[Daniel14]

I'm not too familiar with how Kickstarter operates, but since anyone can "back" a project, why didn't you pay the difference to yourself? Kickstarter doesn't keep a cut, and you could've used those thousands of dollars to start your project even though you set your goal too high.

[kanamekun]

Kickstarter takes 5% of successful projects: "If a project is successfully funded, Kickstarter will apply a 5% fee to the funds raised. If funding isn't successful, there are no charges."

http://www.kickstarter.com/help/faq#WhatFeesDoesKickChar

That said, it can still make sense to "pay the difference" if the fee you pay (5% of the remaining amount) still leaves with enough money after rewards to successfully complete the project!

[jfruh]

I believe that you're not actually allowed to make up the difference under Kickstarter's terms of service. One of the points of the system is that it's supposed to be vaguely like the original Groupon idea -- you only get paid if you get enough pledges to meet your goal. (Backers only have their credit cards charged once the project meets the dollar amount you've set.)

In practice, of course, there are ways around this. Payments all go through Amazon's system, and I believe that they enforce this rule by just making sure that none of the credit cards for backers are under the same name as the Amazon payment account. If you just get a friend to pay for the difference and then write them a check for the amount you could get away with it.