DOWNLOAD The Auction Profit Blueprint
The 4 tools BIG organizations use every time to skyrocket auction profits!
The Step-By-Step Guide to stop leaving thousands on the table.
There are lots of fundraising platforms out there, some that specialize in certain types of fundraisers, or in helping a particular type of organization. It can be confusing to figure them all out if you’re new to the topic.
We’ve pulled together a list of 10 of the best fundraising platforms out there for general use. Meaning, these sites cover the widest range of needs. It isn’t a comprehensive list, because there are hundreds of fundraising platforms out there, but these are highly regarded and are powerful fundraising tools.
Find the option that best suits your needs, whether it’s crowdfunding for individuals or peer-to-peer solutions for your nonprofit organization. Below we’ve listed these top fundraising platforms in alphabetical order.
Comparing auction platforms? Take a look at how we stack up against OneCause, Givebutter, Galabid, BiddingforGood (Frontstream Panorama), and Charitybuzz, as well as seven other platforms.
Table of Contents
ToggleThis fundraising platform makes it simple to tackle multiple fundraising avenues. You can make direct appeals, organize fundraiser events and ticketing, leverage peer-to-peer fundraising, and manage recurring donations.
Classy is designed to serve nonprofit organizations.
Classy starts at $299 per month. Though this is higher than other virtual fundraising platforms, the scalability of its services makes it a powerful tool for those who can make the most of it.
Donately offers online fundraising forms, custom fundraising pages, peer-to-peer fundraising, text-2-give and more. Classy can help everyone from schools and churches to individuals and even influencers raise money for their causes. Flexible pricing and scalable tools means this fundraiser platform can be used by organizations both large and small.
Donately can be used by nonprofits and individuals to fundraise.
Donately’s plans start at “Free” with a 4% platform fee. As your fundraising campaigns grow, you can scale up to the $15/month + 3.5% platform fee or $49/month +2% platform fee plans.
DonorBox is a great fundraising platform for running events and creating donation forms and pages, as well as peer-to-peer and crowdfunding campaigns. With nonprofit membership programs, a live kiosk option, and donor portals, DonorBox can be a one stop shop for nonprofits’ fundraising initiatives.
DonorBox primarily serves nonprofit organizations.
DonorBox starts at $0 per month and a platform fee of 1.75%-2.95% depending on which solutions you wish to use (event management and peer-to-peer tools are only available at 2.95%, for example). DonorBox’s other plans include the Pro Plan at $139 per month with a 1.5% platform fee, and the Premium Plan with customizable pricing depending on your needs and a 1.5% platform fee. All three of DonorBox’s pricing tiers also include payment processing fees.
Double the Donation is a donation matching service that claims that its 360MatchPro tool can help organizations increase gift-matching by as much as 50% year over year. Automating gift matching request emails and making it as simple as possible for donors to fill out match forms.
Double the Donation posits that most donors don’t know their employers might match their donations. Their fundraiser platform can connect the dots between your donors and their match opportunities, so that you can make the most of each donation.
Double the Donation is designed for larger nonprofits and schools to use to maximize the impact of their donations.
Double the Donation starts at $199 per year, a tier best for nonprofits with less than 1,000 donors that will allow you to host a donation page on their site. To embed their plugin you’ll need the $399 per year plan, and $1,999 for API access.
Fundly helps both individuals and nonprofits to raise funds. This fundraising platform makes crowdfunding simple, with tools designed to look and work great on both mobile and desktop. You can create a great-looking, branded fundraising page to share out to potential donors
Fundly can help both nonprofits and individuals raise funds.
Fundly relies mostly on donations to cover its operating expenses, charging only 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction for credit card processing for Stripe.
FundRazr is a platform designed to help anyone create a fundraising page, host an event or peer-to-peer initiative, or even run a fundraiser with wishlists and rewards for donors. FundRazer offers dynamic and easy-to-use fundraising pages that can be shared out as well as the ability to host walk-a-thons or pledge drives. Their wishlist and rewards features can help your organization get exactly what it needs and keep donors engaged.
