CrowdRiseReviews 101

Selling the dream. Dont buy the BS
In reality, the get started link leads to 2 options: start a fundraiser for a charity or individual. Neither link works right out the gate!
Then check out the privacy policy and actually read it. See if you can spot the redundant paragraphs that conveniently avoid disclosing their practices and policies. Quacks like a sham duck to us. Move on. Youll thank us later that you did.

I volunteer for This Old Horse in Minnesota a new, small non profit and for the second year I have easily surpassed my fundraising goal thanks to Crowdrise! This year when I sent out my birthday note I updated our non profit site and the founder started her own team page and sent my link to more of our volunteers who started their own pages! Thanks to your clear instructions the page is easy to set up and more important, it is so easy for our donors to use and they love seeing our pictures! Thank you Crowdrise for your quirky style that is really helping make a difference!

I committed some money to a very good cause (a child's dangerous heath condition) via this bad service, and paid a most obnoxious fee ($13.00) to make the donation. I had to commit as a matter of honor and duty to my family, but I find this sort of venture reprehensible. I am also struck by the irony, the only amusing aspect of this experience, of Ed Norton and his liberal sorts making a fortune off the group efforts, need, and pain of others with this incredibly capitalistic enterprise.

Transaction Fees on Donations and Pricing Guarantee for Charities. CrowdRise collects a platform fee (based on your plan) along with a credit card processing fee. Donors have the option to cover all the fees (including credit card fees) at checkout, and over 93% of donors do. Right now, over 3,500 charities are on the CrowdRise Guaranteed Pricing and because so many donors choose to cover their fees, they are keeping an average of $98.40 of every $100 raised. Thats by far the lowest pricing in the entire crowdfunding world.
Here's how we make the guaranteed pricing work:
The per transaction platform fee is 5.9% for the Tre ($50/month plan) and 6.8% for the Fiver (free plan) + credit card fees of 2.9%+$0.30
We give all your donors the option to cover those fees.
If all your donors cover the fees, youll have cost-free fundraising. If your donors dont cover the enough of the fees to deliver your guaranteed pricing (3% for Tre plan charities and 5% pricing for Fiver plan charities), we will cut the charity a check for the difference on a quarterly basis.
Note that we exclude individual donations $1,000+, registration fees, and fundraising minimum makeup charges from the guarantee.

Paypal for 501C3 2.2% + $. 30
https://www.paypalobjects.com/webstatic/mktg/Nonprofit/NonProfitFAQ.pdf

The fee structure that they advertise on their site is completely misleading. Everything that Richard has described below is still the case as of today, these fees have not changed as the Quintas representative below suggests and Sara is clearly a plant.

Crowdrise claims that they "guarantee" a 3% or better fee for the use of their platform. However, this is NOT what they ACTUALLY charge. They charge a fee of almost 9% on every single donation transaction. The way they make their claim is that donors can choose to pay for that 9% fee themselves or place it back on the organizer. Of course, many people that are kind enough to donate are willing to pay a little extra so ON AVERAGE the organizer is only left with 3% or less in fees. Someone is still paying the exorbitant 9%.

The worst part for me is that they pretend to be a philanthropic organization. I will forever avoid this website on principle alone for their false advertising and bait and switch approach. I suggest others do the same.

I was having a hard time adding a group to my account fundraiser page. I started the online chat and began working with someone at CrowdRise. They were so fantastic and helped me for over 30 minutes to make sure my accounts were fixed and my friend was added to my group fundraiser. This person seriously went through all possible methods of fixing my problem until it was finally solved.

Huge thank you to CrowdRise and Thank you for your fantastic Chat feature. I have used many and this has been one of my best experiences. It has turned a bad experience into a great one.

We used CrowdRise for the first time during the 2015 #GivingTuesday Challenge. It was a great opportunity to reach our donor base in a short period of time. Your platform is easy to use and your support staff have been wonderfully responsive. In turn, supporters have stepped up to fundraise for us on CrowdRise and help fund activities in the Middle East that resonate with them on a personal level.

— Christopher Kan-Kossowski
Development Associate, CNEWA

My friend and I started a CrowdRise page to help find a cure for her daughters illness. We are not computer savvy and this was our first time at this kind of stuff--and we messed it up big time. Not only on the CrowdRise site but on the WePay site. Falco was able to understand the problem and took the initiative to coordinate with WePay to get things sorted out--all the while maintaining a sense of humor and with a great deal of patience. I would recommend to his boss that he gets some recognition/reward for his commitment to great customer service! Lisa Jones

I've always wanted to raise money for a charity but you hear so many horror stories of charity organizations taking such huge percentages, CEO's with padded accounts, and overall corruption. Crowdrise was none of this and provided so much more than I would have thought. They answered any questions I had quickly and with a friendly tone. Raising awareness for my cause was so easy, they even have thank you prompts to help connect with those who donate. If you are thinking about raising for a cause please consider this website. I will be using CrowdRise every time I set up a chairtable event.

I wanted to say what excellent customer service I received from Quintas via email. I needed to get a receipt right away to a donor. I had no idea how to produce them one, so I went into the FAQs and found Quintas email address. It didn't seem at first if they would be the correct person or not, but I tried it anyway. Within seconds they asked for additional information and low in behold, in less than maybe 2 hours I was able to receive the appropriate receipt for the donor. I was expecting it to maybe take 48-72 hours... I also typically don't do surveys unless someone does an exceptional job or a poor job. But in the emails, you could tell that Quintas just had a pleasant kind attitude about themselves and was ready to assist and deliver exceptional customer service! Thanks Quintas! Keep up the awesome work!

This company suspended a fundraising account for one of our family members with no prior notification. Based upon a complaint from a disgruntled person. It wasnt until we contacted crowdrise customer support twice, that our friends & family wasn't able to make a donation through their site for them to respond. The person who complained admittedly posted on their *******@Citxusa that they were able to get the donations page suspended. Crowdrise definitely has poor business practices & poor customer service..

I wanted to donate money to a non-profit but realized that the site didn't accept PayPal. In today's world, I'd like to avoid disclosing personal details. So I wrote to them and they replied right away. First, they thanked me for contacting them. They told me they were working to incorporate PayPal, and assured me that they have high security standards.

I haven't used them yet, but I always appreciate replies.

BTW, to those people who think they must donate, please READ carefully before you bash the site with a 1-star. You DON'T have to. It says OPTIONAL.