10 of the Best Fundraising Platforms

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.

Classy

This 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. 

Who is it for?

Classy is designed to serve nonprofit organizations.

Highlights

• Classy offers donors a self-serve dashboard, branded with your organization’s logo and colors, that makes it easy for them to adjust recurring giving and update payment details. It also automatically generates end-of-year giving statements for you.
• Classy integrates with a number of common fundraising tools like CRMs, email marketing tools, and data and analytics platforms, so that you can streamline your campaigns and find efficiencies.

Price

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

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.

Who is it for?

Donately can be used by nonprofits and individuals to fundraise.

Highlights

• A modern dashboard makes it easy to track recurring gifts, send out emails, and manage donors. 
• Integrations with other platforms like Facebook, Google Analytics, and Hubspot make it simple to create cross-functional campaigns.

Price

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

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.

Who is it for?

DonorBox primarily serves nonprofit organizations.

Highlights

• DonorBox’s donor portal allows donors to manage giving, give with one click, and download and print receipts.
• Donor management tools help you keep track of donor information so that you can gain insights into who gives to which initiatives and when. DonorBox’s donor management feature can help you with all-important donor retention.

Price

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

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.

Who is it for?

Double the Donation is designed for larger nonprofits and schools to use to maximize the impact of their donations.

Highlights

• Double the Donation integrates seamlessly with many other fundraising and nonprofit softwares in order to make it as easy as possible for donors to check if there’s a match they can take advantage of.

Price

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 

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

Who is it for?

Fundly can help both nonprofits and individuals raise funds.

Highlights

• Fundy makes it easy to import your photos, videos, and other assets so you can turn them into a compelling fundraising story that can be shared.
• This platform makes sure that your fundraising page is optimized for mobile, tablet, and desktop, to help you reach people where they’re at.
• With integrated Facebook technology, you can reach more people, show your progress in real time, and broadcast your cause’s message.

Price

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

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.

Who is it for?

FundRazr offers its suite of fundraising tools to organizations (including schools, clubs, and movements) as well as individuals.

Highlights

• FundRazr’s ability to offer donors perks with their rewards system can help you raise more by offering cool merchandise or other prizes and thank you gifts.
• Its peer-to-peer feature allows you to enroll individuals or teams and celebrate high performers in real time with leaderboards.

Price

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

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. 

Who is it for?

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.

Highlights

• GoFundMe makes it easy to fundraise on behalf of others, be they family, friends, or charities.
• With a team of trust and security experts, GoFundMe is one of the most trusted donation platforms worldwide.

Price

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

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.

Who is it for?

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.

Highlights

• IndieGoGo’s incentivized perks system helps attract donors.
• This platform is public and can help put your cause or project in front of a lot of eyes, with a progress bar so everyone can see how close you are to your goal.

Price

IndieGoGo charges a 5% platform fee as well as processing fees of 3% + $0.30 per transaction.

Kickstarter

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.

Who is it for?

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.

Highlights

• Stretch goals can help motivate donors to give beyond your main fundraising goal.
• You can skip grant applications and other traditional fundraising methods when you crowdfund. Even better, Kickstarter offers Forward Funds, a program where eligible projects can apply for funds from nonprofits, foundations, and mission-based organizations.

Price

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

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.

Who is it for?

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.

Highlights

• OneCause makes it easy to organize runs, walks, rides, awareness days, and even memorial and tribute fundraising events.
• Personal Fundraising pages help you leverage the passionate donors and volunteers in your network. Under your organization’s fundraising umbrella, individual supporters can launch their own page to boost your cause.

Price

OneCause is a subscription-based platform that starts at $495.

Final Thoughts

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.