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The Impact Crowd is an investment crowdfunding platform focused on the principles of ESG and Impact Investing. We act as a marketplace to connect businesses looking to raise funds with investors (like you!) looking to invest in these crowdfunding opportunities. You can choose to invest as little as $100 in any of our crowdfunding offerings. By participating and investing in the crowdfunding offerings found on The Impact Crowd, you will own financial securities connected to the business that is raising funds. Depending on the specific crowdfunding offering you invest in, you could own shares of stock, debt, or another form of equity in the business. You can review our available crowdfunding investment opportunities here, or by clicking "Log In" in the top right corner of our website. Once you are on our investments page, you will be able to browse our portfolio of crowdfunding offerings and see which ones may be a good fit for your personal investing preferences. To invest in a crowdfunding offering, please create a free account with us by clicking the "Sign Up" button on our investments page. The Impact Crowd is registered with the SEC and is a member of FINRA, selling private securities in connection with the crowdfunding offerings found on our marketplace. You can view our registration here. Please feel free to learn more through our FAQ pages, our About page, our Educational Materials found here, or by contacting us directly at support@theimpactcrowd.com. We would love to help answer any of your questions!

Environmental, Social, and (corporate) Governance (ESG) and Impact Investing refers to a set of standards for a company's behavior used by ethically conscious investors to screen potential investment opportunities. ESG and Impact Investing seek to create a positive impact in the world beyond only considering financial returns.

At The Impact Crowd, we list crowdfunding offerings for companies that seek to make an impact in environmental sustainability, social advancements, and ethical governance. More generally, we raise funds with companies that are looking to make a positive impact in the world. The Impact Crowd uses certain Impact Criteria to determine if a company is eligible to raise funds with us, and more details can be found on our Impact Criteria page. Beyond this general focus of listing companies looking to make a positive impact in the world, we do not filter certain categories of companies. This is where we depend on The Crowd to invest in and become advocates and ambassadors for the companies and causes that they believe in.

Unfortunately, The Impact Crowd does not provide financial advice. However, please feel free to browse our FAQ, and we do have some educational materials available for you, found here. These materials include some information on investing, the laws that The Impact Crowd abides by, what The Impact Crowd does, and how you can browse and interpret our available crowdfunding offerings. If you would like to receive more direct investment advice, please feel free to consult with an independent financial advisor.

The Impact Crowd primarily offers equity (for example, stock in a company), debt (for example, a loan lent from you to the company), and revenue sharing note securities through our crowdfunding opportunities. For additional details, please feel free to refer to our Education Materials found here, under the section “The Kinds of Securities We Will Offer”.

Crowdfunding investments can be risky, and includes liquidity risk as well as the risk of loss of your entire investment. Accordingly, you should only invest what you can afford to lose. If you would like to learn more, please feel free to review our Educational Materials found here, with more details found in our “Risks of Investing” section.

Please feel free to browse our FAQ and visit our educational materials page found here for further information. We are also in the ongoing process of expanding our educational resources!

This is a great question, and The Impact Crowd conducts reviews and background checks on each company before posting their crowdfunding offering on our platform. This review includes checking the fundraising company’s business incorporation documents, record keeping policies, bad actor checks on the company’s owners and/or officers, certifications of material accuracy from the company, an interview with the fundraising company, and review of evidence to prove the company’s eligibility with respect to our Impact Criteria. Only after all these checks are passed will a company be permitted to publicly list its crowdfunding offering on The Impact Crowd.

You can view all our available crowdfunding offerings by navigating to our Investments page and reviewing individual offerings in more detail. Once you navigate to the page of a crowdfunding offering that interests you, you will be able to see more details about the specific company, what it is trying to accomplish, and the terms of its offering. This offering page will also include a pitch from the company, it will state how the company seeks to create a positive impact in the world, and it will also include more formalized documents related to the terms of the crowdfunding offering. The Impact Crowd does not provide advice on investing in particular crowdfunding offerings, and you will have the choice to invest in specific crowdfunding offerings that you believe are a good fit for you. You are also welcome to speak with your independent financial advisor prior to investing.

Yes! And we encourage you to do so if you have any questions. You can speak directly to the fundraising company representatives by navigating to the specific company’s crowdfunding offering page, and then going to the “Q&A” tab. This Q&A tab allows direct and public communication between investors and the crowdfunding company representative(s). You can communicate with the crowdfunding company before you make an investment, as long as you have signed up and opened an account with The Impact Crowd. Communication methods will also be provided for you to communicate with the fundraising company after you invest.

