Calculate your crowdfunding campaign goal including production costs, platform fees, shipping, taxes, and stretch goal planning.
Backers pledge a gross amount; you receive the net. A campaign that needs $12,000 in production, shipping, and tax costs cannot simply set a $12,000 goal, because the platform and the payment processor take a percentage of every pledge. This calculator takes those costs plus your fee rates, then grosses the goal up so the amount left after fees equals exactly what you entered. It also prices stretch goals against the same fee math and converts the goal into a required backer count. The common error is multiplying costs by 1.08 when the correct figure is dividing by 0.92.
A concrete input and expected output from the current implementation.
Input
Production $10,000, shipping $1,500, taxes $500, platform fee 5%, payment processing 3%
Expected output
Funding goal: $13,043.48. Fees at 8%: $1,043.48. Net after fees: $12,000.00.
Costs total $12,000 and combined fees are 8%, so the goal is $12,000 / 0.92 = $13,043.48. At that goal the fees are exactly $1,043.48, leaving the full $12,000. Raising 1.08 times costs instead would net only $11,923.20, $76.80 short.
The calculator sums production, shipping, and taxes into one cost total, then divides by 1 minus the combined fee rate (platform fee plus payment processing fee). Because both fees are percentages of what backers pledge, division is the only operation that makes the net after fees equal the costs. Fee rates are entered as inputs, so the math stays correct as platforms change their schedules.
Each stretch goal is run through the same fee math: at 8% fees a $15,000 stretch goal nets $13,800, so the calculator reports the real margin over your entered costs rather than the headline number. It can also invert the goal into planning terms - goal divided by your planned average pledge gives the backer count needed, which is usually far larger than people expect.
Because the fees are percentages of the total raised, not of your costs. Adding 8% to $12,000 gives $12,960, but 8% of that is $1,036.80, leaving you $11,923.20 - $76.80 short. Dividing by 0.92 is the only way your costs and the fees both come out of the same pool of pledges.
Enter the highest combined rate you expect to pay, or run the costs through several rate scenarios and keep the largest goal. The calculator applies a single rate to every pledge, so a worst-case rate keeps the goal from falling short, at the cost of asking for slightly more than a country-blended rate would.
The example and behavioral notes were checked against the browser implementation. Standards and primary references below define the relevant format, formula, or platform behavior.
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