Kickstarter

With very few notable exceptions7, the vast majority of creative ideas on Kickstarter involve relatively modest amounts of money (from Table 1, the average project has a goal of $8,500 and from Table 2, successful projects on average receive less than $7,000). Almost by definition, crowdfunding involves small contributions from many people (from Table 1, the average contribution is $75 and from Table 2, no more than 100 backers support the average project). As emphasized in the “how to crowdfund” books (e.g., de Witt 2012; Steinberg 2012), setting appropriate funding goals is paramount to having a successful project. Many project failures set unreasonable funding targets given the scope of their creative idea (from Table 2, the average goal for unsuccessful projects is almost three times the goal for successful projects). Our statistical analyses confirm that projects with smaller goals, of shorter duration, and having a video are likely to garner additional backer support, as are projects with many reward categories and having a colon in the title. Not surprisingly, projects featured on Kickstarter (blog, “Most Popular,” “Recently Launched,” “Ending Soon”) also are more likely to receive additional backer contributions. In general, potential backers are much less interested in supporting a project after it reaches its funding goal. P. 18-19.

That is from a new paper by Kuppuswamy & Bayus (March 2013). The title is "Crowdfunding Creative Ideas: The Dynamics of Project Backers in Kickstarter."