All contracts will be signed electronically. First, you will sign a contract when you decide to invest in a company. Then, the company representative will countersign the contract at or before the finalization of the applicable crowdfunding offering. This signed contract will then be made available to you for your future reference.

When you invest in a crowdfunding offering, your funds will then be transferred to an escrow account. If the crowdfunding offering is successful, your funds will be released to the fundraising company. If the crowdfunding offering fails to meet its minimum target amount, your investment funds will be refunded to you. For more details, please feel free to review our Payments and Refunds sections of the FAQ, specifically the question “Where do our investment funds go after investing?”.

If a crowdfunding offering fails to meet its minimum funding target, your investment funds will be fully refunded to you. No further action is required from your side to receive your refund in this situation, and you will receive applicable email notifications regarding this topic.

Canceling an investment and receiving a refund are possible, but the request needs to be received by The Impact Crowd at least 48 hours prior to the closing date. You will be given a 5-day notice through email prior to a crowdfunding offering closing on your funds, allowing you a final opportunity to cancel your investment and receive a refund, if you wish to do so. Unfortunately, if the crowdfunding offering has already closed on your funds, you will be unable to cancel and receive a refund for your investment.

The fundraising company may decide to conduct an offering using “rolling closes” (aka intermediate closes), which allows the fundraising company to close investment commitments multiple times during the offering period. After a company’s minimum funding target is achieved, companies can execute its first “rolling close”, which means that investments that applied to their current funding amount can be transferred to the company, while continuing to accept new funds until their maximum funding target is met, or their funding deadline is reached. In the event of a rolling close that is applicable to your funds, you would receive a notice through email 5 days prior to the execution of the funds transfer. At that time, you would have a final opportunity to review your investment and request a cancellation, if you wish. You will have until 48 hours prior to the specified rolling closing date to cancel your investment. If you do not cancel your investment before 48 hours prior to the close of your funds, you may not be able to cancel your investment and receive a refund.

Upon closing of the offering, you will be notified that your transaction is complete and your investment has been made. Please allow for processing time for the escrow agent and the Issuer to complete the closing process. If you have any questions or concerns about receiving your shares of a completed crowdfunding offering, please feel free to reach out to support@theimpactcrowd.com for further assistance.

The way you realize a return, when you realize a return, and the amount of return will depend on the type of investment contract that you agree to with the fundraising company, and will also depend on the performance of the company you invest in. Some general expectations for different types of crowdfunding offerings are detailed below. For equity crowdfunding: If the company you invest in is successful, the value of your equity shares may increase (if the value of the company overall increases), meaning that when your equity is sold, you would receive a profit. Your profit may be significant in some situations if the company has been highly successful. If the company is less successful, your equity shares may decrease in value, or be completely lost in the worst-case scenario. If your equity shares include dividend distributions, you will receive a pre-defined estimate of dividend returns (when and how much you will receive in dividends) when you commit to the specific investment agreement. Beyond dividend distributions, equity crowdfunding investments can be illiquid (meaning that there are not many opportunities to sell your invested equity to other people, and you could hold your investment for years before a selling opportunity). Typically, your equity investment could earn a return as a result of a few key events with the company you invested in. Some of the most common ways that your equity could be sold for a return on investment would be if the company chooses to buy back equity shares from you, if the company is acquired, or if the company goes public. These events will all typically take place years after your initial crowdfunding investment took place. For debt crowdfunding: With debt crowdfunding, you would most commonly participate in a simple loan, where you lend funds to the fundraising company. A simple loan is similar to a standard bank loan, and it will have a fixed repayment schedule that is predetermined and defined in the investment contract. Provided that the company is able to repay your simple loan, you will receive payments according to the predetermined schedule. For example, you may loan $1,000 with a 10% yearly interest rate, and then you will be paid back every 3 months for 5 years. For a revenue sharing agreement, you will have a predetermined total amount to be repaid to you, agreed between you and the fundraising company. Revenue shares will also detail the terms of repayment in documentation related to the specific crowdfunding offering, and this will also discuss the frequency of repayment for the revenue share (such as receiving repayment installments every 3 months, or other frequencies). For example, the revenue sharing agreement could state that the company will repay double your initial investment, repaid to you with installments every 3 months using 25% of the company’s overall revenue (in this example, the company will keep 75% of its overall revenue). If the company produces more revenue, then you will be repaid larger installment amounts, and receive your return on investment more quickly. This means that for revenue sharing agreements, the amount of time it takes to get your return on investment depends on the overall revenue generation of the company you invested in. Please note that all of these returns-on-investment depend on the company you are investing in, and their ability to repay you or increase their company’s valuation. There is still a risk that the company you invest in underperforms or fails, at which time you would lose some or all value of your existing or remaining investments in the company. Please remember that there are specific risks associated with the respective security type (e.g., equity, debt, etc.), which are discussed in more detail in our Educational Materials here as well as in the respective Form C. All Regulation Crowdfunding offerings are speculative, illiquid and involve a high degree of risk , including the risk of loss of your entire investment.

