Kickstarter PBC 2019 Benefit Statement
Summary
Kickstarter PBC 2019 Benefit Statement, with a table of contents covering Article III of the charter, helping to bring creative projects to life, supporting the arts and wider creative community, sustaining a healthy and ethical platform, being environmentally responsible, and fighting inequality. In the opening letter, CEO Aziz Hasan says Kickstarter made the decision to lay off many members of the team in May 2020 and met the process with the newly-formed union. The letter cites the animated film Hair Love winning an Oscar and Bill Nye's LightSail 2 launching into outer space. The inequality section describes unconscious bias workshops, interview training and Affinity Groups.
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Kickstarter
PBC
2019
Benefit
Statement
Table of
Contents
5 Article III of Our Charter
8 Helping to Bring
Creative Projects to Life
18 Supporting the Arts and
Wider Creative Community
29 Sustaining a Healthy and
Ethical Platform
31 Being Environmentally
Responsible
33 Fighting Inequality
2
Kickstarter exists to help creative Kickstarter, like so many businesses,
projects come to life. Artists, families, and individuals, had to
musicians, filmmakers, designers, reckon with hard truths as we faced
and other creators find the resources a deadly pandemic and a global
they need to make their ideas a reality economic crisis. In order to position
on our platform. Every creator has Kickstarter for a resilient future, we
complete creative control over their made the deeply difficult decision
work—and the opportunity to build a to layoff many members of our team
vibrant community around it. in May 2020. Our small, passionate
team has a dedication to helping bring
Art and creative expression are creative projects to life that has never
essential to the health and vibrancy waivered. They have shown incredible
of our society. Our mission and beliefs grit during these challenging times and
are a long and continuous pursuit. We we were able to meet a painful process
see creative projects that challenge us with compassion and collaboration with
and authority, help us face and escape our staff and the newly-formed union.
the truths of our world, bring beauty,
humor, and joy into our lives. In the midst of health and economic
crises, Americans across the country
In 2019, we saw some truly stood up against police brutality and
extraordinary projects come to life, racism, specifically against Black
from the short animated film Hair Love Americans. These issues are not new.
winning an Oscar to Bill Nye’s LightSail 2 In 2015, Kickstarter PBC committed to
successfully launching into outer space. standards of responsible citizenship
Kickstarter has grown with a full range on issues that included ongoing
of creative projects some that raise support for fighting inequality, and
millions while others are from first-time a more creative and equitable world,
and small, independent creators. from donating 5% of our after-tax profit
to charitable causes to highlighting
While this is our 2019 report, I want projects and ideas from a diverse
to acknowledge the challenges and range of creators on Kickstarter and
changes that 2020 has brought, many The Creative Independent. In response
of which we will address further in our to the urgent issues affecting artists
2020 report.
3
and creators in 2020, we’ve committed to taking more steps as a company to fight
injustice. Just like our mission to help creative projects come to life, and the work
of artists, creators, and designers around the world, the work towards equality
continues even when the headlines cease.
The artist Theaster Gates talks about the value of “making the thing that makes
the thing.” That’s Kickstarter: a powerful tool enabling people of all kinds to bring
their creative projects to life and connect to others’ creative work that inspires
them. We are proud to devote ourselves to making it better every day.
Aziz Hasan
CEO
Article III
of Our
Charter
1 Kickstarter’s mission is to help bring creative projects to life
a. Kickstarter will create tools and resources that help people
bring their creative projects to life, and that connect people
around creative projects and the creative process.
b. Kickstarter will care for the health of its ecosystem and
integrity of its systems.
c. Kickstarter will engage beyond its walls with the greater
issues and conversations affecting artists and creators.
5
2 Kickstarter’s operations will reflect its values
a. Kickstarter will never sell user data to third parties. It will
zealously defend the privacy rights and personal data of the
people who use its service, including in its dealings with
government entities.
b. Kickstarter’s terms of use and privacy policies will be clear,
fair, and transparent. Kickstarter will not cover every possible
future contingency, or claim rights and powers just because
it can or because doing so is industry standard.
c. Kickstarter will not lobby or campaign for public policies
unless they align with its mission and values, regardless of
possible economic benefits to the company.
d. Kickstarter will not use loopholes or other esoteric but
legal tax management strategies to reduce its tax burden.
