Why Does a FanBell Funding Goal Have No Deadline?

A FanBell funding goal has no deadline because Project Support is built as an ongoing progress bar, not a timed campaign. Each contribution is charged in full the moment a fan pays and is then paid out on the creator's Stripe payout schedule, so a creator keeps every contribution, minus applicable fees, whether the goal is reached in a day, a year, or never.

Sources for the answer above: FanBell's how-it-works page states that "a fan pays the full price upfront" and that "your earnings pay out to your bank through Stripe" (FanBell, "How It Works"). FanBell's pricing page states that "Stripe handles the creator's payout schedule," that FanBell is free to start at $0/month with a 12% platform fee per paid transaction, and that "payment-processing fees are deducted separately from creator earnings" (FanBell, "Pricing").

Most people's mental model of "set a funding goal" comes from Kickstarter, where a clock is the whole point. Kickstarter's own support center puts it plainly:

"We use an all-or-nothing model, which means pledges are only collected if a campaign reaches its funding goal by the deadline. If the goal is not reached, no money changes hands." — Kickstarter Support, "What is Kickstarter?"

Kickstarter's all-or-nothing rule explains why so many creators hesitate to post a goal at all: if the number is not hit by a set date, the campaign fails outright and nobody gets paid. FanBell's Wishlist / Project Support removes both the clock and the cutoff, because a fan's payment is a direct transaction rather than a conditional pledge, and the goal amount is a visible target on a progress bar rather than a payout condition.

Does a funding goal on FanBell expire?

No. A FanBell Wishlist / Project Support goal stays live until the creator edits, closes, or replaces it: there is no campaign window, no countdown, and no date after which the page stops accepting contributions. Fans can contribute the day a goal is posted or a year later, and the progress bar simply keeps reflecting the running total.

FanBell's own Project Support documentation describes the offer as having "no reward tiers, physical perks, or campaign deadlines to manage — just a clear goal and a progress bar your fans can move" (FanBell, "Wishlist & Project Support"). Reward crowdfunding works the opposite way. Kickstarter Support states that projects on Kickstarter "can last anywhere from 1 day, to a maximum of 60 days," and that after launch a creator "will not be able to adjust the deadline or funding duration of the campaign" (Kickstarter Support, "What is the maximum project duration?"). A creator whose real audience is a slow trickle of true fans, not a launch-day spike, is not working against the 60-day ceiling Kickstarter sets for a different kind of campaign — though whether that audience needs to exist before crowdfunding starts is its own question worth answering first.

What happens if a goal isn't fully funded?

Nothing negative happens when a FanBell goal falls short of its target. The creator keeps every contribution already made, minus fees, because each contribution was completed when the fan paid rather than held pending a group outcome. A FanBell goal sitting at 40 percent has already delivered that 40 percent to the creator.

FanBell's terms of service are the primary source on how a Project Support payment is handled:

"When a fan pays for an eligible paid request or project support, the payment may be routed to the creator's connected Stripe account after platform fees and Stripe processing fees." — FanBell, Terms of Service, §9 "Payments & payouts"

That clause conditions routing on the fan's payment, not on a target being reached, which is why FanBell has no mechanism for holding funds until a goal number is hit. Kickstarter's model resolves the opposite way: Kickstarter Support states that if a campaign ends without reaching its funding goal, "no money changes hands," backers are not charged, and the creator receives no funds (Kickstarter Support, "Why is funding all-or-nothing?"). Donation-based fundraising is much closer to how FanBell behaves:

"Reaching your goal is not required. With GoFundMe, you keep each and every donation you receive." — GoFundMe, "Common Fundraising Questions"

FanBell applies that same keep-what-you-raise logic to a creator's own project or gear goal, though the two platforms differ elsewhere; see how a FanBell goal stacks up against GoFundMe for creators for the fuller comparison.

Why doesn't FanBell use an all-or-nothing model?

FanBell skips all-or-nothing funding because a contribution to a FanBell goal is a direct payment to the creator, not a pledge held pending a group outcome, so there is nothing to unwind if the total falls short. Without pooled pledges, the platform never needs a deadline to decide who gets charged.