FundRazr offers its suite of fundraising tools to organizations (including schools, clubs, and movements) as well as individuals.
FundRazr offers their services for free with 2.9% + $0.30 processing fees for Stripe and PayPal, as well as optional tipping from donors. If you want to turn off the optional tip, FundRazer offers the option to pay a 5% platform fee (as well as the same processing fees) instead.
GoFundMe is one of the best known top fundraising platforms out there. It allows users to set up a simple fundraising page that’s easy to share out. You can keep donors apprised of developments in your efforts or situation, as well as offer rewards for certain giving tiers. This platform sticks to a relatively narrow field of services and tools but its power has helped raise more than $9 billion since its start in 2010.
GoFundMe can be used by individuals, small groups or clubs, businesses, and nonprofit organizations. This platform tends to be used to provide financial assistance during or in the aftermath of emergencies, but is just as useful at funding school club trips or other, lighter, events.
GoFundMe asks donors for optional tips to help cover its operating costs, but businesses, organizations, and individuals fundraising on their site only pay 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction.
IndieGoGO is a crowdfunding platform that helps fundraisers offer incentives to donors as opposed to stakes in their venture. This platform makes it easy to create tiers of incentives to entice donors to give to your cause or initiative. These perks help get the attention of people who want to support projects or get in on the ground floor of a great idea.
While IndieGoGo was primarily designed to help creators and entrepreneurs fund their projects (books, plays, gadgets, and inventions), it has also been used to crowdfund charitable initiatives.
IndieGoGo charges a 5% platform fee as well as processing fees of 3% + $0.30 per transaction.
Kickstarter is a public benefit corporation (a for-profit corporation that is committed to more than just profit) that helps people, businesses, and organizations fundraise on a deadline. If a project is not funded by its deadline, no funds are collected from donors. This all or nothing approach can be intimidating, but powerful.
Kickstarter is primarily designed to help fund creative projects, as opposed to causes. However, nonprofit organizations can still benefit from this fundraising platform. For example, the Smithsonian launched a Kickstarter campaign to conserve the ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz (1939) and reached a stretch goal to conserve the Scarecrow costume as well.
Kickstarter charges a 5% platform fee with processing fees that vary from 3% + $0.20 to 5% + $0.05 per pledge (this is dependent on the pledge amount, with pledges under $10 receiving the latter, discounted, price).
OneCause offers event fundraising features as well as mobile campaigns, fundraising pages, and peer-to-peer solutions. With text-2-give solutions, donation forms, and personal fundraising pages, OneCause offers a versatile suite of tools.
OneCause is primarily built to help organizations raise funds. As a subscription service, it is best suited to organizations looking to raise funds every year than one-off events or one-time funds.
OneCause is a subscription-based platform that starts at $495.
CharityAuctionsToday has nearly 20 years of experience helping nonprofits and charities to raise more with less, expand their reach, and host successful fundraisers year after year. With fundraising auctions, event management, ticket sales, donation features, and raffles, our platform can help make your live, virtual, or hybrid event a success.
We strive to ensure not only that our platform is the easiest to use, but that it offers the fundraising tools that will provide the most value for the organizations we serve. Most importantly, we have people dedicated to helping you reach your goals.
We serve charitable causes and nonprofits that have limited resources. The clubs, service organizations, churches, schools, and small nonprofits that power our communities can use our platform to power their fundraising.
CharityAuctionsToday offers two types of plans designed to offer the most impact for SMB nonprofits. Both plans include processing fees of 3% + $0.30 per transaction.
Read more about Why You Should Choose CharityAuctionsToday
When you start researching virtual fundraising platforms it might feel difficult to narrow down your options. We hope this article will help you identify which features you might want to prioritize as you launch your campaign. Stay tuned for our piece identifying some of the top fundraising sites specifically designed for nonprofits, as well as the best platforms for school fundraising.
And don’t forget to take a look at our exploration of the top charity auction sites, including ours.
DOWNLOAD The Auction Profit Blueprint
The 4 tools BIG organizations use every time to skyrocket auction profits!
The Step-By-Step Guide to stop leaving thousands on the table.