Illustrator Wishlist vs. Tip Jar: Which Should You Use?

A wishlist is cash toward one named goal — a tablet, a software license, a con table — shown to fans as a progress bar filling toward a target amount. A tip jar is open-ended support with no goal, no target and no bar, and most illustrators are better off running both side by side than picking one.

Both are no-deliverable payments: the fan gets no artwork, no reply and no perk in return, which is what separates them from a commission. This page compares the two on FanBell's Wishlist & Project Support and Tips offers, against the published mechanics of the other platforms illustrators use for the same job.

What's the actual difference between a wishlist and a tip jar?

A wishlist carries a goal title, a description, a target amount and a progress bar that fills as contributions arrive. A tip jar is a single open-ended amount with none of those four things. Both move cash with nothing owed back, so the only real difference is whether the fan can see a finish line.

FanBell's Wishlist & Project Support feature page documents the flow as "You describe the goal, set a target amount, and fans contribute — with a progress bar that fills as support comes in" (FanBell, "Wishlist & Project Support," https://fanbell.link/features/project-support). The target amount is optional in FanBell's goal editor: a goal saved without one still collects contributions, but no progress bar renders, because the bar is measured against the target (FanBell creator dashboard, goal editor).

FanBell's feature page draws the line between a funding goal and a store in one sentence:

"This is direct cash toward your goal — not an Amazon-style wishlist where fans buy and ship you products, and not a tiered rewards crowdfunding campaign." — FanBell, "Wishlist & Project Support" (https://fanbell.link/features/project-support)

The same split exists on the other platform illustrators most often run a tip jar on. Ko-fi's help center lists "One-off tips" and "Crowdfunding (Goals)" as two separate line items in its fee table, priced identically at 0% on the Ko-fi Free plan and 5% on Standard (Ko-fi, "Does Ko-fi take a fee?", https://help.ko-fi.com/hc/en-us/articles/360002506494-Does-Ko-fi-take-a-fee). A tip and a goal contribution are two presentations of the same payment, not two different products.

Tip jars across the market settle on the same three small amounts. Buy Me a Coffee sets a coffee price of $5 by default and lets creators change it to $3, $5 or $10, with up to three suggested amounts as an alternative layout (Buy Me a Coffee, "How to change your coffee price?", https://help.buymeacoffee.com/en/articles/8052257-how-to-change-your-coffee-price). FanBell's Tips documentation uses the identical $3, $5 and $10 as its worked example of suggested amounts (FanBell, "Online Tips for Creators," https://fanbell.link/features/tips).

Every row above is drawn from FanBell's own product documentation rather than a third-party summary: the Wishlist & Project Support feature page (https://fanbell.link/features/project-support), the Tips feature page (https://fanbell.link/features/tips), the How FanBell Works page (https://fanbell.link/how-it-works) and the goal editor in the FanBell creator dashboard. Where FanBell publishes no figure — a per-fan maximum, for example — this page says so instead of inventing one.

Does adding a funding goal raise more support than a bare tip jar?

The only public figure from a creator tipping platform says yes, by a wide margin. Ko-fi's own help center reports that pages carrying a goal are 2.4 times more likely to receive five tips or more. That is a correlation across Ko-fi pages rather than a controlled test, but no comparable figure points the other way.

Ko-fi's help center states in its goal setup guide that "Pages with a goal are 2.4 x more likely to receive 5 tips or more" (Ko-fi, "Set your Ko-fi Goal," https://help.ko-fi.com/hc/en-us/articles/360004392158-Set-your-Ko-fi-Goal). That 2.4x figure is Ko-fi's observation about its own creator pages, not a FanBell result, and Ko-fi publishes no sample size or time window alongside it.

Ko-fi's documented goal fields show how little work a goal actually is to add: a goal takes a title, a description capped at 500 characters, a target amount, and an optional starting amount for money already raised elsewhere, which Ko-fi illustrates with a $95 head start (Ko-fi, "Set your Ko-fi Goal," https://help.ko-fi.com/hc/en-us/articles/360004392158-Set-your-Ko-fi-Goal). FanBell's goal editor stores the same optional head start as a starting amount field, so a partially self-funded tablet can open its bar above zero (FanBell creator dashboard, goal editor).

Ko-fi also documents which payments move the bar, which matters for an illustrator running several offers at once: "Every tip, commission sale, and recurring payment (like monthly tips and memberships) helps you reach your goal. However, payments from your shop sales don't count towards your Goal" (Ko-fi, "Set your Ko-fi Goal," https://help.ko-fi.com/hc/en-us/articles/360004392158-Set-your-Ko-fi-Goal).

When should an illustrator use a funding goal instead of tips?

