Our Reviews of Crowdfunding Platforms for Nonprofits
One of the most important steps to a crowdfunding campaign is choosing your platform.
There are a LOT of crowdfunding platforms out there. It can take some time to sort through what each has to offer, and which is best for you and your new organization.
So, we went ahead and checked out some of the more popular platforms and reviewed them for you!
Pure Crowdfunding Platforms for Individuals with Passion Projects
If you haven’t incorporated your nonprofit yet, and you’re just looking to test out a project idea, then it’s possible that Kickstarter, IndieGoGo, or GoFundMe may be for you.
Kickstarter (www.kickstarter.com)
Kickstarter has been around since the start of the crowdfunding craze and gets a lot of traffic. It’s designed specifically for creative projects, and every project is required to contribute something concrete back to the world (e.g., a documentary or a product).
Kickstarter campaigns are not permitted to raise funds to donate to a charity. Apparently, however, a nonprofit can run a Kickstarter campaign if the funds go to facilitate the project outlined on its project page.
Kickstarter is an all-or-nothing platform. So, you set a goal and the funders don’t get charged until later, after you’ve reached the goal. If you don’t meet the goal, then you don’t get any funding.
Kickstarter has an intuitive setup process, including project descriptions, photos, videos and reward tiers. They also have a mobile app. If you offer rewards, they validate funder addresses.
They charge a 5% fee, but only if you’re campaign is successful. Payment processing is 3% + $.020 per pledge (or for pledges under $10, 5% + $0.05 per pledge).
Indiegogo (www.indiegogo.com)
Indiegogo is designed to be a platform where early adopters and innovation seekers find lively, imaginative tech before it hits the mainstream. There’s no application or approval process required.
Both for-profit and nonprofit campaigns are allowed on Indiegogo, though it’s very geared toward entrepreneurs bringing new products to market. Indiegogo offers both crowdfunding campaigns and Indiegogo InDemand services for continuing fundraising afterwards.
Indiegogo crowdfunding campaigns can be structured as “flexible funding” campaigns, where you keep what you raise regardless of whether you hit your goal, or as “fixed funding” campaigns where you keep your contributions only if you hit your goal.
Indiegogo promotes its crowdfunding feature as a method of acquiring starter capital and validate your idea by tapping into Indiegogo’s global network of early adopters.
Indiegogo InDemand is a post-campaign funding solution that is intended to bridge the gap between a successful crowdfunding campaign and commerce. This allows you to keep raising money on the Indiegogo platform as you start production, manufacture and delivery of your product.
Platform fees are 5%, plus approximately 3% for payment processing fees.
Indiegogo integrates with a variety of solutions. This includes a program with Arrow to provide partners for prototyping and manufacturing. It also includes support for Apple Pay and integration with Stripe®. Their fulfillment partners include Amplifier® and Brookstone®, and their retail partners include Amazon® and Newegg®.
GoFundMe (www.GoFundMe.com)
GoFundMe is designed to support any community-based fundraiser that is for a personal cause, any medical, funeral, memorial, or emergency fundraisers, and any personal cause fundraiser in any category.
With GoFundMe, there are no deadlines or time limits. Your campaign will remain live until you choose to turn off donations or remove the campaign altogether. They claim that most organizers leave their campaigns active indefinitely.
The GoFundMe platform is free. They charge only a standard transaction fee of 2.9% plus $0.30 per donation for credit card processing and safe transfer of funds.
GoFundMe claims to be powered by the kindness of our donors. Donors to your campaign may choose to give GoFundMe a voluntary tip during the donation process. These tips allow GoFundMe to maintain and improve its platform.
GoFundMe is set up to help families and communities get back on their feet quickly. The majority of campaign organizers can withdraw funds immediately, with no waiting period. They also offer a mobile app, beneficiary management and team fundraising
Pure Crowdfunding Platforms for Nonprofit Organizations
There are quite a few crowdfunding platforms that are geared specifically toward nonprofit organizations. Some are designed for organizations that have already received their 501c3 status, while others don’t require you to have your tax exemption.
