Table of Contents
Table of Contents
So your campaign funded. Nice. You refreshed the page about forty times, posted the screenshot, maybe had a drink. Then the messages start coming in.
"I moved last month, can I change my address?" "I picked blue but my kid wants red." "Can I add a second copy?" "Wait, how much is shipping to Germany?"
Honestly, this is the moment a lot of creators realize the campaign was the easy part. Kickstarter collected money and a pledge level. It did not collect most of what you need to actually put a box in someone's hands.
That gap is exactly what a pledge manager fills. In this guide we'll walk through what it does, why it matters so much, what goes wrong without one, and how to get its data into your warehouse cleanly. No sales pitch for any one tool. Just the stuff we see creators trip over again and again.
What a Pledge Manager Actually Does After Your Campaign Ends
A pledge manager is a post-campaign tool. It sends every backer a survey, collects the details you need to ship their reward, and turns each pledge into a real, packable order.
Think of the campaign as the wedding invitation and RSVP. The pledge manager is the part where you find out who's vegetarian, who's bringing a plus-one, and who forgot to tell you they live abroad now.
The gap between "backed" and "ready to ship"
When a campaign ends, you know who backed and roughly what they picked. That's it. You usually don't have a confirmed shipping address, size or color choices, add-on orders, or a final shipping charge that matches the real rate.
A Kickstarter campaign can run for up to 60 days, and then production can take months more. People move. Cards expire. Minds change. So the information you'd have collected on day one would be stale by ship day anyway.
The data it collects: addresses, variants, add-ons, shipping and tax
Here's the difference in one table.
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Information
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During the campaign
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In the pledge manager
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|---|---|---|
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Pledge amount and tier
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Yes
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Yes, and backers can upgrade
|
|
Confirmed shipping address
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No, or not final
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Yes, editable until you lock it
|
|
Size, color or language choice
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Usually no
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Yes, mapped to SKUs
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|
Add-ons and extra copies
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Limited
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Yes, paid at checkout
|
|
Shipping fee based on real rates
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Estimated
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Yes, charged by region or weight
|
|
Sales tax, VAT, tariffs
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Hard to handle
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Supported by most modern tools
|
|
Phone and email for the carrier
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Not always
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Yes
|
|
Export file for the warehouse
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No
|
Yes
|
Pledge manager vs crowdfunding platform vs fulfillment partner
People mix these up a lot, so here's the quick split. The crowdfunding platform runs the campaign and takes the initial pledges. The pledge manager turns those pledges into confirmed orders. The fulfillment partner stores, packs and ships them. Three different jobs. They just need to pass data to each other without anything falling through the cracks.
Why a Pledge Manager Matters: 6 Jobs It Takes Off Your Plate
You could, in theory, do all of this with emails and a spreadsheet. People have. Most of them don't do it twice.
1. Clean, confirmed addresses (fewer returned parcels)
A wrong address is the most expensive typo in crowdfunding. The parcel ships, bounces around, comes back, and you pay twice. Sometimes it just disappears.
A pledge manager asks backers to confirm their own address, often with format checks for things like postcodes and phone numbers. Then it lets them edit it until you lock the list. That one feature alone saves a surprising amount of money.
2. Reward choices mapped to real SKUs
"Deluxe tier, blue, with the expansion" is not something a warehouse can pick from. It needs SKUs. A good pledge manager maps every tier, variant and add-on to a SKU, so the export says exactly what goes in each box.
This matters a lot for projects with many tiers. If your rewards need assembling into sets, a warehouse with kitting and assembly can build each tier box from those SKU lists, but only if the list is right in the first place.
3. Charging shipping once real rates are known
During the campaign, shipping is a guess. You don't know the final weight, the final box size, or what carriers will charge six months from now. Plenty of creators have lost their margin right here.
With a pledge manager, you can charge shipping after the campaign, by region, by weight or as a flat rate. By then you have a real product sample and real quotes. A shipping cost calculator helps you sanity-check rates per country before you set them.
4. Sales tax, VAT and tariffs
This is the bit nobody enjoys. But it's also where a pledge manager earns its keep, because getting tax wrong means either you eat the cost or your backer gets a surprise bill at the door. Neither is fun.