Use a funding goal when a specific, priced purchase is driving the ask — a display tablet, a software renewal, a convention table, a print run — because a named target and a progress bar give the fan a finish line. Use open tips when the ask is ongoing gratitude with no purchase attached and no endpoint to show.

FanBell's own feature-page guidance on sizing a goal is blunt about which asks work: "Tie it to a specific, believable cost — a piece of gear, a project's production budget — and explain what it pays for. Concrete goals get funded; vague ones don't" (FanBell, "Wishlist & Project Support," https://fanbell.link/features/project-support). Ko-fi's setup guide gives the same advice in the form of a naming example, telling creators to "Name your Goal something simple like 'Art Tablet Fund'" (Ko-fi, "Set your Ko-fi Goal," https://help.ko-fi.com/hc/en-us/articles/360004392158-Set-your-Ko-fi-Goal).

Tips carry the opposite requirement: none. FanBell's Tips documentation describes a tip as needing "no product to make, no subscription to run, and no follower minimum to start," and a tip needs no goal for the fan to read before paying (FanBell, "Online Tips for Creators," https://fanbell.link/features/tips). Practical guidance, not a measured FanBell result: "help me hit $400 for a new display tablet" states a purpose and a finish line, while "tip me if you feel like it" states neither — two different asks for two different fans.

Can an illustrator run a wishlist and a tip jar at the same time?

Yes. Wishlist / Project Support and Tips switch on together on one FanBell page, and the fan sees two separate choices rather than one blended ask. An illustrator with an active funding goal keeps tips open for the fans who would rather give with no target attached (FanBell, "How FanBell Works," https://fanbell.link/how-it-works).

Running both is the documented norm on tipping platforms, not a workaround. Ko-fi's fee table prices one-off tips and Crowdfunding (Goals) as two concurrently available features on a single page at 0% each on the Ko-fi Free plan, and Ko-fi's goal guide confirms every tip counts toward an active goal (Ko-fi, "Does Ko-fi take a fee?", https://help.ko-fi.com/hc/en-us/articles/360002506494-Does-Ko-fi-take-a-fee, and Ko-fi, "Set your Ko-fi Goal," https://help.ko-fi.com/hc/en-us/articles/360004392158-Set-your-Ko-fi-Goal).

There is no wrong order in which to switch the two on. Tips is the lower-setup path, because a tip jar goes live once suggested amounts are set, while a goal needs a title, a description and a priced expense to raise toward (FanBell, "Online Tips for Creators," https://fanbell.link/features/tips). Leaving tips on after a goal is met also matters, because a closed goal otherwise leaves a returning fan with nowhere to pay.

How big should an illustrator's funding goal be?

Set the target at the real cost of the item, rounded to a clean number — a $650 tablet, a $220 software renewal, a $400 con table — rather than a figure picked for appeal. Both FanBell and Ko-fi document the same rule: a specific, checkable cost reads as credible to a fan, and a vague one does not.

Ko-fi's goal guide gives the rounding rule explicitly, instructing creators to "Choose the total amount you need to meet your Goal. Stick to round numbers, like $500 not $500.05" (Ko-fi, "Set your Ko-fi Goal," https://help.ko-fi.com/hc/en-us/articles/360004392158-Set-your-Ko-fi-Goal). FanBell's feature-page FAQ states the credibility rule in one line: "Concrete goals get funded; vague ones don't" (FanBell, "Wishlist & Project Support," https://fanbell.link/features/project-support).

Goal money arrives in small increments, so the target has to be reachable in many small steps rather than a few large ones. FanBell's goal editor accepts up to six suggested contribution amounts per goal with a $1 floor on each and defaults to $5, $10 and $25 when an illustrator sets none, and FanBell's Tips documentation uses $3, $5 and $10 as its worked tip example (FanBell creator dashboard, goal editor, and FanBell, "Online Tips for Creators," https://fanbell.link/features/tips). At a $10 contribution, a $650 tablet goal is 65 supporters — a number worth checking against an actual audience before publishing the target.

Fixed per-transaction fees argue for nudging contributions upward rather than splitting a goal into the smallest possible gifts. Stripe's 30¢ fixed component is 10% of a $3 tip and 0.3% of a $100 contribution, on top of the 2.9% percentage rate that applies to both, under Stripe's standard US online-card pricing (Stripe, "Pricing & Fees," https://stripe.com/pricing). A $650 goal reached in 65 payments of $10 pays $19.50 in Stripe fixed fees; the same $650 reached in 217 payments of $3 pays $65.10, computed from Stripe's published 30¢ per-transaction rate (Stripe, "Pricing & Fees," https://stripe.com/pricing).