Fundly (https://fundly.com)
Fundly is designed for individuals and nonprofits. On Fundly, you keep what you raise.
According to Fundly’s website, Fundly gives you more Facebook® impressions because every supporter that engages with your campaign can post on their network (and yours) to spread the word.
Fundly offers the ability to post blogs and updates with comments functionality to broadcast campaign activity to your supporters. Fundly also integrates with Gmail®, Yahoo®, Survey Monkey® and Constant Contact® for emailing your network.
They also offer a number of different templates to get donations, recruit fundraisers and send great "Thank Yous." Fundly is also mobile-friendly, and their platform is designed to ensure that your campaign to look great on mobile browsers.
Fundly charges a platform fee of 4.9% plus payment processing fee of 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. Their website says they provide automatic discounts for larger campaigns.
Payments are processed by WePay® and can usually be withdrawn in 24-48 hours of the donation. Automatic transfers can also be configured to further speed things up.
Fundly also offers other products that are geared toward nonprofits. Fundly CRM is a Donor Management, Fundraising, Event and Membership platform. Fundly Connect connects volunteers with nonprofits. And Fundly Pro is a peer-to-peer fundraising platform.
StartSomeGood (www.StartSomeGood.com)
StartSomeGood is a crowdfunding platform for broadly-progressive social impact projects and organizations. They focus on social entrepreneurship and support social cause innovation, meaning things not yet proven to work. Their website claims to have the highest project success rate in cause crowdfunding.
They’re a registered B-Corp but their users can be nonprofit, for profit, or any other status. However, the project must be created through the operations of the initiative itself, so not via a transfer of the funds for creation of the impact somewhere else.
StartSomeGood uses a modified all-or-nothing approach that they call the Tipping Point. Users can select 2 goals – the bottom Tipping Point goal, which is all-or-nothing, and a higher goal, where you keep what you raise past the Tipping Point even if you don’t meet the higher goal.
StartSomeGood vets their users to be sure the project is intended to create positive social change and the project budget is coherent. They also vet to ensure that the funding goal is realistic to cover the project costs and rewards can be delivered in a reasonable amount of time.
They also do a qualitative review of your project to asses social impact innovation, viability, network and rewards.
They charge a platform fee of 5% plus third-party processing (through Stripe®) fee of 2.9%. Donations go directly from donors to your Stripe® account, and projects handle their own receipts. They also offer premium support options ranging from personalized consulting all the way to StartSomeGood creating your campaign for you.
Whey you submit your project online, they pair you with a member of their team to help you with your campaign. They claim that once the campaign is live, they seek opportunities to promote projects through social media, and through their blog, newsletter, Twitter chats and eBooks.
GlobalGiving (www.GlobalGiving.org)
GlobalGiving’s purpose is transforming aid and philanthropy to accelerate community-led change. GlobalGiving is a 501c3 registered nonprofit, so donations made through their platform are tax deductible.
Users need to be a registered nonprofit to join, although they also accept groups with fiscal sponsors. GlobalGiving is geared toward nonprofits that are already legally setup and have programs already in place.
They require an extensive vetting process to join, and applications are accepted in batches (not ongoing). Once accepted, you join the GlobalGving Accelerator program. They provide you with training, and you participate in an Open Challenge in which you must raise $5,000 in 4 weeks from at least 40 donors.
Then you’re invited to be a permanent partner.
GlobalGiving Rewards ranks their nonprofit partners as Partners, Leaders or Superstars based on their engagement with the community and their demonstrated commitment to effectiveness. Organizations ranked near the top are more visible on GlobalGiving’s platform and more often recommended by GlobalGiving to donors and GlobalGiving corporate partners.
GlobalGiving claims to drive additional donors to participating nonprofits through matching funds, corporate partner donations, bonus rewards, marketing efforts and gift cards.
