From time to time a Creator may set a funding target that Fans blow right past. Yay Fans!
Usually, this simply means Fans are claiming more rewards—or more expensive rewards—than the Creator ever anticipated.
However, occasionally there may not be an actual reward—for instance when the goal is a free publicly available goal such as a live TV broadcast.
In these cases, the Creator still receives all the pledges made—even the ‘excess’ amount beyond the target they originally set. Fans may not request a refund of any portion of their pledge simply because the campaign is now successfully guaranteed, even without some or all of their pledge.
This is necessary to protect the integrity of the whole model and to honor both the Fan community who pledged generously to achieve the goal, and the Creator who agreed to the endeavour.
We anticipate, however, that in most of these cases Creators will offer rewards that Fans can claim, or will designate a larger portion of the pledges to go to charity.