All-or-nothing exists on reward-crowdfunding platforms for a specific reason. Kickstarter Support says the model exists "to protect creators, to protect backers, and to create the urgency that helps campaigns succeed," and adds that a backer is "funding a creative process, with the built-in assurance that if the campaign falls short, no one is charged". FanBell's Wishlist / Project Support is not a reward-tiered pledge system at all: FanBell's feature page describes Project Support as "direct cash toward your goal — not an Amazon-style wishlist where fans buy and ship you products, and not a tiered rewards crowdfunding campaign".

How is FanBell Project Support different from Kickstarter or Indiegogo?

The core difference is what happens to a contribution the moment it is made. On FanBell, a fan's payment is charged immediately and the goal is only a progress indicator. On Kickstarter and Indiegogo, a pledge is conditional: the card is charged only if the campaign hits its goal by a deadline that is locked once the campaign goes live.

For the full breakdown of fees, payout timing, and campaign mechanics against each platform, see funding-goal-vs-kickstarter-for-creators and funding-goal-vs-indiegogo.

When does a contribution actually reach the creator?

A FanBell contribution is collected immediately, at the moment the fan pays, and is then paid out on the creator's Stripe payout schedule rather than at a campaign deadline. Collection and bank settlement are two separate steps, and FanBell publishes no payout timetable of its own because Stripe controls the schedule shown to each creator during onboarding.

FanBell's pricing page states that payments are processed by Stripe, that creators connect a Stripe Express account to receive money, and that "Stripe handles the creator's payout schedule". Stripe's payout documentation states that after a business receives its first live payment, "Stripe typically schedules your initial payout to complete within 7–14 days," and that the timeline "can take longer depending on your industry, country of operation, and risk level" (Stripe Docs, "Receive payouts"). Stripe's payout documentation also lists a standard T+2 settlement timing for United States accounts in USD, and notes country-specific restrictions: payouts in Brazil and India "are always automatic and daily," while daily payouts "aren't available" in Japan. Payout timing therefore varies by country, currency, and account rather than following one universal number.

Reward crowdfunding stretches the same timeline much further. Indiegogo's knowledge base states that funds paid by backers "are credited to your account in Adyen after three to five business days" and that Adyen then pays the balance to the creator's bank "in weekly intervals - each Friday night" (Indiegogo Knowledge Base, "Payouts in crowdfunding"). Indiegogo also states that Adyen "will try to charge your card for 2 weeks after the crowdfunding's end" when a backer pays in one sum, so an Indiegogo creator waits for the deadline, then the charge run, then the weekly payout.

Does a fan's contribution get refunded if a project changes?

FanBell does not automatically refund a contribution because a creator's plans shift, because no deadline event exists to trigger a mass refund the way a failed all-or-nothing campaign does. Refund control sits at the level of the individual payment instead of a platform-wide campaign outcome, and the creator holds the reject-and-refund tools directly.

FanBell's terms of service state that "creators may reject and refund inappropriate requests" and that refunds "may reverse all or part of the payment, the transfer to the creator, and the platform fee depending on the transaction status and Stripe's rules". FanBell's pricing page lists "reject, refund, block & report tools" among the creator controls included at $0/month. In practice a creator carries the same responsibility any direct-payment page carries: be clear about what a goal funds, and tell supporters when the scope changes. How to write a funding goal description that converts covers how to set that expectation up front.

Does removing the deadline hurt urgency?

Removing the deadline removes a real source of urgency, and a creator should make that trade deliberately. A fixed deadline pushes fans to act before a date, but it also creates a hard failure mode in which missing the date means the campaign collects nothing. FanBell trades that failure mode for a goal that never closes and never zeroes out.