There is no cost to join initially. To participate in the Accelerator Program, they charge a 12% nonprofit support fee, plus a 3% third party processing fee. After you’re accepted as a partner, US nonprofits pay a support fee of 5% plus 3% third-party processing fee.
Causes (www.causes.com)
Causes is both a crowdfunding platform and a social network for people to discover, support and organize campaigns, fundraisers, and petitions around the issues that impact them and their community. By building a passionate audience, Causes empowers its members to collaborate on solutions to societal problems.
The idea is that with Causes’ built-in communities of support, no campaign starts from scratch. Causes also integrates with social media sites like Facebook®, LinkedIn® and Twitter®.
While any individual, political organization or nonprofit organization can start a campaign on Causes, only 501c3 or 501c4 organizations can start fundraisers.
Campaigns are free of charge, as Causes is an ad-supported platform that works with major companies and nonprofits to support their socially-responsible programs and initiatives through sponsored campaigns. Fundraisers do pay credit card processing fees with Stripe® of 4% for each donation.
Crowdfunding “Plus More” Platforms for Nonprofit Organizations
There are a variety of platforms geared toward nonprofits that offer both crowdfunding and other fundraising tools. This can include peer-to-peer fundraising, donate pages, event registrations and donor management tools.
CauseVox (www.causevox.com)
CauseVox is structured specifically for nonprofits (though it’s not a requirement to use the site).
They provide a customizable fundraising platform that includes crowdfunding, peer-to-peer, donate pages, event registration and CRM. They purport to be an easy-to-use comprehensive tool to increase donations and reduce administrative burdens.
CauseVox crowdfunding campaigns use a keep-what-you-earn approach. You can stick with straight crowdfunding and just include a Donate button. Or you can add peer-to-peer to your campaign by adding a Fundraiser button.
CauseVox’s platform is set up to make it easy to share your campaign with others. They have easy-to-use design tools and integrate with a lot of other commonly used software.
They claim that adding the peer-to-peer functionality to your crowdfunding campaign can double your donations. Peer-to-peer fundraisers set up their own page to raise money for your campaign, and they can also set up as teams.
CauseVox offers multiple options for joining.
A basic plan has no annual fee and charges 5% per transaction. A standard plan has a $139 annual fee and 4.25% per transaction. A plus plan has an annual fee of $245 per year and 3% per transaction. And there are premium plans with higher annual fees and 2% per transaction.
Donations on CauseVox are processed through Stripe® or Paypal®, and third-party processing fees (2.2%-2.9% + $0.30 per transaction, with possible discounts for nonprofits) are in addition to CauseVox’s fees.
CauseVox also offers demos and 14-day free trials.
Classy (www.classy.org)
Classy is also an easy to use all-in-one fundraising tool. Classy itself is a nonprofit. They offer crowdfunding, peer-to-peer, donation pages, and event management.
They also offer the “Classy Manager” which is a robust back-office tool for data tracking, reporting and efficiency. Classy Manager includes a “campaign health card” tracking campaign data, including how individual fundraisers and teams are performing. It also provides a method of easily tracking supporter information in one place, including recurring campaigns and donors.
Classy’s donation pages will integrate with your website, and peer-to-peer functionality is designed to keep your brand up front and provide built in communication with your fundraisers.
The Classy Manager provides campaign and event management, supporter information, history, reporting and data analytics and automated emails. They also offer mobile functionaty, and a recurring donations feature.
Unlike other crowdfunding platforms, Classy’s website does not list fees. They require you to contact them for fee information.
We reached out directly to see if they could provide more fee information, and were told that their subscription fees and transaction fees were determined on a case-by-case basis.
Their website does state that they accept Visa®, Mastercard®, Discover® and Amex®, and you can select from WePay®, Braintree® and Authorize.net as your third-party processor.
Their website also features their “Collaborative” event, which is a 3 day in-person immersive experience designed exclusively for nonprofit professionals and social impact leaders.
Chuffed (www.chuffed.org)
Chuffed is also a nonprofit organization, and its vision isa future where everyone has access to a wider pool of funds to get their ideas going. Their goal is to build a platform that facilitates relationships and enables openness.
