If you’ve ever had a need or desire to fundraise online you’ve probably done a quick Google Search to find the best option that fits your needs, only to find the list of potential crowdfunding platforms to choose from is EXTENSIVE and they all have various pros and cons.
Not everyone has the time to look at each platform in detail, so it can be overwhelming to know which one to choose.
That’s why, in this blog, we’ll take a look at five of the most popular crowdfunding platforms, including our own, and compare each of them to show why you should ALWAYS choose GiveSendGo to fundraise for your cause.
Indigogo
Indigogo is known as a crowdfunding platform primarily for creative and entrepreneurial projects. In addition to crowdfunding they offer services such as pre-launch and distribution.
Interestingly, Indigogo allows its users the choice between flexible fundraising or an all-or-nothing fundraising model, meaning the campaign owner can only receive the money they’ve raised if they reach their goal.
Unfortunately, we’ve recently seen Indigogo deplatform and censor campaign owners and their campaigns. Many of those people have come to GiveSendGo as a result.
Fees: Indigogo has a platform fee of 5% and a processing rate of 3% + $0.20. Additionally, they charge another $25 to send funds to banks internationally.
Kickstarter
Kickstarter proudly states that its platform is used to “bring a project to life”. As you may have guessed, their platform is used mainly by creators (both popular and just starting out) for projects and startups.
There are a plethora of visual examples on their main page as well as current and previously successful campaign projects.
Fees: Kickstarter will only release the funds that were raised to a campaign owner if they reached their goal. They also have a platform fee of 5% and a processing fee of 3% + $0.20.
GoFundMe
GoFundMe is best known for personal fundraising in addition to fundraising for nonprofits. They offer a donor protection guarantee, allow you to view campaigns near you, and provide all the other general crowdfunding features.
While GoFundMe is probably one of the most widely known crowdfunding platforms, it’s not necessarily always for the best reasons.
GoFundMe has had a habit of deplatforming and censoring many campaigns that have been started on their site simply for not agreeing with the campaign or the campaign owner. This has forced users to look elsewhere for other fundraising solutions.
Fees: Like GiveSendGo they do not charge a platform fee, but their processing fee is 2.9% + $0.30.
Fundly
Like GiveSendGo, Fundly is a Christian crowdfunding platform. Their primary focus is on churches and religious organizations.
Their platform dawns all the general crowdfunding capabilities and features such as campaign updates, giving levels, social sharing integrations, a campaign image and video gallery, and a campaign description box.
Fundly also has a free app available.
Fees: While starting a campaign on Fundly is free to do, once you start receiving donations Fundly charges a 4.9% platform fee in addition to a 2.9% + $0.30 processing fee.
GiveSendGo
GiveSendGo was created by Christians for everyone. Our mission is to share the hope of Jesus through crowdfunding. We believe crowdfunding is about so much more than just meeting people’s material needs. It’s also about providing hope for people’s spiritual needs.
That’s why GiveSendGo puts such a huge emphasis on prayer. First, we’re the only crowdfunding platform with a team of prayer partners. This team is dedicated to calling campaign owners on our site to pray for them and their fundraising endeavors. Second, we’re also the first and only platform to have a “Pray Now” button on each campaign, allowing prayers to be sent and received. Third, GiveSendGo also has a prayer wall where anyone can go to share a praise or prayer request so people can pray for them (including the prayer team who closely monitors the page).
And we want you to share the hope with the people around you by using GiveSendGo to raise money for the people and causes you care about!
GiveSendGo is also cheaper! A common thread you may have seen when reading this article is that other platforms charge a platform fee, a lofty processing fee, or both. But not GiveSendGo! GiveSendGo’s platform is entirely FREE to use. They don’t charge a platform fee. In fact, GiveSendGo was the first crowdfunding platform to operate off of a generosity model, meaning people only give to GiveSendGo when they choose to and want to show their support for the platform.
Fees: GiveSendGo recently lowered their third-party’s processing rate to 2.7% + $0.30 to be lower than their competitors!