Kickstarter will be transparent in reporting the percentage of
taxes it pays and explaining the many factors that affect its
tax calculation.
e. Kickstarter will seek to limit environmental impact. It will
invest in green infrastructure, support green commuting
methods, and factor environmental impact when
choosing vendors. Additionally, Kickstarter will provide
recommendations and resources that help creators make
environmentally conscious decisions on tasks, like shipping
and packaging, that are common to the use of its services.
3 Kickstarter supports a more creative and equitable world
a. Kickstarter will annually donate 5% of its after-tax profit
towards arts and music education, and to organizations
fighting to end systemic inequality as further defined in
sections 4(c) and 5(c) below (the “5% pledge”).
6
4 Kickstarter is committed to the arts
a. Kickstarter will always support, serve, and champion artists
and creators, especially those working in less commercial
areas.
b. Kickstarter will foster a supportive environment for
employees to work on their own creative projects, including
time off to pursue them.
c. Half of Kickstarter’s 5% pledge will be devoted to arts and
music programs for children and young adults, with a primary
focus on underserved communities in New York City. Funds
will be distributed to 501(c)(3) organizations, public schools,
or via programs developed by Kickstarter.
5 Kickstarter is committed to fighting inequality
a. Kickstarter will provide opportunities and paid time off for
employees to provide professional mentorship and skills
training to people from groups underrepresented in the
worlds of art, business, or technology.
b. Kickstarter will report on team and leadership demographics,
executive and CEO pay ratios, and programs and strategies
employed to build a diverse, inclusive, and equitable
organization.
c. Half of Kickstarter’s 5% pledge will be devoted to
organizations addressing systemic inequality. Kickstarter will
primarily focus such contributions on 501(c)(3) organizations
fighting to end prejudices against and increase opportunities
for people of color, women, and LGBTQ individuals.
7
Helping
to Bring
Creative
Projects
to Life
First and foremost, our mission is to help bring
creative projects to life. And since 2009, Kickstarter
has become a key piece of the creative world, with
18.5 million people having pledged over $5 billion to
nearly 200,000 projects across the globe.
8
One of the most concrete
ways to see our impact
is the many notable
HELPING BRING CREATIVE PROJECTS TO LIFE
Kickstarter projects that
were fully realized out in
the world in 2019.
Here are a few highlights:
Last Black Man
in San Francisco
$77,318
pledged of $50,000 goal
1,447
backers
A24 released Last Black Man in San Francisco,
an artistic feature-length film that deals with
gentrification and friendship.
9
LightSail: A
Revolutionary Solar
Sailing Spacecraft
$1,241,615
pledged of $200,000 goal
23,331
backers
Bill Nye’s revolutionary solar sailing spacecraft
Light Sail 2 took off.
Slave Rebellion
HELPING BRING CREATIVE PROJECTS TO LIFE
Reenactment
$42,227
pledged of $40,000 goal
478
backers
Dread Scott’s Slave Rebellion Reenactment
marched through New Orleans, creating a social
commentary on America’s often overlooked
legacy of slavery.
PERSONALS: A
text-based dating
& community app
for queers
$47,779
pledged of $40,000 goal
1,736
backers
Kelly Rakowski’s Lex App (originally launched
as Personals) offered the LBTQIA+ community a
text-based dating service.
10
Hair Love |
Animated Short Film
$284,058
pledged of $75,000 goal
4,981
backers
Matthew A. Cherry put Hair Love on YouTube—
and won an Oscar for the animated short just a
few months later.
Knock Down
HELPING BRING CREATIVE PROJECTS TO LIFE
The House:
A Documentary
$28,111
pledged of $25,000 goal
424
backers
Knock Down the House, Rachel Lears’ and
Robin Blotnick’s documentary following Amy
Vilela, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Cori Bush, and
Paula Jean Swearengin on their congressional
campaigns was released by Netflix.