There are ongoing reporting requirements under Regulation Crowdfunding rules that generally require the Issuer to provide an annual report along with financial statements to investors no later than 120 days after the end of the company’s fiscal year. This report has regulatory requirements to include information on the company’s latest board member appointments, their latest business plan, financial information, and additional materials. Situations could arise where companies are no longer required to file this annual report. Also, if the fundraising company desires, the Q&A tab shown on the specific crowdfunding offering page where you invested may continue to be open even after the offering has closed. This Q&A tab of the specific offering page will give you another communication channel to initiate conversations and speak directly with the fundraising company, even after the crowdfunding offering has been completed. If the Q&A tab is closed after the crowdfunding offering is completed, other communication methods will also be provided for you to communicate with the fundraising company after you invest.

We currently support payments through ACH (Electronic Bank Transfers) and Credit Cards. If you have any challenges with executing these payment methods, please feel free to review our Support FAQ page, or you can also reach out directly to support@theimpactcrowd.com for further assistance.

When you invest in a crowdfunding offering and complete the associated investment agreement documents, your funds are deposited directly with the escrow agent as detailed in the offering documentations (such as the Form C). As part of this process, account reconciliation occurs with our escrow provider and the fundraising company, and your investment will be released to the fundraising company when their crowdfunding offering closes on your investment. You will be notified with updates on this process, and the funds will be released from the escrow account and transferred to the fundraising company without further action required from your side. If the crowdfunding offering is successful by or before the fundraising company’s deadline (called the “closing date”), your funds will be released to the fundraising company. Note that the fundraising company could close the offering earlier than their funding deadline in certain circumstances, including if the maximum fundraising amount is achieved, or if they use a rolling close after their minimum target has been met. More details on rolling closes can be found in our question “What is a “Rolling Close”?”. If the crowdfunding offering fails to meet its minimum funding target amount, your investment funds will be refunded to you.

Using our platform is free, but The Impact Crowd charges a one-time transaction fee for each investment that you make, based upon your payment method. The one-time fee is relative to your total investment amount, and your specific fee will be displayed to you when investing in a crowdfunding offering. For ACH (Electronic Bank Transfer) payments, we charge a 1.9% transaction fee. For Credit Cards, we charge a 3.4% transaction fee. This is a one-time fee when you initiate an investment for a specific company, and it will be charged in addition to your investment with the company. For example, if you invest $1,000 in a company and you pay through ACH, you will pay a $19 fee, and you would see a total of $1,019 paid from your bank account linked through ACH.

You can check payment statuses by first logging into your The Impact Crowd account, and then navigating to your “Portfolio” tab at the top of the webpage. Within this page, you can review both your transaction history and your pending transactions. Also, in your “My Account” tab at the top of the webpage, you can review your total number of investments, total funds committed, and total funds contributed. If anything appears to be incorrect or if you have any further questions, please feel free to reach out to support@theimpactcrowd.com and we would be happy to assist you further.

If your payment fails, this could have happened for a few common reasons. The most common reasons for this would be if you have exceeded your maximum allowable investment amount, if there was an error in your payment method information, or if there was a flag raised during any anti-fraud or security checks. If your payment has been rejected and you are struggling to overcome this issue, please feel free to reach out to support@theimpactcrowd.com for further assistance, and we would be happy to help reach a resolution.

You will need to provide a tax identification number when investing on The Impact Crowd. Oftentimes, a Social Security Number is the tax identification number available for individuals (or alternatively, an Employer Identification Number for a company). The reason that providing your tax identification number/Social Security Number is required is because when you or the company you invest in triggers a taxable event related to your crowdfunding shares (for example, if your equity shares are sold or if you receive debt repayments), the company and/or The Impact Crowd will need to provide tax documents to you. These tax documents are legally required to report any income, gains, losses, or other financial information relevant for your own tax filings regarding your crowdfunding investments. These tax documents require the inclusion of your tax identification number, which is oftentimes your Social Security Number as an individual investor. If your Social Security Number is not input when you invest in a crowdfunding offering, unfortunately your investment commitment will be blocked and/or canceled. We also acknowledge the privacy concerns that come along with providing your Social Security Number, and please rest assured that we guard this sensitive information with a series of security protocols. Social Security Numbers and other personally sensitive information is encrypted and protected in our database, and access to this system is strictly controlled. This sensitive information is only accessed and utilized when required to comply with legal requirements, such as tax filing preparations. If you have any further questions about our security protocols, the inclusion of your Social Security Number, or if you have questions about providing an alternative tax identification number, please feel free to reach out to us at support@theimpactcrowd.com. We would be happy to have a conversation with you and assist you further!