To run your crowdfunding campaign on Chuffed, you must meet three requirements.
Your campaign must be for a social purpose that fits into one of eight categories (Social Enterprise, Refugees and Asylum Seekers, Health and Disability, Community, Environment, International Development, Animal Welfare or Social Welfare).
It must be a 'project' or 'event' that has a finite outcome. Finally, it must be run by a real person or organization, who is over 13 years old and with a bank account in one of their supported countries (which includes the US).
They do not limit eligibility based on legal structure, so it doesn’t matter if you’re still in the idea stage or if you don’t have your 501c3 status yet.
Chuffed offers both crowdfunding and peer-to-peer fundraising. Campaigns can be time-limited or run indefinitely. They claim that campaigns that use their team, peer to peer feature raise 2.5x more than a standard campaign.
They offer customizable donation tiers, branded emails, and repeat giving options. Chuffed also provides donor managed tools, including donor messaging, donor database and integrations with third-party tools and CRMs.
Campaigners don’t pay any fees for their campaigns on Chuffed – no platform fees, no credit card processing fees no signup fees and no monthly fees.
The donors pay a payment processing fee of $0.20 + 0.80% to Stripe® (using a credit card), or a little more if paying by Amex®, international credit cards or PayPal®.
Donors are also given the option of making a donation to Chuffed. This “Optional Donation” model is a central tenant of Chuffed, as they use crowdfunding themselves to fund their work.
Mightycause (www.mightycause.com)
Mightycause (formerly Razoo) offers a comprehensive branded fundraising platform geared primarily to nonprofits. They offer options for unlimited year-round fundraisers, giving day fundraisers, peer-to-peer and team fundraisers.
Mightycause claims to be an innovator in nonprofit fundraising and offers best technology for the best price. They offer customization and designs to build your fundraising pages.
They offer both a basic and an advanced plan for nonprofits.
They charge 6.9% plus $0.30 per transaction fee to include all platform and credit card fees. But they offer a guarantee that your maximum fee is 2.2% and 29¢ in donation processing fees.
The guaranty works like this: Donors will be asked to cover the transaction fees. If they do, then you receive 100% of their donation. If not, prior to disbursing your funds, Mightycause will credit you for any of your aggregate fees above more than 2.2% and 29¢.
For $99/ month, you can upgrade to the Advanced plan, which includes CRM, embeddable donation form and data integration.
Mightycause also offers personal fundraising pages for individuals and non-501c3 based causes. They charge a credit card processing fees of 2.9% + 30¢.
Crowdrise (www.crowdrise.com)
Crowdrise is the nonprofit arm for GoFundMe, and it’s dedicated exclusively to charitable giving. Crowdrise offers easily branded fundraising campaigns and mobile-friendly campaign pages.
They also utilize their own built-in social fundraising features (called Social Amp™), which they claim is proven to increase social sharing, new donations, and campaign awareness.
On Crowdrise, tax-deductible donations receipts are automatically emailed to your donors.
Crowdrise also offers peer-to-peer fundraising, nonprofit event fundraising, and nonprofit walk, run and cycle fundraising.
For a standard crowdfunding campaign on Crowdrise, there are no platform or annual fees. They only charge 2.9% +$0.30 payment processing fees.
If you also want event and team fundraising, there is also a 5% platform fee. Donors are given the option of covering the fees.
When a donor makes a donation, the funds will be processed by the payment processor – Paypal® Giving Fund or WePay®. WePay® sends funds to charities in real time. Paypal® Giving Fund will send your nonprofit a check within 90 days of the initial donation date and then around the 25th of every month thereafter. Your nonprofit can also enroll with Paypal® Giving Fund to receive donations electronically once a month via your Paypal® Business account.
Trying to decide whether a crowdfunding campaign is right for your new nonprofit? Want the scoop on crowdfunding success? Click here to access our archive of articles on crowdfunding campaigns for nonprofits.