GiveSendGo has also become known as the leader in freedom fundraising. Many crowdfunding platforms, including the ones mentioned in this list, are quick to deplatform or censor campaigns they don’t agree with. However, GiveSendGo believes everyone has a voice that deserves to be heard. We’re adamant that we protect people’s right to fundraise for who and what they love, despite the views of society, the media, and even how we may feel about you and your campaign.
Choosing GiveSendGo to fundraise for your cause sounds like a no-brainer at this point, right?!
If you go to our homepage at GiveSendGo.com you’ll notice various trending campaigns, most of which have gone viral on social media and have raised a substantial amount of money. And all of those campaigns started off in the same way - one person saw a need and believed they could make a difference in their community by using GiveSendGo. And you can too!
Our mission has always been to share the hope of Jesus through crowdfunding, but now we want YOU to use GiveSendGo to share hope with those around you. Here are 5 ways you can use GiveSendGo to make a difference in your community.
Disaster Relief
When you think of crowdfunding you probably think of fundraising for the relief and support of a community recently affected by a natural disaster. GiveSendGo is never short of these types of campaigns. We can’t control when a natural disaster like a hurricane, tornado, wildfire, etc. is going to strike, but when it does rest assured GiveSendGo will be there for you to raise money for your affected community.
Food for Shut-Ins
Sometimes you may have to look a little harder for things in your community you can help with. Ask around and I bet you’ll find that even your community has people who are stuck at home and need your help to get food and other supplies. But these basic needs are often expensive (eggs alone more than doubled in price), not to mention buying for several shut-ins.
Start a GiveSendGo campaign and share it with those in your community! Before no time you’ll have raised the money you need to help the shut-ins in your community without breaking the bank.
Church Fundraiser
Maybe your church is raising money to replace the pews, put in a new parking lot, or take a team on a mission trip. Whatever the cause, GiveSendGo is a simple solution to your church’s needs. In fact, this is how GIveSendGo began! When first launched almost () years ago, we were much smaller than we are today, we started as a platform for Christian causes, especially mission trips. Now, GiveSendGo has extended its purpose far beyond just Christian crowdfunding, but our mission remains the same - to share hope - and we hope you do the same in your community!
Grade School or College/University
If you’ve lived long enough you’ve probably had a child come knocking on your door asking if you could buy some candles, cookies, or candy for their school fundraiser. And every item is always double if not triple what you’d be willing to pay if you saw it in a store. But how could you say no to that adorable face, right? Next time, instead of purchasing out of a guilty conscience, reach out to the school and suggest they start a GiveSendGo campaign the community can donate to instead. Or, with the school’s permission, start a campaign to collect donations in your community for a current school fundraiser. If there’s a college or university in your community, there’s almost always a need for fundraising whether it’s for students studying abroad or going on an educational trip, a better volleyball net, or their annual booster banquet. Call around and see what you can start a campaign on GiveSendGo for.
Community Project and Events
Has your community recently announced they want to repair a bridge, build a new library, or they’re hosting a community-wide event? Sometimes the city has enough money for its projects and other times they ask for donations from the community to make their project happen. See if they’ll allow you to start a fundraiser on GiveSendGo to streamline the donation process and make it easily shareable on their social media pages.But not every community project is led by or thought of by the city. Maybe it’s something you personally want to do or need to do to improve and support your community.
Here at GiveSendGo, we’ve seen it all! Right now there are people on our site raising money to build a shooting range in their town, purchase a vehicle to start a local taxi service, support a struggling farm, buy Christmas presents for kids in their community later this year, and even purchase books and supplies for a school classroom.Whether big or small there’s always a need in your community that you can help with!
Who knew crowdfunding could feel so good?
“Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it.” - Proverbs 3:27
Hospital visits, surgeries, ambulance rides, physical therapy, and other health related treatments or resources can all be costly medical expenses. People worldwide live with the burden of paying off these bills all while trying to help their bodies heal. Both are stressful and can take a toll on any individual or family. Some people go without getting medical help at all, even though they might desperately need it, simply because they can’t afford it.