Kickstarter Support names urgency as one of three reasons for all-or-nothing funding, alongside protecting creators and protecting backers. Kickstarter recommends setting a campaign "to run for 30 days or less," on the stated grounds that "campaigns with shorter durations often have higher success rates, and create a helpful sense of urgency". Creators who want pace without a countdown still have tools: a visible progress bar, milestone framing inside a single goal, and direct updates to supporters — including a way to thank fans who chip in that keeps them coming back without a deadline forcing their hand. See why a visible progress bar makes fans give more and how to break a funding goal into milestones for ways to build momentum without an expiration date.

What does FanBell charge on a funding goal?

FanBell is free to start at $0 per month and applies a 12% platform fee only when a fan pays into a goal, with no crowdfunding-style success fee attached. Card processing is billed separately from the platform fee, and FanBell states that "payment-processing fees are deducted separately from creator earnings," so creator earnings equal the fan payment minus both.

FanBell's pricing page states the arithmetic directly: "Creator earnings = fan payment − platform fee − processing fee". Stripe publishes 2.9% + 30¢ per successful transaction as its standard United States online-card rate (Stripe, "Pricing").

Reward-crowdfunding pricing is layered and conditional by comparison. Kickstarter Support states that a successfully funded project pays "a 5% fee from the funds collected for creators" plus a Stripe payment processing fee that Kickstarter itself describes only as "roughly 3-5%," and that "if a project does not reach its funding goal, no fees are collected" (Kickstarter Support, "What are the fees?"). Indiegogo charges 5% of the collected amount plus a per-transaction processing fee, and its own worked example shows a $10,000 raise across 100 transactions returning $9,180 to the creator after a $500 platform fee and $320 in processing fees. On FanBell, whatever a fan sends toward a goal is a completed transaction the moment it is paid, with fees deducted from that single transaction rather than from a campaign total — a one-time model worth weighing against a recurring Patreon-style membership if steady monthly income matters more than a single target.

Frequently asked questions

The questions below cover the five things creators ask most about a FanBell funding goal with no deadline: whether a date can be set manually, what happens to money on an unfinished goal, how Project Support differs from an Amazon wish list, whether fans can keep giving past 100%, and whether FanBell's fee changes when a goal is missed.

Can a creator set a deadline manually if they want one?

FanBell's Wishlist / Project Support has no built-in campaign-deadline field: FanBell's own feature documentation describes the offer as having "no reward tiers, physical perks, or campaign deadlines to manage". A creator who wants to communicate a target date can say so in the goal description and in updates to supporters, but the page keeps accepting contributions unless the creator closes it.

What happens to the money if a goal is never fully reached?

Nothing is returned or voided when a FanBell goal is never fully reached. Each contribution is a completed payment collected at the moment it is made, so a goal sitting at 40% has already delivered that 40% to the creator, minus fees, and no all-or-nothing threshold has to be crossed first.

Is FanBell Project Support the same as an Amazon wish list?

No. FanBell's feature page describes Project Support as "direct cash toward your goal — not an Amazon-style wishlist where fans buy and ship you products". For that distinction in more depth, see creator-wishlist-vs-crowdfunding.

Does a no-deadline goal mean fans can keep giving after it's "done"?

Yes. With no cutoff event, a creator can leave a FanBell goal open past 100% of the stated target, similar to how GoFundMe tells organizers a fundraiser "will be able to accept donations even after your goal is reached". A creator who wants to stop collecting can close or replace the goal at any time.

Does FanBell take a bigger cut if a goal isn't reached, like Indiegogo?

No. FanBell's 12% platform fee applies only to money a fan actually pays, and every contribution is collected individually rather than held pending a group outcome, so reaching or missing the stated goal number never changes the percentage the creator is charged.

The bottom line

A FanBell funding goal has no deadline because Project Support charges each contribution as a completed payment rather than a conditional pledge, so there is no campaign window to expire and no pooled total to unwind. Kickstarter and Indiegogo both lock a deadline at launch and return nothing to the creator when a goal is missed; GoFundMe, like FanBell, lets an organizer keep what was raised. The trade is straightforward: a creator gives up deadline-driven urgency and gains a goal that cannot fail, with fees applied per transaction rather than per campaign. Which model fits depends on whether an audience gives in a launch-week spike or a steady trickle.

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