How to Fund Your Next Creative Project With Follower Support

To fund your next creative project with follower support, define a specific outcome, calculate a fee-aware target, publish one contribution page, ask your existing audience directly, and share progress updates. On Brillay, supporters send cash toward the goal, and each contribution moves a visible progress bar. A Goal is one named goal with a progress bar: followers make one-time contributions and every contribution is yours whether or not the goal is reached — no deadline unless you set one, and nothing to ship.

Brillay pricing and product policies were verified against pricing and how it works.

There is no application or follower minimum for Goals, so creators can publish a goal without first qualifying for a platform payout program. That differs from major social-platform programs with published numeric eligibility thresholds:

• TikTok Creator Rewards requires at least 10,000 followers and 100,000 video views in the previous 30 days, among other eligibility rules (TikTok Creator Rewards Program).
• YouTube’s full Partner Program ad-revenue tier requires 1,000 subscribers plus either 4,000 valid public watch hours in the previous 12 months or 10 million valid public Shorts views in the previous 90 days (YouTube Partner Program overview).
• Instagram Gifts requires a professional account with at least 500 followers, in addition to Meta’s other eligibility requirements (Instagram Gifts eligibility). Brillay carries no such threshold: the same bio link takes a Paid Question, a custom request, a Personalized Video, a Tip, or a Goal contribution from your very first follower, in any of the 41 countries Brillay pays creators out to.

Direct supporter support does not replace those programs. It provides another funding mechanism that can work before, after, or without qualifying for them: people who already value your work decide whether to contribute toward a specific project.

The process has five steps: define the project, set a goal, build the page, announce the project, and update supporters.

Each deep-dive resource is named in the corresponding section below.

What is Brillay Goals?

With Goals, supporters contribute one time toward one named funding target, and a progress bar tracks the contributions. Unlike an Amazon-style wishlist, Goals involve contributions toward a funding target, with nothing to purchase or ship and no individual product orders to fulfill. Support arrives as money rather than a preselected item, so you decide what the project actually needs when you spend it.

It also differs from tiered, all-or-nothing crowdfunding. With Goals, supporters make one-time contributions with no all-or-nothing cutoff or required reward tiers; creators choose whether to set a campaign deadline and keep the contributions they receive even if the displayed target is not reached.

That structure also means nothing to ship. The tradeoff is that creators do not receive the built-in urgency of a countdown or the promotional appeal of backer rewards. Creator wishlist vs. crowdfunding explains when Goals, a wishlist, or traditional crowdfunding may fit better.

Step 1: What exactly are you raising money for?

Begin with a concrete outcome that supporters can understand. “Help me record my next EP” or “Help me replace the camera causing the blurry focus in my videos” communicates what the money will make possible more clearly than a general request to “support me.”

Name the specific item or activity, such as:

• A camera, microphone, or lighting kit
• A recording or mixing session
• A short film or music video
• Venue and production costs for a live show
• Manufacturing costs for a merchandise run

Next, decide how much cost detail to disclose. A simple breakdown can show how the target relates to the project—for example, equipment, studio time, travel, or production costs. If a large project contains several distinct parts, separate milestone goals may also be easier to explain than one total covering everything.

Keep the description accurate if the scope changes. Explaining what follower contributions fund covers how to choose an appropriate level of detail and communicate changes transparently.

Step 2: How much should you ask for?

Set the target from the project’s full cost rather than only the advertised price of an item. Account for platform and payment-processing fees so the amount received after fees can still cover the intended expense.

Brillay Goals has a 5% platform fee on follower contributions. Stripe’s typical US online-card processing price is roughly 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction (Stripe pricing); rates can differ for international cards, currency conversion, and other payment methods.

How do Brillay, Kickstarter, GoFundMe, and Stripe fees compare?

The target should also be plausible for your audience and contribution pattern. For example, a target that depends on hundreds of $50 contributions requires enough engaged supporters to make that arithmetic realistic. A larger project may be easier to communicate through a sequence of smaller milestones.

How to set a realistic goal provides the full arithmetic and worked examples.

Step 3: How do you build the Goals page?

Building the page involves two tasks: explaining the project and publishing the goal.

For the content, write a clear title, describe the intended outcome, explain relevant costs, and tell supporters what their contributions will help make possible. You can also decide whether to show suggested contribution amounts and how to phrase the call to action. What to put on a goal page covers those choices in detail.

Video is worth the extra effort: Kickstarter's own creator guidance reports that projects with a video succeed at a much higher rate than projects without one, 50% versus 30%, so pairing a short video with the written description tends to outperform text alone (Kickstarter: How to Make an Awesome Video).