Canceling an investment and receiving a refund are possible, but the request needs to be received by The Impact Crowd at least 48 hours prior to the closing date. You will be given a 5-day notice through email prior to a crowdfunding offering closing on your funds, allowing you a final opportunity to cancel your investment and receive a refund, if you wish to do so. Unfortunately, if the crowdfunding offering has already closed on your funds, you will be unable to cancel and receive a refund for your investment. Please also feel free to review our question titled "What is a Rolling Close" for additional details that may be relevant to cancellations of investments in some circumstances.

The time it takes to process a refund may depend on the payment method that you used, but refunds are typically processed within 3-14 business days. Though we cannot guarantee these timelines due to the involvement of external banks and transaction systems, some general expectations for refunds paid through certain payment methods are shown below: ACH (Electronic Funds Transfers within USA): Investment commitments are generally locked for 60 days, after which point we can process a refund. After this 60-day lock has passed, refunds are generally processed in 3-5 business days. Credit Cards: 3 business days. If you do not see your refund after the estimated number of business days, please feel free to reach out to support@theimpactcrowd.com for further assistance and verification of refund processing.

Most crowdfunding offerings found on The Impact Crowd’s website (all offerings hosted by Impact Crowd Portal LLC) will abide by Regulation Crowdfunding rules, so we will discuss these details first. There are regulations that govern how much you can invest in Regulation Crowdfunding offerings, based upon multiple factors. Our investment platform has built-in capabilities to calculate your maximum allowable investment amount based upon your income, net worth, and any prior crowdfunding investments made in the last 12 months. If you are a non-accredited investor, the amount you can invest within a 12-month period typically ranges somewhere between $2,500 and 10% of the greater of your annual income or net worth. If you are an accredited investor, there are no limits on the amount that you can choose to invest in crowdfunding offerings. Further details on this topic can be found within our Educational Materials here, specifically in our section titled “Limits on How Much You May Invest”. For Regulation D and Regulation A+ crowdfunding offerings (offerings hosted by Impact Crowd Capital LLC), other maximum investment limits apply. For Regulation D, you must be an accredited investor to be allowed to invest in these offerings, and there are no limits on maximum investment amounts. For Regulation A+, non-accredited investors are permitted to invest up to 10% of the greater of your annual income or net worth. Accredited investors do not have an investment limitation for Regulation A+ crowdfunding.

In most cases, a non-accredited investor is anyone who has an individual net worth under $1 million, with some other circumstances also possible. Further details on accredited and non-accredited investors can be found within our Educational Materials here, specifically in our section titled “Limits on How Much You Can Invest”. If you are a non-accredited investor, don’t worry! The Impact Crowd focuses on hosting crowdfunding opportunities that are open and available to non-accredited investors as well!

To sign up and join The Crowd, please go to our Investments page or click on our “Log In” button toward the top right of our webpage, and then click "Sign Up" on our Investments page. Please then follow the prompts that are given to you to complete your account registration. If you have any questions or challenges with this process, please feel free to review our Support FAQ page, or you can also reach out directly to support@theimpactcrowd.com for further assistance.

If you forget your password, please go to our investments page, found here or by clicking on our “Log In” button toward the top right of our webpage. Once on the investments page, you can first click on the “Log In” button toward the top right of our webpage. After clicking "Log In", there is a “Forgot Password” icon that becomes available. Please follow the prompts to reset your password. You will receive an email to the email address associated to your account with further steps to complete your password reset. If you have any questions or challenges with this process, please feel free to review our Support page, or you can also reach out directly to support@theimpactcrowd.com for further assistance.

To change your password, please go to our investments page, found here or by clicking on our “Log In” button toward the top right of our webpage. Once on the investments page and after you log in to your account, please then click on your account dropdown menu located in the top right of our webpage, where it shows your name. In the dropdown options, there should be an option named “Change Password”. Please click this link and follow the prompts to complete your password modification.

The Impact Crowd team would be very happy to help you with any unresolved questions or challenges that you have. Whenever you need, please feel free to review our Support FAQ page, or you can also reach out directly to support@theimpactcrowd.com for further assistance.