GiveSendGo serves as a resource for anyone who’s looking to raise money to pay off their medical bills or help a loved one with their medical expenses. Money shouldn’t be the determining factor as to whether you receive medical help or not, so here are some fundraising tips to help pay off these expenses easier.
1. GiveSendGo Campaign
You never know when a medical emergency, surgery, or illness may happen. With the right treatments and medicines you can work on getting better, but it typically costs a pretty penny to get medical care of any kind. Even planned medical treatments or care can cost a lot of money. This is why GiveSendGo has several families and individuals using our platform to create fundraising campaigns to raise money for their medical expenses, unexpected or not. If you or anyone you know is looking to raise funds for their medical bills, whether immediate or in the future, we encourage you to use our platform as a resource to help you raise that money more effectively!
Just like with any other campaign, it’s important to tell your story and explain your situation on your GiveSendGo campaign page. With this specifically, you want to communicate the details of what you’ll be needing the money for. Explain what the money you’ll be raising will be going towards such as medications, treatments, therapy, wheelchairs, etc. You don’t have to share every detail, especially sensitive details you want to keep private, but it’s important to explain the important things to your potential backers. Additionally, include any details on donating and other ways people can support you, your loved ones, or your family throughout this situation. You should also include specific amounts people can give, so they don’t have to guess what you need, such as $50, $100, $150 - you get the picture!
Once you’ve shared your story, share your campaign as much as you can with your family, friends, social media community, church family, co-workers, and your local community. Share it on your social media sites, send the campaign url through email to relatives and co-workers, and text the campaign url to your closest friends and family. The best way to raise funds to help pay for those costly medical expenses is to spread awareness and get as many people involved as you can, so don’t be shy with that share button!
2. Virtual or In-Person Walkathon or 5K
Virtual 5K’s and walkathons are becoming more and more popular in today’s day and age! With this fundraising method, you can get in some healthy exercise, while raising the money you need, all at the same time!
Now, if you’re in the hospital or have been advised not to walk, run, or take part in any exercise of this kind then this method probably isn’t for you to also be participating in. However, if you are able to move around in this capacity, or you’re a loved one fundraising one someone else’s behalf, then start inviting friends, family, co-workers, church family, and even your community to walk or run with you in a virtual or in-person 5K or walkathon! Due to the flexibility of this fundraising method, even if you aren’t able to be there in person due to your health, this event allows people to run or walk on your behalf.
All this method takes, whether it’s in person or virtual, is for people to pledge certain amounts of money based on how far they run or walk. That walking or running course can either be preplanned by you or a loved one in-person, or if it’s a virtual event, it can be a course mapped out by the runner or walker in their area. Whatever each person decides to pledge, based on the distance they ran or walked, they can donate directly to your GiveSendGo campaign page!
3. Used Book Sale
A used book sale is a wonderful way to get your community involved in your fundraising! Ask your friends, family, co-workers, church family, and community to donate any books they’re wanting to get rid of to your cause. You can also reach out to your local library and see if there’s any books they’re wanting to discard or are selling for a low price. They may even just donate them to you! It’s also worthwhile to stop by any local thrift stores to pick up cheap books they’re selling for a low price. (Many places like this will sell you a bundle of books for only a couple of dollars).
Once you’ve spent some time collecting as many books as possible, you can set up a book sale (much like a garage sale) and invite everyone you know (as well as those in your community) to come buy books at your book sale! You’ll be surprised how many books you can sell, especially at a fraction of the cost most book stores would sell them for. Whatever money you raise can then go directly towards your medical expenses!
4. Writing Letters
Writing fundraising letters is a great way to let people know what your situation is and ask for support. It’s such a popular method, it’s used to raise money for all sorts of causes.