US sales tax and tariff changes
US states may expect sales tax on what you sell to their residents, depending on the state and your sales. On top of that, import costs into the US have moved around a lot. In 2025 the US ended duty-free entry for low-value parcels, and tariff rates on many goods changed more than once. Kickstarter even added a Tariff Manager so creators can pass extra import charges to US backers in a controlled way.
EU and UK VAT for low-value parcels
For EU backers, VAT applies to imported goods, even cheap ones. Under the EU's Import One-Stop Shop (IOSS), sellers can collect VAT at checkout for consignments up to €150, so backers don't pay again on delivery. The EU has also started charging a flat customs duty on low-value parcels. The UK has its own system, where VAT on goods up to £135 is usually collected at the point of sale.
Most modern pledge managers can collect US sales tax and EU/UK VAT at checkout. Just to be clear, this isn't tax advice. Rules change, so check your setup with a tax professional.
5. Add-ons, upgrades and late pledges
Here's the fun part. A pledge manager is also a small shop. Backers can upgrade their tier, grab add-ons, or buy a second copy for a friend. People who missed the campaign can join as late backers.
Many creators report that this brings in a noticeable chunk of extra money after the campaign. How much really depends on your product and community, so don't plan your budget around it. Treat it as a bonus.
6. Recovering failed payments
Some cards just fail when the campaign closes. Expired, blocked, out of funds. A pledge manager gives those backers a second chance to pay, instead of you chasing each one by email. It's not glamorous, but it's real money you'd otherwise lose.
What Goes Wrong When You Skip It
Let's picture a small board game campaign. Say 800 backers, three tiers, two add-ons, backers in 20 countries. The creator decides a pledge manager is overkill and sends a Google Form instead.
Week one goes fine. Week two, the spreadsheet has 40 duplicate rows, a few people typed "same as before" as their address, and nobody paid for the add-ons they ticked. The creator now has to email around 100 people one by one. Some reply. Some don't.
Then the warehouse asks for a file with SKUs, phone numbers and declared values. The form didn't ask for any of those. So it's back to email again.
Shipping starts six weeks late. Comments get a bit spicy. A few parcels come back. And the creator spends the extra money they never collected for shipping to Australia.
None of that is dramatic on its own. Together, though, it's how a happy campaign turns into a stressful one. And honestly, that's the real importance of a pledge manager. It's less about features and more about not losing control of the last mile.
Kickstarter's Native Pledge Manager vs Third-Party Tools in 2026
For years, creators had to pick an outside tool. That changed in May 2025, when Kickstarter opened its own pledge manager to all creators. So the question now isn't "do I need one?" It's more like "is the built-in one enough for me?"
What Kickstarter's own tool covers now
The native pledge manager handles backer surveys, upgrades and add-ons, shipping charged by weight or flat rate, US sales tax and EU/UK VAT collection, and a Backer Report you can filter and export for fulfillment. According to Kickstarter's own update on how the Pledge Manager has grown, it has since added a ShipStation sync, address locking by backer segment, Canadian sales tax, editable survey answers and more. Kickstarter says there's no extra upfront cost. Its usual fees apply to money collected inside the pledge manager.
If your project is fairly simple and you're happy staying on Kickstarter, this is a solid default. It's one less login, too.
When BackerKit, Gamefound, PledgeBox or CrowdOx still make sense
Third-party tools are still around, and they still win in some cases. For example, when you want a more customized storefront, have a complex reward structure, plan to run late pledges for a long time, or already ran a project with that tool and know it well. Gamefound is popular with tabletop creators. BackerKit has long been used across categories.
Each one charges differently, usually a share of the money raised through the pledge manager plus payment processing. Fees change, so check each tool's current pricing page before you decide.
|
Option
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Usually fits
|
Add-ons and upgrades
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Late pledges
|
Tax tools
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Kickstarter native
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Kickstarter projects that want everything in one place
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Yes
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Check current features
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US sales tax, EU/UK VAT, tariffs
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|
BackerKit
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Many categories, complex tiers
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Yes
|
Yes
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Yes
|
|
Gamefound
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Tabletop games
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Yes
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Yes
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Yes, including EU VAT handling
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|
PledgeBox
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Creators wanting a customizable survey and store
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Yes
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Yes
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Yes
|
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CrowdOx
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Creators wanting another independent option
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Yes
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Yes
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Check with provider
|
|
Google Forms + spreadsheet
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Very small, simple projects
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Manual
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Manual
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No
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Feature sets move fast in this space, so treat the table as a starting point and confirm on each tool's site.