OCTET Original
Cast Recording
$61,000
pledged of $30,000 goal
865
backers
Octet’s original cast completed their live recording
of Dave Malloy’s chamber choir musical.
11
Reboot the Suit:
Bring Back Neil
Armstrong’s Spacesuit
$719,779
pledged of $500,000 goal
9,477
backers
Smithsonian’s Neil Armstrong spacesuit went
back on display.
Shenmue 3
HELPING BRING CREATIVE PROJECTS TO LIFE
$6,333,295
pledged of
$2,000,000 goal
69,320
backers
Yu Suzuki delivered the long-awaited third
installment of the Shenmue series.
12
One core role we play in bringing projects like these to life is
connecting backers to the projects they would want to support
and help fund. In 2019, 3,177,588 people pledged a total of
$654,736,514 to independent creators on Kickstarter. Together,
they funded 19,408 creative projects.
Here’s a look at successfully funded projects by
category in 2019:
Photography:
HELPING BRING CREATIVE PROJECTS TO LIFE
Comics: Theater: 283
386
1,598
Design:
2,139
Art:
2,549
Publishing:
1,775
Games:
3,734 Technology:
977
Music:
1,840
Journalism:
120
Food:
591
Film & Video: Fashion:
Crafts: 1,380
298 1,626
Dance:
112
13
As part of our commitment to helping bring creative projects to life, we
track the number of people launching projects and how many of them
are new to our community.
Supporting new and returning
creators on our platform
Of the nearly 20,000 successful
new projects this year, over half of
HELPING BRING CREATIVE PROJECTS TO LIFE
which were from first-time creators.
This was a 10 percent year-over-year
decline in first-time creators, and
of first tim
a 3 percent decline in successful
rate ec
ss first-time creators. This is something
e
su ors we’re paying close attention to,
37%
cc at
re
and we’re thinking about ways to
lower the barrier to entry for more
9% point increase first-time creators, for example,
from 2018 through initiatives like Make 100 and
Zine Quest that we designed to be
manageable for newcomers. We’re
glad to see the success rate of first-
time creators—37 percent—was a 9
percentage point increase compared
to 2018. And we support and serve
projects from new and repeat
creators alike with 1:1 mentoring for
more than 2,200 projects.
14
Creating tools to help bring
creative projects to life
We supported creators by launching new tools that help bring their
creative projects to life:
Cost to Create added a
HELPING BRING CREATIVE PROJECTS TO LIFE
Prelaunch Pages allowed funding calculator and budget
creators to tease projects feature to help creators plan
to potential backers ahead costs more effectively and
of their launches. 4,439 transparently share those
projects made use of this plans with backers. The
feature in 2019. creators of 73 projects chose
to make those budgets publicly
viewable on their pages.
Project Pulse added a simple
feedback feature to project
pages, giving creators
Threaded Comments
more immediate insight
made conversations on
into how their backers feel
projects easier to follow.
about their communication
and improving community
transparency on how
projects are progressing.
71,000 users left 137,000 The Fulfillment Dashboard
pieces of feedback on made it easier for creators
16,000 projects. to track who had received
which rewards.
15
Connecting backers to
projects they’ll love
We also track our success in connecting creative projects to the
communities who will support them the most, in part through how
many supporters we help creators reach.
HELPING BRING CREATIVE PROJECTS TO LIFE
supported
ers– pr
ck oj
3 milli ts
in
50%
on ec
ba
2019
new to Kickstarter
3 million backers—50 percent Profiles, which recommended
of them new to Kickstarter— projects to backers based on
supported projects this year. Our previously backed projects and
marketing team helped drive more responses to a quick quiz aimed
than $261 million to projects. at understanding their interests.
The median successful project And our improvements to
received 38 percent of its funding Native Checkout fine-tuned the
through our promotional efforts. experience for backing directly
This year we also debuted Taste from our app.
16
Thinking bigger about
connecting people
around creative work
Aside from this more straightforward support, we think creatively
about how we can connect people around creative projects and the
creative process.
We encourage creators and increase
curatorial visibility in burgeoning
subcategories like Exquisite Objects,
Small Press, and Product Design
that centers recycled materials.
