Crowdfunding Website for Student Projects with Milestone Tracking

Crowdfunding Website for Student Projects with Milestone Tracking is a web platform that lets college students raise money for tech-fest builds, prototypes and social-cause projects, with a trust mechanism most student crowdfunding demos skip: organizers do not receive pledged money upfront. This project solves the backer-trust problem in student fundraising. Today, students collect contributions through personal UPI IDs and chat groups, where nobody can see what was collected or spent — backers have no recourse when an organizer goes quiet. The platform fixes this with milestone-gated releases: each campaign splits its goal into milestones (for example 30/40/30), the organizer posts proof-of-progress for each stage (photos, test logs, attendance sheets), a moderator verifies the proof, and only then does that slice of funds release. Campaign pages carry live progress bars, a milestone timeline, a donor wall and contribution feeds; organizers get a dashboard with raised-vs-goal tracking and backer analytics, and admins get a moderation console for campaign approvals and flagged pledges.

Most existing crowdfunding sites are built for commercial products and startups, with fee structures and verification flows that assume registered businesses. Student projects — a robotics team needing Rs. 80,000 for a tech-fest build, a final-year team prototyping a low-cost prosthetic — fall through the cracks: they need small sums, short timelines, and proof that the money reached the build, not a marketing page. This platform is designed around that gap: UPI-first pledging (the payment rail students actually use), manual pledge verification for bank transfers, and milestone evidence as the core object of the system rather than an afterthought.

Builder note (from the working demo built for this listing): the milestone timeline enforces a locked → proof-submitted → verified → released state machine — a milestone's release action stays disabled until the previous milestone is fully verified and released, which is exactly the release rule described on this page.

A student organizer creates a campaign with a funding goal, a deadline and a milestone split (for example 30/40/30 across three build stages), and the campaign goes live after admin approval. A backer opens the campaign page, picks a pledge amount, and pays through UPI (test/sandbox confirmation) or a manual bank transfer that the organizer verifies against the bank statement before it counts. As pledges arrive, the progress bar, backer count, contribution feed and donor wall update. The organizer then works through the milestones: for each one they submit proof-of-progress (photos, test logs, attendance sheets), a moderator reviews it within the verification SLA, and only on approval does that milestone's slice of funds release to the organizer. The next milestone unlocks only after the previous one is verified and released. If proof is rejected or a campaign fails verification, the held money is returned to the backers — which is what makes the trust mechanism real rather than decorative.

1. The organizer registers, creates a campaign (title, story, goal, deadline, category) and defines 2–5 milestones with a percentage split of the goal.
2. An admin reviews the campaign (identity, budget split, category fit) and approves, rejects, or requests changes; approved campaigns go live.
3. Backers browse or search live campaigns, open a campaign page, choose a pledge amount and pay via UPI (test/sandbox, instant) or manual bank transfer.
4. Manual pledges stay in "pending" until the organizer confirms receipt against the bank statement (expected: within 48 hours); UPI pledges confirm immediately.
5. Pledges update the progress bar, backer analytics, contribution feed and donor wall in real time.
6. The organizer completes milestone 1 and submits proof-of-progress (photos, logs, sheets) from the dashboard.
7. A moderator verifies the proof (expected: within 48 hours of submission); on approval, that milestone's funds release and the next milestone unlocks.
8. Steps 6–7 repeat per milestone. Rejected proof or failed verification triggers backer refunds for the held amount.

Tech stack:

• HTML5 · CSS3 · JavaScript (frontend, single-page demo)
• Node.js · Express.js (backend REST API)
• MongoDB (campaigns, pledges, milestones, users)
• JWT authentication (organizer, backer, admin roles)
• UPI pledge flow in test/sandbox mode
• Nodemailer (transactional email: pledge receipts, milestone alerts)
• Chart rendering with inline SVG (dashboards)
• Git (version control)

The four capabilities that define this project are milestone-gated fund release (money moves to the organizer only against moderator-verified proof, through a locked → proof-submitted → verified → released state machine), dual pledge rails (instant UPI pledges in test/sandbox mode plus manually verified bank-transfer pledges for backers without UPI), the organizer dashboard (raised-vs-goal tracked per milestone, contribution trends, pledge-size analytics and payment-method split), and the moderation console (campaign approval queue, milestone proof verification, and flagged-pledge review with release-or-refund decisions). Around these sit campaign pages with live progress bars, proof-of-progress updates, a ranked donor wall and chronological contribution feeds — everything a student team needs to run a transparent fundraiser. The scope is stated honestly throughout: UPI runs in test/sandbox mode and manual transfers are organizer-verified in the base build, while a live payment gateway is an optional add-on; the milestone release logic, dashboards and moderation console are fully implemented.

• [Milestone-gated fund release] Each campaign goal is split into milestones (configurable split, e.g. 30/40/30). A milestone moves through locked → proof-submitted → verified → released; funds for that slice release only after a moderator approves the organizer's proof. Unverified milestones stay locked.
• [Campaign pages with live progress] Every campaign gets a page with a funding progress bar, backer count, days remaining, the organizer's story, and the milestone timeline — all updating as pledges arrive.
• [Dual pledge rails] Backers pledge via UPI (implemented in test/sandbox mode with instant confirmation) or manual bank transfer (the organizer confirms receipt, typically within 48 hours, before the pledge counts). Both appear in the contribution feed with their verification state.
• [Proof-of-progress updates] Organizers post dated updates with evidence — photos, test logs, attendance sheets — attached to the relevant milestone, so backers can audit where their money went.
• [Donor wall and contribution feed] A ranked wall of top backers plus a chronological feed of every pledge with amount, method and verification badge.
• [Organizer dashboard] Raised-vs-goal per milestone, weekly contribution trends, pledge-size and payment-method analytics, manual-pledge receipt confirmations, and milestone proof submission.
• [Admin moderation console] Campaign approval queue (approve / reject / request changes), milestone proof verification, flagged-pledge review with release-or-refund decisions, and platform stats.

• Complete source code (frontend + Node.js/Express backend + MongoDB schemas)
• Seeded demo database (8 campaigns, pledges, milestones, moderation queue)
• Setup and hosting guide (local run + VPS deployment steps)
• Project report PDF (background, requirements, architecture, data model, test cases)
• PPT presentation for final review
• Viva Q&A preparation document (REST APIs, JWT, milestone state machine, payment flows)
• Demo walkthrough script for the final presentation