Google Forms and a spreadsheet: only for tiny campaigns
If you have 50 backers, one reward and everyone lives in one country, fine. A form works. Once you add variants, add-ons or international shipping, the spreadsheet stops being free. You pay for it in time and mistakes.
How to Choose the Right Pledge Manager for Your Project
There's no single right answer here. It kind of depends on your project. A few questions narrow it down fast:
- How complex are your rewards? Two tiers and no variants is easy. Ten tiers, three languages and a pile of add-ons is not.
- Where do your backers live? More countries means more shipping zones and more tax rules to set up.
- Do you want a long-running late pledge store? Some creators keep selling for months after the campaign. Some don't bother.
- What can your warehouse import? Ask for their template or integration list before you commit to a tool.
- How much will you raise inside the pledge manager? Fees are often a percentage, so the more add-ons you sell, the more the fee structure matters.
Write your answers down, then open each tool's pricing and feature pages side by side. Twenty minutes of that beats switching tools halfway through.
Which Crowdfunding Projects Need One Most
Pretty much any project with physical rewards benefits. But some categories feel the pain more than others.
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Category
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What makes it tricky
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What the pledge manager helps with
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|---|---|---|
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Board games and tabletop
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Many SKUs, expansions, heavy boxes
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Add-ons, upgrades, weight-based shipping
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|
Consumer electronics and gadgets
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Batteries, plug types, higher values
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Plug or region choice, tax and tariffs
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|
Books and comics
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Hardcover vs softcover, signed copies
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Edition choice, personalization notes
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|
Miniatures and 3D-printed models
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Huge add-on catalogs
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Add-on store, digital files
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|
Apparel and accessories
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Sizes and colors
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Variant selection mapped to SKUs
|
Board games deserve a special mention, since they combine nearly all of the above. If that's your category, our page on board game fulfillment covers the packing side.
When to Set Up Your Pledge Manager: A Simple Timeline
Short version? Earlier than you think. Here's a rough flow most creators follow.
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Stage
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What to do
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|---|---|
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Before launch
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Decide which pledge manager you'll use. Get real shipping quotes.
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During the campaign
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Build the survey, SKUs, add-ons and shipping rules.
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1 to 2 weeks after funding
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Send the survey. Do a small test batch first if your tool allows it.
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Survey window
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Remind non-responders. Fix failed payments.
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Before shipping
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Lock addresses, in waves if needed.
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Ship week
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Export orders to your fulfillment partner. Tracking goes back to backers.
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One tip. Don't open the survey before your shipping costs are clear. Changing shipping prices halfway through annoys everyone, including you.
From Pledge Manager to Warehouse: Getting the Handoff Right
Here's the part almost every pledge manager guide skips. All that clean data is only useful if your warehouse can read it.
What your fulfillment partner needs in the export file
Before you build the survey, ask your fulfillment partner for their import template. Then make sure the pledge manager collects everything on it. Usually that means:
- Order or backer ID
- SKU and quantity for every item, including add-ons
- Full name, full address, postcode and country
- Phone number and email, which many carriers need for delivery updates
- Product name in plain English and declared value, for customs
- HS code if you have one, so customs paperwork goes faster
Missing phone numbers and vague product names cause more customs delays than people expect. "Gift" is not a product description, sadly.
Address locks and shipping in waves
Once a batch is ready to ship, lock those addresses. After that, any change becomes a support ticket instead of a silent edit that never reaches the warehouse. Shipping in waves, say by region, also lets you start with the backers whose stock and rates are ready first.
Shipping rewards from China straight to backers
A lot of crowdfunding rewards are made in China. So one option is to keep the finished goods there and ship each order straight to backers, rather than first freighting everything to a warehouse in another country.
That's the model SendFromChina works with. SendFromChina is a China-based 3PL with a Kickstarter fulfillment service. Your factory sends finished rewards to the warehouse. The team receives and stores them, then picks and packs by pledge tier once your backer list is ready. You can batch upload your pledge manager export and edit orders online, and backers get tracking emails once parcels go out.
