Our Community
A global community of people committed to causing a sustainable planet.
Rules
The place to start for all campaign creators.
Guidelines
Crowdfunding etiquette for creators and contributors.
Rules
We welcome and support sustainability crowdfunding campaigns (“campaign” or “campaigns”) from a variety of social, economic, and environmental categories: Systems Thinking, Biodiversity & Ecosystems, Ocean Health, Fresh Water Resources, Land Use, Food Production, Consumption & Waste, Poverty Alleviation, Urbanization Trends, and Climate, Energy & Air Pollution. Here are five rules every Kairos Funding campaign must follow.
Campaigns must create something to share with others.
Kairos Funding can be used to create all sorts of ideas and innovations for sustainability. But every campaign needs a plan for creating something and sharing it with the world. At some point, the creator should be able to say: “It’s finished. Here’s what we created. Enjoy!”
Campaigns must be honest and clearly presented.
Our community is built on trust and communication. Campaigns can’t mislead people or misrepresent facts, and creators should be candid about what they plan to accomplish. When a project involves manufacturing and distributing something complex, like a technology innovation, we require campaigns to show contributors a prototype of what they’re making, and we prohibit the use of misleading imagery.
Prototype demonstration should reflect a product’s current state and should not include any CGI or special effects to demonstrate functionality that does not yet exist. If a campaign requires software and hardware integration, creators are required to show that functionality and any dependency clearly, or disclose that it has not yet been developed.
Misleading imagery includes photorealistic renderings and heavily edited or manipulated images or videos that could give backers a false impression of a product’s current stage of development.
Additional guidance on our rules requiring prototypes and prohibiting misleading imagery can be found here. Further guidance on crafting an honest and clearly presented campaign can be found here.
Campaigns can’t crowdfund for charity.
While nonprofits are welcome to launch campaigns on Kairos Funding, projects can’t promise to raise funds to donate to a charity or cause. Funds raised on Kairos Funding must go towards facilitating the campaign outlined by the creator on the campaign page.
Campaigns can’t offer equity.
Investment is not permitted on Kairos Funding. campaigns can’t offer incentives like equity, revenue sharing, or investment opportunities.
Campaigns can’t involve prohibited items.
We prohibit campaigns that are illegal, heavily regulated, or potentially dangerous for contributors, as well as rewards that the creator did not make. We do not allow any of the following:
Any item claiming to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent an illness or condition (whether via a device, app, book, nutritional supplement, or other means).
Contests, coupons, gambling, and raffles.
Energy food and drinks.
Offensive material (e.g., hate speech, encouraging violence against others, etc).
Offering a genetically modified organism as a reward.
Live animals. Projects cannot include live animals as a reward.
Offering alcohol as a reward.
Offering financial, money-processing, or credit services; financial intermediaries or cash-equivalent instruments; travel services (e.g., vacation packages); phone services (e.g., prepaid phone services, 900 numbers); and business marketing services.
Political fundraising.
Pornographic material.
Projects that promote discrimination, bigotry, or intolerance towards marginalized groups
Projects that share things that already exist, or repackage a previously-created product, without adding anything new or aiming to iterate on the idea in any way.
Resale. All rewards must have been produced or designed by the project or one of its creators — no reselling things from elsewhere.
Drugs, nicotine, tobacco, vaporizers and related paraphernalia.
Weapons, replicas of weapons, and weapon accessories.
If your campaign involves something illegal, heavily regulated, or potentially dangerous for contributors and it is not on this list, please contact us before starting your project.
These rules don’t cover every possible use of Kairos Funding, but they explain our purpose and perspective.
Guidelines
Kairos Funding is a community of people committed to bringing sustainability innovation and ideas to reality that make a global impact on social, economic, and environmental sustainability issues. Kairos Funding is founded founded on four core values — sustainability, transparency, integrity, and collaboration. Causing a sustainable planet requires everyone contributing both ideas and funding to realize those ideas. Kairos Funding creates this collaborative environment. To ensure the collaborative environment Kairos Funding is committed to, we have a few guidelines:
Don’t Spam
This includes link-bombing, promoting a campaign where it shouldn’t be promoted, sending unsolicited @’s on Twitter, hyping third-party services, and using email lists from outside sources, to name a few. The comment and messaging systems on Kairos Funding are here so creators and contributors can communicate, ask questions, and root each other on — not for spam.
Treat Others With Respect
Anything can be created, caused, and resolved through communication. We support all members of our community — creators and contributors — to communicate with each other to brainstorm, collaborate, or simply get a question answered. We expect all communication to be direct, respectful, and kind. This is possible even when providing constructive criticism. Abusive, obscene, hateful, or objectionable content is not permitted. Never post personal information and only post copyrighted content with permission. If you don’t like a campaign, don’t back it and move on. There are plenty of campaigns that need support and not all of them will be appealing to every contributor. However disrespecting an idea will not be tolerated.
If You See Something, Say Something
If something doesn’t seem right, let us know. Our Trust & Safety team reviews every report received, and we take action when we see someone violating these rules and guidelines, from a warning to revoking privileges or entire accounts.
Following the Rules and Guidelines guarantees this doesn’t happen to you.
The Cancel Culture Is NOT Welcome On This Platform
If you falsely report campaign(s) for the purpose of intentionally harming an individual or organization, we will take the necessary steps to protect the individual or organization being targeted, and we will fully cooperate with lawful action to address and prevent it.
As our community grows and changes, so will the way we evaluate and enforce these guidelines. It’s up to everyone to ensure Kairos Funding is a safe and fun place to create and contribute to campaigns.
Thanks for being a part of the Kairos Funding global community causing a sustainable planet!