New TLD Kickstarter campaign reaches its goal

Campaign surpasses €80,000 fundraising goal.

A nonprofit that turned to Kickstarter to raise funds for its new top level domain ambitions has met its fundraising goal.

dotMeow Foundation, a Belgian nonprofit that aims to promote social inclusion, connection, and the empowerment of the LGBTQIA+ community in Belgium and abroad, plans to apply for the .meow domain during this year’s application period.

dotMeow has been accepted into ICANN’s Applicant Support Program, which means its $227,000 application fee will be discounted by 75%-85%.

But add operational and legal costs to the application fee, and it’s still not cheap to get a top level domain off the ground.

So dotMeow is running a Kickstarter campaign with a goal of raising €80,000, which will be added to the nonprofit’s existing funding to launch the domain.

Just minutes ago, the campaign surpassed its fundraising goal with over a month left to go.

1,121 backers have pledged money as of 9:50 am PT today. In return, these backers will get vouchers for .meow registrations.

Of course, by making its plans public, dotMeow risks attracting other applicants for the string. The group thinks that’s unlikely. With no private auction settlement, the odds of a competitor popping up seem low.

It seems the group isn’t submitting an alternate string; it says that if there’s string contention, it will withdraw its application.