We do regional highlights like
Mexico Creates, The Wonderful
World of Otaku, and École Nationale
Supérieure de la Photographie.
We continued our Creators in
Residence program to support a
small number of exemplary creators
in our Brooklyn headquarters, and
hosted several one-off events to
support creators looking to launch
Kickstarter campaigns across the
world, including a London workshop
with gal-dem, a media company
focused on the perspectives of
women and non-binary people of
color, and a series of events and
thought leadership pieces for
Edinburgh Fringe.
17
Supporting
the Arts
and Wider
Creative
Community
We also are committed to supporting/serving/
championing artists and creators, especially those
working in less commercial areas.
18
Creative Prompts
We ran prompts that celebrated art for the sake of art, like
Performance: In Progress, for dance companies, choreographers, and
other performers, and Break Kickstarter, which encouraged projects to
creatively reimagine how to use our platform or even disrupt it.
Kickstarter-Hosted Events
for the Creative Community
In 2019, Kickstarter hosted a number of educational events for those in
the wider creative community, including:
Creative Coding Project Jam, Performance : In Progress, a series
which brought together of virtual workshops for dance and
like-minded creators to chat choreography projects.
with fellow coders, meet
potential collaborators, and The Next Page, Kickstarter’s first-
get inspired by new ideas ever digital conference, featuring
and technologies. a series of conversations on how
to foster a more inclusive, fair, and
Creative Mornings vibrant publishing landscape.
Workshop, which focused
on building a community Arts Funders Forum dialogue with
around creative work. artist Hank Willis Thomas at Art
Basel Miami Beach.
19
The Creative
The Creative Independent
The Creative Independent
The Creative Independent
The Creative Independent
The Creative Independent
SUPPORTING THE ARTS AND WIDER CREATIVE COMMUNITY
The Creative Independent
The Creative Independent (TCI) is a Kickstarter-published resource
of emotional and practical guidance to help artists of all types bring
creative ideas to life. TCI’s content focuses on the challenges and
celebrations of people living all kinds of creative lives, featuring
diverse perspectives and wisdom, including:
• El Caracol, a Spanish-language zine featuring contributions from
Mexico City artists
• On Finding Your Voice, a zine
compiled of quotes, excerpts, and
recommendations from working
artists, all gathered from the TCI
archive.
• On Using the Internet Mindfully,
a PDF worksheet intended to help
creators reimagine their relationship
with the internet and screen-based
activities.
20
The Creative Independent
The Creative Independent
The
The Creative Independ
The Creative Independent
The Creative Independen
The Creative Independent
SUPPORTING THE ARTS AND WIDER CREATIVE COMMUNITY
In 2019, TCI pieces received Additionally, The Creative
more than 1.6 million views and Independent and the creator
TCI’s subscriber list grew to of the Future Music Industry
nearly 20,000. During that time, list, musician René Kladzyk,
TCI published 235 articles, 17 co-authored two future-
guides, 13 tips, five essays, and focused surveys—one for
five print zines. musicians, and one for industry
professionals. By surveying the
TCI also held seven in-person music community at large, we
events and workshops for hoped to get a clearer sense of
independent creators, including where things currently stand,
the Queer Warm Up, a LGBTQ in addition to identifying clear
happy hour with for filmmakers takeaways for how the industry
and industry professionals can be improved. Those
at the 2019 Sundance Film surveys resulted in the release
Festival, and the 2019 Basillca of a Music Industry Investigation
Soundscape, a carefully curated Report and accompanying
weekend that’s been called guide, How to build the future
“the antifestival” for offering a music industry we want and
thoughtful mix of music, visual need by René Kladzyk.
art, and literature.
21
Creative Independent
Supporting Employees’
Creative Endeavors
As a part of our commitment
to foster a supportive
SUPPORTING THE ARTS AND WIDER CREATIVE COMMUNITY
environment for employees
to work on their own creative
projects, many of our team
members took advantage of
our benefits, stipends, and
time off to pursue creative
endeavors.