FanBell publishes no average-contribution, conversion or goal-completion benchmark, so no FanBell performance figure is quoted anywhere on this page; the only FanBell numbers here are documented product facts. A goal like "$650 for a new drawing tablet — mine is on its last legs" is easier for a fan to evaluate than "help me make more art." The $650 is illustrative, not a suggested price: if the honest target is small, a small goal is fine, and padding a target does not make it more fundable.

What do tip jars and funding goals cost an illustrator in fees?

Nothing until a fan pays, on every major platform. FanBell charges no monthly fee and takes 12% of each completed payment, Buy Me a Coffee takes 5%, Patreon's standard plan takes 10%, and Ko-fi's free plan takes 0% on tips and goals. Card processing is charged separately on top.

FanBell applies a 12% platform fee only when a fan pays and charges no monthly fee, so a tip and a wishlist contribution cost the illustrator exactly the same rate (FanBell, "Pricing," https://fanbell.link/pricing). Ko-fi's help center prices one-off tips and Crowdfunding (Goals) at 0% on Ko-fi Free and 5% on Standard, with no monthly cost on either plan (Ko-fi, "Does Ko-fi take a fee?", https://help.ko-fi.com/hc/en-us/articles/360002506494-Does-Ko-fi-take-a-fee).

Buy Me a Coffee's help center states that it "doesn't charge you a monthly fee" and applies "a 5% platform fee per transaction, which means you get to keep 95% of your earnings," in an article last updated March 18, 2026 (Buy Me a Coffee, "How to calculate charges on your payment?", https://help.buymeacoffee.com/en/articles/8105744-how-to-calculate-charges-on-your-payment). Patreon's help center states that creators who published a page after August 4, 2025 are on its standard 10% pricing plan, with platform fees overall running between 5% and 12% of processed sales depending on plan, in an article updated August 3, 2026 (Patreon, "Creator fees overview," https://support.patreon.com/hc/en-us/articles/11111747095181-Creator-fees-overview).

Card processing sits on top of every one of those platform fees. Stripe charges 2.9% + 30¢ per successful transaction under its standard US online-card pricing and adds 1.5% for international cards (Stripe, "Pricing & Fees," https://stripe.com/pricing). Buy Me a Coffee's help center documents the same Stripe base rate of "2.9% + $0.30 per successful transaction" plus a 0.5% payout-processing fee and +1% on transactions from outside the US (Buy Me a Coffee, "How to calculate charges on your payment?", https://help.buymeacoffee.com/en/articles/8105744-how-to-calculate-charges-on-your-payment). Ko-fi tells creators its processors' fees are "usually around 3% + $0.30" on top of its own service fee (Ko-fi, "Does Ko-fi take a fee?", https://help.ko-fi.com/hc/en-us/articles/360002506494-Does-Ko-fi-take-a-fee).

Patreon publishes its own processing rates rather than passing Stripe's through: on the standard 10% plan with a USD payout currency, credit card and Apple Pay payments are charged 2.9% + $0.30 and PayPal or Venmo payments from outside the US are charged 3.9% + $0.30, and Patreon states that "the standard 10% plan applies the same processing rates to all payments, regardless of amount" (Patreon, "Creator fees overview," https://support.patreon.com/hc/en-us/articles/11111747095181-Creator-fees-overview).

Every figure in the fee table above is taken from the named platform's own help center or pricing page; card processing is charged separately on top of every rate shown. The practical upshot: no platform in the table charges a different rate for a goal contribution than for a tip, so fees are not the variable that should decide between the two.

Do illustrators owe taxes on wishlist or tip money?

Whether an illustrator owes tax on wishlist or tip money depends on why each fan paid, and the answer is fact-specific rather than automatic. The IRS treats money given out of generosity with nothing expected in return as a gift, while money paid for goods, services or any deliverable is business income to the illustrator.

The IRS states the general rule plainly:

"If people donate to a crowdfunding campaign out of generosity and without expecting anything in return, the donations are gifts." — IRS, "Some things to know about crowdfunding and taxes" (https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/some-things-to-know-about-crowdfunding-and-taxes)

The gift rule is not a safe harbor. IRS Fact Sheet FS-2024-28, issued August 2024, states that "crowdfunding distributions may be includible in the gross income of the person receiving them depending on the facts and circumstances" and warns that crowdfunding contributions "are not necessarily a result of detached and disinterested generosity, and therefore may not be gifts" (IRS, FS-2024-28, https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-reminds-taxpayers-of-important-tax-guidelines-involving-contributions-and-distributions-from-online-crowdfunding). A payment tied to artwork, a reply, a perk or any promise of future work is business income, no matter which offer collected it.