Start by collecting the addresses of family, friends, church members, co-workers, and more. Then, write a letter explaining your, or your loved one’s, medical situation and your fundraising needs. If you or your loved one needs money for surgery expenses, ambulance rides, crutches, a wheelchair, rehab, etc. communicate that in the letter. People are more apt to help if they know what they’re helping with, so be sure to include all the details they’ll need to know. Also share specific amounts people can donate such as $50, $100, $200, etc. People don’t like guessing how much they should donate, so adding those specific amounts (as well as mentioning what your end monetary goal is) will be helpful to them.
You can also include the link to your GiveSendGo campaign, so they can give directly to you online! We live in a time where people are more prone to giving online rather than through cash or check, so this is a great way to include another donation option.
Lastly, if you want to go the extra mile, include another stamped envelope with the already sealed letter, so it’s easy for them to put their money in the new envelope and send it off as quickly as possible. The more convenient you make it for people, the more donations you’re likely to receive!
5. Potluck Dinner
Who doesn’t love a good potluck? Churches especially will find any excuse to hold a potluck, so why not ask your local church if they’d be willing to host a potluck dinner as a fundraiser for you? Members of the church will already be invited, as well as any of your friends and family. You now have an opportunity to personally explain your situation and ask for donations. (This is also a great time to implement some of the other, smaller, fundraising methods mentioned throughout this article). Church families love to swoop in and support those they know, so this method is a great way to make your needs known and enjoy a meal with people you care about!
6. Collect Change
If you’re like me, you have change lying around your house, your car, probably in your dryer, and somewhere in your purse or wallet. Most of the time this change just floats around and gets lost, so why not ask your friends, family, community, and church family to collect all their loose change and donate it towards your medical expenses?
Better yet, if you know people who want to donate their extra change, give them a container they can collect their money in. As an added personal touch, add a custom title or hashtag representing your situation on the container. Then, let everyone know what their deadline is (the day you’ll be collecting their change) and allow people to save up their money until that date. Pocket change may not seem like a lot, but once you add it all together you’ll be surprised by just how much money you can raise to cover medical expenses with this method! And, it’s so easy due to its minimal planning or resources!
7. Host a Game Night
Game nights, similar to trivia nights, are highly effective! Invite your family, friends, community, co-workers, and church family to your event. Be sure to communicate to those thinking of attending that your event is a fundraiser to pay for you, or a loved one’s, medical expenses. Then, charge a set amount per table or per person. This allows people to come as a group or for people to attend and play games at any table. Whatever works best with your game night event!
All you really need for this event are a variety of board games and maybe some snacks and drinks for people to enjoy while they play (which you can also charge money for). Games like chess, UNO, Clue, checkers, Monopoly, Sorry, dominoes, LIFE, and Phase 10 are all great games to include at your event, but you can really bring whatever games you think those in attendance will enjoy playing!
Also, make sure to secure your event space ahead of time. If you’re a member of a local church, ask if you can use one of their buildings to host your event. You may even get to use it for free!
8. Envelope Fundraiser
This fundraising method can be easily implemented into any fundraising event you may be hosting or you can do it completely on its own! It’s also affordable and incredibly low maintenance. Buy a pack of envelopes at your local store, label them 1-100 or 1-150 (you get the idea) and hang them up on a cardboard presentation board or on a corkboard.
Then, let your backers choose an envelope and insert the cash corresponding to that number directly in the envelope. Now cross out that envelope’s number to show the remaining amounts left to donate to. You can also simply keep the envelopes in a box and carry it around with you. With this method you can easily raise more than you spend, so have fun with it!
9. Read-a-Thon
If you love reading or know people who do, this fundraising method may be for you! Encourage your friends, family, co-workers, community, and church family to read as much as they can in one month, or to pledge money for the amount of books or pages each participant reads. Whatever part people play in this challenge, they’ll be helping to support you! You can set goals such as pledging $50 for five books read, or $100 for 3,000 pages read.
This method can be pretty flexible as you get to choose the goals and amounts people can donate. Then, ask people to donate their amounts straight to your GiveSendGo campaign page when those reading goals are met. This not only gets people’s minds active, but encourages participation from children and families! You can even offer the person who reads the most books or pages a prize at the end of the challenge!
