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I was looking at kickstarter to get some funding for a possible business venture. Kickstarter funding would cover entity filing fees and other costs or licenses and materials.

I have seen some technology projects on kickstarter, but I couldn't quite place what kickstarters want in return.

They don't get equity Its not a donation Often times there is a cheap tangible item given to people that have given money, perhaps a discounted example of the product you are trying to create

none of this stops people from pledging funds, but is there anything I am missing?

(I hope this is the right question for this site, it seemed the most logical of all stackexchange sites)

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Sounds like you've never actually used Kickstarter yourself. Rather than asking here, you should actually try pledging to a couple of KS campaigns yourself, and start following some discussions on campaigns you find interesting. It won't take you long to get the vibe of how it works.

Generally speaking, yes people do expect something tangible in return. For software it's often a free (prepaid really) or discounted subscription, credit as a supporter, input into future features or product direction, etc. Every project is different. People aren't going to just pay your filing fees out of kindness. They will want to feel connected to your project in some way. If you can't interest your audience in some tangible way, it's probably not going to be a good fit for crowdsourcing.

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Agreed with @bmoeskau, the Kickstarter guidelines and ToS are pretty clear kickstarter.com/help/guidelines?ref=footer – jonschlinkert Mar 16 '12 at 9:22

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