In 2019, our team utilized their
$500/year education stipend
in a number of ways, including
museum memberships, theater
tickets, musical instruments,
and a variety of classes from
cooking and ballet to crafting
and pottery. We also saw several
staff members run successful
campaigns for their own creative
projects on Kickstarter, ranging
from theater workshops and
postcard portraits to recipe
cards and protest posters.
22
Policy Advocacy
Kickstarter remains committed to engaging beyond our walls with the
greater issues and conversations affecting artists and creators. In
2019, Kickstarter engaged in a number of legal, legislative, and policy
initiatives on social media that have an impact on our community.
SUPPORTING THE ARTS AND WIDER CREATIVE COMMUNITY
Protecting LGBTQIA+ workers: Kickstarter is committed
to fighting inequality—and that includes protecting all
employees from workplace discrimination based on
sexual orientation or gender identity. In 2019, we joined
over 200 companies on an amicus brief supporting
LGBTQIA+ worker protections. On June 15, 2020, the U.S.
Supreme Court affirmed that all workers deserve the
same protections, thus enshrining those protections in
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. This was a victory for all of
us in the fight against inequality.
Defending net neutrality: Thousands of creative ideas
have come to life through Kickstarter; those ideas need
a free and open internet to flourish. We believe strong
net neutrality protections are key to the free and equal
exchange of ideas.
On behalf of the independent creators who use our
platform, we joined Engine, a policy, advocacy, and
research organization supporting startups as an engine
for economic growth, in calling on the U.S. Senate to
vote for H.R. 1644 / S. 682, the Save the Internet Act. On
April 10, 2019, House lawmakers overwhelmingly
voted to advance their version of the Save the Internet
Act; the bill cleared the House on a 232-190 vote.
Unfortunately, both leaders in the Republican-controlled
Senate and President Trump have indicated they will
stop the bill’s passage.
In 2018, the Coalition for Internet Openness, an
organization of which we are a founding member, filed
SUPPORTING THE ARTS AND WIDER CREATIVE COMMUNITY
a federal lawsuit about net neutrality against the U.S.
Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The lawsuit
was briefed and argued before the DC Circuit Court of
Appeals, with the appellate court issuing its decision in
October 2019. While the decision failed to restore net
neutrality protections at the federal level, the opinion
opened a path for states to put neutrality protections in
place. Kickstarter, along with our partners, are committed
to continuing the fight for protections around creativity,
innovation and free speech in the states, in Congress,
and in the courts.
Fighting Climate Change: Kickstarter is committed to
limit its environmental impact within and outside our
walls, from participating in the Global Climate Strike to
encouraging our creators to be more sustainable. Please
see our section on Being Environmentally Responsible
further in this report.
24
5% Donation
We’ve pledged to run our company in ways that reflect our values:
championing the arts and artists—particularly those working in less
commercial areas—and supporting a more equitable and creative
world, in particular by donating 5% of our after-tax profits to programs
and organizations addressing systemic inequality. Please see the
Fighting Inequality section below to learn more about the donations
we made in 2019.
25
Sustaining
a Healthy
and Ethical
Platform
Kickstarter takes seriously the health of its ecosystem
and the integrity of its systems, whether it’s a
commitment to transparency in our business practices
or endeavoring to make the platform experience of our
community a positive and safe one.
26
In 2019, we started measuring our Net Promoter Score, or NPS, a user
loyalty and satisfaction measurement from -100 to +100. Our creator
NPS was 40.1 and backer NPS was 25.2. These benchmarks will allow
us to track improvements over time as we do more to support a healthy
and ethical platform. We tracked this through continued Trust and
Safety monitoring—the team suspended 299 projects that violated our
community rules. These product releases promoted platform health:
• The Honest and Clear Presentation in Projects policy page
SUSTAINING A HEALTHY AND ETHICAL PLATFORM
offered more in-depth resources on how we expect creators to
communicate with their backers.
• The Superlative Spotter tool advised creators against using
terms like “first,” “fastest,” or “world’s best,”—popular marketing
labels that are seldom accurate—to promote authentic
conversations about what projects really are. From the jump, 77
percent of creators seeing this tool removed superlatives from
the project titles.
