Kickstarter has launched the Kickstarter Culture Fund, a $1 million pool supporting independent creators in art, fashion, film, and music, marking the first fund the company has financed entirely on its own. The fund is open to creators worldwide who have a live Kickstarter campaign or a draft project page in one of the four eligible categories.

The launch ties into Kickstarter’s recently introduced “Power of Belief” brand campaign. Through the fund, the company will make direct financial contributions to live campaigns to help creators build momentum as they work to attract backers.

“Creators across all industries, especially artists, musicians, filmmakers, and designers, are facing increasing challenges finding the resources and support they need to bring their ideas to life,” said Everette Taylor, Kickstarter’s CEO, in a press release. “The Kickstarter Culture Fund is our commitment to addressing that problem because when fewer ideas have the opportunity to break through, culture, the economy, and society all suffer.”

Kickstarter CMO Courtney Brown Warren called the fund “a meaningful expansion of the ways we have historically supported creators on their journey,” adding that “this time, we’re reaching into our own pockets.”

The fund departs from Kickstarter’s usual model in a specific way: it takes no equity, does not fully fund any project, and caps no fixed number of recipients. Contributions instead top off live campaigns already in motion. Taylor told Inc. the range of creators the platform serves varies widely: “We have people who only need to raise or sell $1,000 worth of products. We have people who are doing close to $50 million,” and said he is skeptical of programs that funnel money to creators who do not need it, calling the impact on creators without traction “beautiful.”

Taylor took over as CEO in 2022 when revenue was declining, and told Inc. that Kickstarter would not commit to giving money away until it had proven it could make money itself. He said 2025 was the company’s best year on record and that 2026 is tracking roughly 40% ahead of that pace.

The Culture Fund builds on Kickstarter’s existing Forward Fund partnerships with organizations including Tubi, Google and Creative Capital. Taylor told Inc. that Kickstarter’s Tubi partnership placed roughly 80 previously Kickstarter-funded films on the streaming platform last year.

The first outside partner under the new Culture Fund umbrella is Creative Scotland, the public body supporting Scotland’s arts, screen and creative industries, which is expanding a fund it first ran with Kickstarter in 2023. According to the press release, the renewed Creative Scotland Forward Fund will contribute £67,500 directly to eligible campaigns from Scotland-based creators across film, comics, music, radio and podcasts, games, publishing and design. Kickstarter said additional partners will launch dedicated funding initiatives under the Culture Fund in the coming months.

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