here as well as have their ability to run future campaigns restricted

  ID Verification

  We may choose to verify your identity and other information that you provide to us as a Campaign Owner. We reserve the right to withhold funds and refund Contributors if we are unable to sufficiently verify a Campaign Owner’s identity to our satisfaction.

  • Your identity must be verified before we can disburse funds to you. Identity verification is processed by a third party, and your personal data will be encrypted by 256-bit SSL encryption
  • The location listed on your Campaign page must match the legal residence information you provide to us
  • Refer to the ID Verification Help Center Article for more information

  Addressing Comments on a Campaign

  • The comments section of your Campaign is a place where all Indiegogo users can ask questions, voice concerns, and interact with each other and you. You are required to address all comments unless that comment, or the Contributor, violates our Terms
  • You must respond promptly and truthfully to all questions posed to you by either Indiegogo or a Contributor
  • Comments should only be marked as spam if they violate the Terms. If you mark any comment as spam and we determine, in our sole discretion, that the comments do not violate our Terms, then we may remove your ability to mark comments as spam for a period of time or permanently

  Campaigns in the InDemand Program Must Fulfill Perks

  • A Campaign may only be part of the InDemand program if you have selected the “Shipping” stage when launching your Campaign or updating its production status
  • Campaigns that participate in the InDemand program must be able to fulfill Perks within three (3) months of the estimated shipping date provided to Contributors at the time of their Contribution
  • We may remove Campaigns from the InDemand program that are not able to fulfill Perks within the expected timeframe
  • We may require proof that Perks have been fulfilled, and decisions about fulfillment are made within our sole discretion

  Cross-Promotion of Other Products or Services is Not Permitted

  • Indiegogo users may only communicate with Contributors and/or Campaign Owners about the Campaign to which the contribution was made. Indiegogo users may not cross-promote, or otherwise contact (via Campaign Update, email, SMS, or any other forms of communication) Contributors or Campaigner Owners about other Campaigns, products, services, or other activities, this is especially so for Campaigns outside of the Indiegogo platform. Such communications are considered spam and are a violation of our Privacy Policy.
  • Likewise to above you shall not use any part of the Indiegogo platform to spam or self-promote your campaign to other users and/or contributors on Indiegogo. This includes comments on other campaigns to promote your campaign or product, as well as other areas of the site open for commenting.

  Repeat Campaign Owners

  • If you either: (a) have run a previous crowdfunding Campaign on our Platform or another platform and have not fulfilled the Perks (or their equivalent) from the previous campaign, or (b) have run a crowdfunding Campaign on our Platform or another platform and have not fulfilled the Perks from the previous campaign before selling substantially equivalent products as those that were offered as Perks in commerce via either a third-party platform or through a dedicated site, then you may not launch another campaign on our Platform without providing us with adequate proof that the Perks or the equivalent from your previous campaign have been fulfilled, though we may choose to allow you to run a subsequent campaign in our sole discretion. All decisions regarding the adequacy of proof will also remain solely within our discretion.

  Tech & Innovation Campaigns: Setting Product Stages

  If you have a “Tech & Innovation” or hardware Campaign, you must set a product stage for that Campaign. The product stage must be selected based on accurate information regarding the current stage of development for your Perks or related products. See our product stages FAQ for more information.

  Prohibition against self-contribution

  • All Campaign team members, or anyone acting on your behalf, may not make Contributions to your Campaign--we call these “self-contributions.” Self-contributions are prohibited both by Indiegogo and our payment processor, and either Indiegogo or our payment processor may take actions like rejecting or blocking Contributions for any length of time or suspending your Indiegogo account, if either Indiegogo or our payment processor, in our sole discretion, discovers self-contributions.
  • You should also not separately take funds from Contributors and then Contribute those funds to the Campaign via your Campaign Owner account, since we still consider this to be self-contributing. Contributors must Contribute to your Campaign through their own accounts. Please refer to the Self-Contribution Help Center Article for more information.

  Follow Branding Guidelines

  You must follow the Indiegogo Branding Guidelines if you’d like to use any of our intellectual property including but not limited to things like our logo, colors, name, or registered trademark phrases in your Campaign content or related materials.

  You may not:

  • Incorporate our intellectual property and branding elements both on and off our website in a way that implies we endorse your activities or you are associated with Indiegogo
  • Include any visual element that could be interpreted to have been produced by Indiegogo, including but not limited to banners, progress bars or funding stats

  Disbursements

  • Before we disburse any Campaign funds to you, our Trust and Safety Team will review your Campaign for compliance with our Terms of Use and all other related policies (like these Community Guidelines)
  • You must complete all identity and banking verification processes, including any follow-up information requested by our payment processor or identity verification vendor before, before your Campaign will be reviewed to approve disbursement. If you have not provided any requested information for any of these processes, your disbursement may be delayed or entirely refunded back to Contributors
  • If your Campaign has received a large amount of Contributions, we may choose to hold a percentage of the funds raised as part of your Campaign. This is to account for any Contributor chargeback requests or for other customer service reasons. The held funds will be disbursed to you at a time determined by us in our sole discretion, once our review of your Campaign is completed
  • Please refer to the When Do I Get My Money Help Center Article for more information on the disbursement process

  Policy Violations

  If you violate our Terms of Use or any related policies including these Community Guidelines, we reserve the right to take any or all of the following steps:

  • Hold back a percentage of the funds raised in your Campaign
  • Place specific Contributions on hold and/or refund Contributors
  • Utilize all legal means, including third party collections agencies, to recover funds raised in your Campaign that have been disbursed to you Campaign Owner
  • Remove Campaigns and terminate User Accounts at any time
  • Take any other legal measures we deem, in our sole discretion, necessary to protect the Site and the Services