• Cost to Create brought more transparency to project budgets,
helping creators to provide their backers with more clarity and
insight into how they plan to spend the funds they raise on
Kickstarter. This feature gives backers a sense of where their
pledges are going, and how much it actually costs to bring an
idea to life.
• Project Pulse helped backers give fast feedback on creator
communication and fulfillment, pushing creators to prioritize
those crucial actions by adding a simple feedback feature to
project pages. As noted above, 71,000 users left 137,000 pieces
of feedback on 16,000 projects.
27
• The Backer PII Project Update Spotter helped protect backers’
personal information, by adding language to the creator-facing
project updates portal clarifying that project updates must not
include any such details.
SUSTAINING A HEALTHY AND ETHICAL PLATFORM
Kickstarter works to be a fair and ethical platform by being a good
global citizen. It’s the right thing to do. We pay our taxes without
exploiting loopholes, we respond to copyright and trademark claims,
and we balance user privacy and law enforcement needs when we
receive government requests for information. Here’s a look at what we
did in 2019:
• Kickstarter’s estimated federal, state, and local income taxes for
2019 came out to a combined effective tax rate of 12 percent;
our effective federal income tax rate was 7 percent. Our tax rate
was reduced by the Federal Research and Development Tax
Credit, a general business tax credit which offsets development
costs incurred in the United States. Without the R&D tax credit,
our effective federal tax rate would have been 21 percent. As
we have in the past, we’ve taken advantage of two tax credits:
the R&D federal tax credit (for our innovative Research &
Development initiatives, and the NYC REAP tax credit (for our
prior relocation from Manhattan to Brooklyn).
• In 2019, Kickstarter processed 204 total copyright claims
involving 196 distinct projects. We rejected 55 of these claims.
We may reject claims when they are incomplete, when they
involve material that can’t be protected under copyright, when
they are not submitted by the rights holder, or when they target
fair use. We removed 113 projects from public view in response
to copyright claims. We returned 14 of those projects to public
view after the creators filed challenges to the claims, or after we
helped the creators make modifications to address the claims.
SUSTAINING A HEALTHY AND ETHICAL PLATFORM
• In 2019, Kickstarter processed 85 total trademark claims
involving 81 distinct projects. We rejected 33 of these claims—
either because claims weren’t complete, applicable under law,
or targeted fair use. We removed 38 projects from public view
in response to trademark claims, and 33 remain hidden. We
avoided removing 17 projects from public view by encouraging
those making the claims to resolve the dispute directly with the
project creator, or by helping the creators make a modification to
their projects.
• Kickstarter’s community includes millions of people who are
represented by hundreds of local and federal governments.
In instances where a government or law enforcement agency
requests private information about one of our users, we’re
committed to protecting that person’s information, complying
with the law, and acting transparently. For more on how we
handle law enforcement requests, see our Law Enforcement
Guidelines. In 2019, Kickstarter fielded 200 separate requests for
29
user information from U.S. and international government and
law enforcement agencies, none of which came in the form
of a search warrant. Three came in the form of subpoenas.
We declined to disclose any information outside of the scope
of what is required under federal law in response to all three
of the subpoenas and we provided only publicly-viewable
materials and the minimum basic subscriber information
required by law. Ten came as informal requests not pursuant
to a subpoena, a court order, a search warrant, or any other
SUSTAINING A HEALTHY AND ETHICAL PLATFORM
recognized process. We declined to disclose any information
in response to those requests.”
30
Being
Environmentally
Responsible
Kickstarter is committed to limit its environmental
impact within and outside our walls. We believe it is
our responsibility and commitment to invest in green
infrastructure, support green commuting methods,
and factor environmental impact when choosing
vendors. Additionally, we’ve committed to providing
recommendations and resources that help creators
make environmentally conscious decisions on tasks,
like shipping and packaging, that are common to the
use of its services.