For setup, enable Goals on your Brillay page, name the goal, enter the target amount, and publish it. New creators enable Goals themselves; Personalized Videos also has to be turned on, while Tips and Paid Questions are the two that are live from day one. You may publish before completing Stripe onboarding, but Stripe onboarding must be complete before contributions can reach your bank account.

How to create a goal walks through the setup process.

Step 4: How should you announce the project and ask for support?

Share the project on the platforms where your followers already interact with you, and direct each announcement to the same Brillay link. Supporters choose to contribute through the published Brillay page.

Instead of relying on one general announcement:

• Pin the initial post where it remains visible.
• Explain the specific outcome the project will create.
• Share the link again when there is a genuine update or milestone.
• Adapt the message to each platform rather than repeating identical text.
• Make clear how the project benefits or changes the work followers already enjoy.

For equipment, connect the upgrade to a recognizable production need, such as unstable footage or poor audio. Asking followers to help fund equipment includes sample scripts.

For an EP, music video, or tour costs, use milestones relevant to the recording or performance process. How musicians can fund a new project covers that audience and project type.

Step 5: How should you update supporters as the project progresses?

Plan a manageable update schedule once contributions begin. Updates can acknowledge funding progress, document significant project milestones, explain delays or scope changes, and show the final result. On Kickstarter, for comparison, creators can send a project update to every backer or to specific reward tiers, and can still edit an update for 30 minutes after posting it — the same discipline of a short, timely note works for a Brillay goal even without tiered rewards to target.

Useful update points include:

• Reaching a meaningful percentage of the target
• Ordering or receiving funded equipment
• Beginning a recording, production, or rehearsal phase
• Encountering a delay or material change
• Completing and publishing the project
• Thanking the people who contributed

Creators keep received contributions if a Goal misses its goal or deadline. A creator can decline a contribution when needed, but the system does not automatically reverse contributions because a target was missed. That makes prompt, accurate communication especially important if the original plan changes.

Keeping supporters updated on a creator project provides guidance on update cadence, milestone posts, and changed project circumstances.

The complete process is straightforward: define a project supporters can picture, calculate a target that accounts for fees, publish a clear page, ask through the channels your audience already uses, and report what happens next.

Brillay is free to start, has no monthly fee, and requires no follower minimum or application (pricing and how it works). Brillay's platform fee on a Goal is 5% of money a supporter contributes. See Goals for the feature overview or pricing for the complete fee breakdown.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a follower minimum to fund a project this way?

No. Goals requires no follower minimum or application.

By comparison, TikTok Creator Rewards requires at least 10,000 followers and 100,000 video views in the previous 30 days. YouTube’s full Partner Program ad-revenue tier requires 1,000 subscribers plus 4,000 valid public watch hours in 12 months or 10 million valid public Shorts views in 90 days. Instagram Gifts requires at least 500 followers.

What happens if you do not hit the goal?

You keep the contributions received. With Goals, creators choose whether to set a campaign deadline, there is no all-or-nothing cutoff, and they keep received contributions if the target is missed. Contributions can continue to add to the total while the goal remains published.

How does this compare with Kickstarter or GoFundMe fees?

Kickstarter charges a 5% platform fee on successfully funded campaigns, plus payment processing of roughly 3% + $0.20 per US pledge; pledges under $10 use a micropledge rate of 5% + $0.05 (Kickstarter’s fee page).

GoFundMe personal fundraisers charge no platform fee but deduct payment processing of roughly 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction.

Brillay Goals charges a 5% platform fee on money a supporter contributes, while Stripe processing also applies. Brillay goals have no mandatory deadline or all-or-nothing cutoff. See creator wishlist vs. crowdfunding for the broader structural comparison.

Is money contributed by supporters taxable?

It depends on the circumstances, so consult a qualified tax professional. The IRS states that crowdfunding distributions may be included in a recipient’s gross income depending on whether the funds are a gift, payment for goods or services, or another type of payment (IRS: Money received through crowdfunding may be taxable).

Even when a contribution is genuinely a personal gift rather than payment for goods or services, the IRS's annual gift tax exclusion for 2026 is $19,000 per giver per recipient; a single supporter giving more than that in one year is the one who may owe gift tax paperwork, not the creator receiving it (IRS: Frequently Asked Questions on Gift Taxes).

Keep records of the amount raised, the contributions received, and what the money funded.

Ready to put the goal in front of supporters? Create your free Brillay link, turn on Goals, and start with step one above.