For US backers there's a DDP option, where duties are paid upfront. It applies to declared values up to $150 and doesn't cover Alaska, Puerto Rico, Hawaii or Guam. With DDU, the backer pays any import VAT on arrival. Pricing is quote-based, built from storage, shipping, pick and pack and any packaging extras. Eligible first-time customers can get 30 days of free storage.
If you're comparing setups more broadly, our guide to Kickstarter fulfillment from China goes deeper into timing and packaging. And for campaigns on other platforms too, see our crowdfunding fulfillment page.
Common Pledge Manager Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
|
Mistake
|
What happens
|
What to do instead
|
|---|---|---|
|
Opening the survey before shipping costs are final
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You undercharge, or change prices mid-way
|
Get real quotes from a product sample first
|
|
Not asking for phone numbers
|
Carriers can't reach backers, parcels get delayed
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Make phone a required field
|
|
Tiers not mapped to SKUs
|
Wrong items in boxes
|
Build a SKU list before you build the survey
|
|
No deadline for the survey
|
Stragglers delay everyone
|
Set a clear close date and send reminders
|
|
Never locking addresses
|
Late changes never reach the warehouse
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Lock by batch before export
|
|
Ignoring VAT and tariffs
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Backers get surprise bills, or you pay them
|
Decide DDP or DDU early and say so on the campaign page
|
|
Picking a tool your warehouse can't import from
|
Manual reformatting, more errors
|
Ask for the import template first
|
Conclusion
A pledge manager isn't the exciting part of crowdfunding. Nobody shares a screenshot of their backer survey. But it's the bridge between "we funded" and "it arrived", and that bridge has to hold.
It confirms addresses, maps rewards to SKUs, charges the right shipping and tax, gives you a bit of extra revenue and hands your warehouse a file it can actually use. Whether you go with Kickstarter's built-in tool or a third-party one matters less than setting it up early and connecting it properly to fulfillment.
So, sort it out before the campaign ends. Your future self, the one packing boxes, will thank you.
FAQs
What is a pledge manager on Kickstarter?
It's a tool you use after your campaign ends. It sends backers a survey to confirm their address and reward choices, and lets them pay for shipping, tax and add-ons. Then it gives you a clean order list for fulfillment.
Do I need a pledge manager for my Kickstarter campaign?
If you ship physical rewards to more than a handful of people, yes, pretty much. Very small, single-reward campaigns can get by with a form, but anything with variants, add-ons or international backers gets messy fast without one.
Is the Kickstarter pledge manager free to use?
Kickstarter says there's no extra upfront cost. Its usual fees are taken from payments collected inside the pledge manager, like add-ons and shipping. Check Kickstarter's help center for the current terms.
When should I send the pledge manager survey to backers?
Most creators send it one to two weeks after the campaign ends, once shipping costs are clear. Build the survey during the campaign so it's ready to go.
What happens if a backer doesn't complete the pledge manager survey?
Their order can't be finalized, so it usually won't ship with the main batch. Send reminders, set a clear deadline, and explain on your campaign page what happens to late responses.
Can backers change or upgrade their pledge in a pledge manager?
Usually they can upgrade, add items and edit their address until the creator locks orders. Downgrades and refunds depend on the creator's own rules.
What are late pledges and how do they work?
Late pledges let people who missed the campaign back the project afterwards, often at a slightly higher price. They pay inside the pledge manager and ship with the main batch or a later wave.
How does a pledge manager handle VAT, sales tax and tariffs?
Most modern tools can collect US sales tax and EU/UK VAT at checkout, and some let you add tariff charges for certain countries. You still need to decide your approach, such as DDP or DDU, and it's worth checking with a tax professional.
BackerKit or Kickstarter's own pledge manager: which should I use?
If your project is simple and you like having everything on Kickstarter, the native tool is a good start. If you need a more flexible store, long-running late pledges or you already know BackerKit well, a third-party tool may fit better. Compare current fees first.
How do I send pledge manager data to my fulfillment warehouse?
Ask your warehouse for its import template, set up your survey to collect every field on it, then export a CSV after you lock addresses. Some tools also sync directly with shipping software. Test with a small batch before the full export.
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