Mesenaatti.me

De review

Mesenaatti.me is a Finnish crowdfunding platform founded in 2012 by Pauliina Seppala, Tanja Janicke, and Marko Tanninen. It describes itself as Finland's first and largest crowdfunding service, supporting creators of all sizes, from artists, musicians, and writers to associations, nonprofits, startups, and charitable initiatives, and has helped fund over a thousand Finnish projects spanning culture to technology.

The platform offers both reward-based crowdfunding, where backers receive something tangible in return, and donation-based crowdfunding, which requires the appropriate Finnish fundraising permit. Campaigns run on an all-or-nothing basis: if a campaign does not reach its minimum target, backers are refunded in full. Mesenaatti's commission ranges from 12% to 18% plus a EUR1 per-transaction fee, with these figures stated inclusive of Finnish VAT (25.5%).

Its main strength is local depth: it is the dominant home-grown crowdfunding platform in Finland and handles the regulatory requirements specific to Finnish donation fundraising. The trade-off is reach, as the service is Finnish-language and euro-denominated and oriented toward the domestic market, so it is less suited to international or English-first campaigns.

A separate Mesenaatti.Pro tier serves larger or repeat campaign-runners under negotiated annual and per-campaign terms. For failed campaigns, Mesenaatti absorbs transaction costs up to a stated threshold, reducing the downside risk for smaller projects that do not reach their goal.