31
We recognize the largest impact we can have is encouraging our
creators to be more sustainable—especially in categories like
Design, Tech, Games, and Fashion that tend to involve producing
physical things. That’s why in the fall of 2018, we introduced an
Environmental Commitments section on project pages. By 2019,
18 percent of all creators in the Design and Tech categories were
using this field, and we expanded its availability to Fashion and
Games creators. Of all these projects, we tagged 135 as stellar
SUPPORTING THE ARTS AND WIDER CREATIVE COMMUNITY
examples of using post-consumer recycled materials, prioritizing
long-lasting design, working with sustainable factories, choosing
environmental shipping, and more. We featured these projects
on our homepage, section pages, and elsewhere, helping them
raise a total of more than $17 million. We also drove 17,965
pageviews to our Environmental Resources Center.
At our Brooklyn Office, we continued using low-energy lighting
fixtures and compostable supplies and running the composting
program we started in 2018. This year, though, we transitioned
the office to renewable energy, reduced our computing footprint
by 15 percent, and offset our entire 2019 carbon footprint of 538
tCO2e with Pachama and Climate Neutral.
We also participated in the Global Climate Strike. Though some
companies took their sites down for the day, we couldn’t do that
without making it harder for creators to reach their campaign
goals. So instead, we placed banners around the site to raise
awareness for the movement, provided creators with a badge to
show support on project pages, and gave employees the option
of taking the day off to join marches.
32
Fighting
Inequality
33
5% Donation
We’ve pledged to run our company in ways that reflect our values:
championing the arts and artists—particularly those working in less
commercial areas—and supporting a more equitable and creative
world, in particular by donating 5% of our after-tax profits to programs
and organizations addressing systemic inequality. Each year, our staff
nominates organizations committed to doing this work, and a staff-run
donation committee researches each nominee and votes on how our
donations will be distributed.
This year, we made donations to the following 14 organizations:
FIGHTING INEQUALITY
Art Start uses the creative The Bronx Defenders radically
process to nurture the transform how low-income people
voices, hearts, and minds in the Bronx are represented in the
of historically marginalized justice system, and, in doing so, is
youth, offering a space for transforming the system itself.
them to imagine, believe,
and represent their creative
vision for their lives and
Building Beats, provides DJ
communities.
and music programs that teach
entrepreneurial, leadership, and
life skills to underserved youth in
Brooklyn, NY.
34
Detroit Narrative Agency Edible Schoolyard NYC supports
incubates quality and edible education for every child in
compelling stories that New York City by partnering with
will shift the dominant NYC public schools to cultivate
narratives about Detroit healthy students and communities
towards liberation and through hands-on cooking and
justice by supporting a gardening education, transforming
cohort of Black and Brown children’s relationship with food.
FIGHTING INEQUALITY
filmmakers in Detroit to
develop short films and
accompanying community
impact strategies.
Educational Video Center teaches
documentary video as a means to
develop the artistic, critical literacy,
Dream a Dream Project
and career skills of young people.
by Vageline reaches to
members of the incarcerated
population at correctional
facilities in New York through Eyebeam ensures artists become
dance workshops. central in the invention and design
of our shared future.
35
Food Bank for NYC works Recess partners with artists to
to end hunger in NYC by build a more just and equitable
organizing food, information creative community, by welcoming
and support for community radical thinkers to reimagine and
survival, empowerment, reshape their world.
and dignity.
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Girls Write Now mentors Textile Arts Center aspires to
underserved young women unite and empower the textile
and gender non-conforming community, and advocate for the
youth to find their voices handmade by raising awareness
through the power of and understanding of textiles
writing and community. through creative educational
programs for children and adults
in NYC.
Nobody Leaves Mid-Hudson Transgender Law Center,
builds power by organizing changes law, policy, and attitudes
people around issue-based so that all people can live safely,
and electoral campaigns in authentically, and free from
Hudson Valley. discrimination regardless of their
gender identity or expression.
36
Transparency in
Team Demographics
and Pay Ratios
Kickstarter has committed to reporting annually on our
team and leadership demographics, executive and CEO
pay ratios, and programs and strategies employed to
build a diverse, inclusive, and equitable organization.