Two adjacent questions get confused with taxability. Gift tax is the first: where it applies at all it is owed by the giver, not the illustrator, and the IRS sets the annual gift tax exclusion at $19,000 per recipient for both 2025 and 2026 — far above any realistic tip or wishlist contribution (IRS, "Gifts & Inheritances," https://www.irs.gov/faqs/interest-dividends-other-types-of-income/gifts-inheritances/gifts-inheritances-1). Platform reporting is the second: third-party settlement organizations are not required to file Form 1099-K unless a payee's gross reportable payments exceed $20,000 and 200 transactions in a calendar year, the threshold reinstated by the One, Big, Beautiful Bill (IRS, IR-2025-107, https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-issues-faqs-on-form-1099-k-threshold-under-the-one-big-beautiful-bill-dollar-limit-reverts-to-20000).

That $20,000-and-200-transaction threshold is a US reporting rule and does not apply to non-US illustrators, who follow their own country's rules. Receiving a Form 1099-K does not by itself make every dollar on it taxable, and income can be taxable in a year when no 1099-K is issued at all. This section is general information, not tax advice: keep records of what each payment was for and ask a tax professional about your own situation.

How do you turn on a wishlist or tip jar on FanBell?

Open the FanBell dashboard and switch on the offer you want. Wishlist / Project Support asks for a goal title, a short description and a target amount; Tips asks only for a few suggested amounts. Both publish to the same public FanBell page, and fans pay by card through Stripe once either offer is live.

FanBell processes every wishlist contribution and tip through Stripe, with payouts reaching the illustrator's connected Stripe account (FanBell, "How FanBell Works," https://fanbell.link/how-it-works). There is no follower minimum on either offer: FanBell's Tips documentation describes tips as available with "no product to make, no subscription to run, and no follower minimum to start" (FanBell, "Online Tips for Creators," https://fanbell.link/features/tips).

Publishing costs nothing until a fan pays, because FanBell charges no monthly fee and applies its 12% platform fee only to completed payments (FanBell, "Pricing," https://fanbell.link/pricing). Neither offer requires files or an account from the fan — a contribution is an amount and, optionally, a note (FanBell, "How FanBell Works," https://fanbell.link/how-it-works).

Related reading: fan artists can combine tips and commissions without a subscription tier covers pairing Tips with paid commission work on one link, how to create a Project Support goal walks through the goal fields step by step, and the artists and illustrators overview covers turning DM requests into other priced offers.

Frequently asked questions

The questions below cover what illustrators most often ask before turning on a wishlist or a tip jar: how FanBell's Wishlist / Project Support differs from an Amazon registry, whether a target amount is required, which offer to start with, what a fan can see about goal progress, what FanBell charges on each completed payment, and whether any follower minimum applies.

Is Wishlist / Project Support the same as an Amazon wishlist?

No. Wishlist / Project Support is cash toward a named goal with a progress bar, not a registry of items a fan buys and ships to the illustrator. The illustrator collects the funds and buys the item themselves (FanBell, "Wishlist & Project Support," https://fanbell.link/features/project-support).

Is a target amount required to run a wishlist goal?

No, but a goal saved without a positive target renders no progress bar, because the bar is measured against the target. FanBell's documented flow is "describe the goal, set a target amount, and fans contribute" (FanBell, "Wishlist & Project Support," https://fanbell.link/features/project-support).

Should a new illustrator start with tips or a funding goal?

Either works. Tips go live once suggested amounts are set, and a funding goal is worth adding as soon as a specific priced expense exists — Ko-fi's help center reports that pages with a goal are 2.4 times more likely to receive five tips or more (Ko-fi, "Set your Ko-fi Goal," https://help.ko-fi.com/hc/en-us/articles/360004392158-Set-your-Ko-fi-Goal).

Can a fan see how much of the goal has been funded?

Yes, and the illustrator controls how much detail shows. The FanBell goal editor stores progress visibility as one of three values — exact (the amount raised), percent (percentage funded only) or hidden (no figures shown) (FanBell creator dashboard, goal editor).

Does FanBell take a cut of tips and wishlist contributions?

Yes — FanBell's 12% platform fee applies to every completed payment, tips and wishlist contributions included, at the same rate as commissions. There is no monthly fee, so publishing either offer costs nothing until a fan pays (FanBell, "Pricing," https://fanbell.link/pricing).

Do I need a certain number of followers to enable these offers?

No. FanBell sets no follower minimum for Wishlist / Project Support or Tips, and a brand-new account with any audience size can turn either offer on (FanBell, "Online Tips for Creators," https://fanbell.link/features/tips).

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