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37
Gender identity Overall team demographics
Kickstarter had a team of 147 people at
the end of 2018, all working to build and
Female
42–46%
Male
40-43%
improve its service and to help creators use
it. The vast majority of our team is based at
our headquarters in Greenpoint, Brooklyn,
with other staff working remotely around the
U.S., as well as around the globe in Canada,
Prefer not to say
11–14%
Mexico, and Europe, in 2019.
• Non-binary/gender
non-conforming: <5%
These statistics on our team demographics
• Transgender: <5% were gathered from three voluntary company
• Prefer to self-describe: <5%
surveys based on self-identification,
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conducted in Q2, Q3, and Q4 2019.
Race/ethnicity
The response rate was below 100 percent
Asian (average 75 percent) and not every
14-17%
White/ team member chose to answer every
European
66–72% question in the survey. Staff were able to
Prefer not
select as many options as appropriate, so
to say
12-14%
percentages will not add up to 100. Any
item noted as <5 percent has between
• Hispanic or Latinx: 5–7% one and five responses in at least one
• Black/African/Caribbean: <5%
• Middle Eastern/North African:
of the 2019 surveys, which has not met
<5% the anonymity threshold of at least six
• Indigenous/Native American/
Alaska Native: <5% responses for our reporting to protect
individual disclosure.
.
38
Senior team demographics
Please note the below responses report on individuals, not
percentages, and reflect the eight members of the 10-member senior
team who completed the survey as of December 2019. As noted
above, individuals were able to choose as many options as appropriate
and may not equal the total number of respondents.
Gender identity Race/ethnicity
Female White/ Asian
5 European 3
5
Male
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4
Black/African/
Caribbean
1
Middle Eastern/
North African
1
Board of Directors demographics
Please note the below responses report on individuals, not
percentages, and reflect the five members of the seven-member board
who completed the survey as of December 2019. As noted above,
individuals were able to choose as many options as appropriate and
may not equal the total number of respondents.
Gender identity Race/ethnicity
Female
1 White/ Asian
Male European 3
3 3
Non-binary/gender Black/African/
non-conforming Caribbean
1 1
39
Pay Ratios
Kickstarter is also committed to reporting on our rate of CEO and
senior team pay compared to the rest of the company. For context, a
2018 study by the Economic Policy Institute examining the executive
pay gap found that the average CEO earns 278 times that of the
median worker at the same company.
Ratio of CEO pay to entire company
• CEO to median non-CEO employee = 2.45 (Salary Only)
• CEO to median non-CEO employee = 2.98 (Salary and Equity)
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Ratio of senior team pay to rest of company
• Median senior team member to median non-senior team
member = 1.73 (Salary Only)
• Median senior team member to median non-senior team
member = 1.84 (Salary and Equity)
40
Programs and Strategies
As a part of our commitment to build a diverse, inclusive, and
equitable organization, Kickstarter worked with Paradigm to hold
mandatory unconscious bias training for all staff. Beyond just raising
awareness about unconscious bias, Paradigm’s unconscious bias
workshops motivate employees to engage in specific, effective
behaviors for managing bias. By training participants to recognize and
manage unconscious bias, we aim to create more effective leaders,
more productive teams, and a more inclusive organizational culture.
We also held mandatory interview training for all staff to reduce bias
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in our hiring process, including our interviewing guidelines and advice
based on best practices and research.
Further, Kickstarter launched company-wide Affinity Groups,
which are voluntary, employee-led groups that foster a diverse,
inclusive workplace aligned with organizational mission, values,
goals, business practices, and objectives. These groups are
meant to create a safe and intentional space for teammates with
common identities (especially those that are marginalized or
underrepresented).
In 2019, we also partnered with Ladders For Leaders to hire three
summer interns on our Outreach Team. Ladders for Leaders is
a nationally recognized program that offers outstanding high
school and college students the opportunity to participate in paid
professional summer internships with leading corporations, non-
profit organizations and government agencies in New York City.
Our 2019 interns worked across the Games, Publishing, Music, Film
& Performance categories, gaining category-specific and overall
business knowledge.
41
www.kickstarter.com/benefit-statement
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