CrowdRise

Our grassroots nonprofit has been a big fan and a regular user of CrowdRise for 6 years. We participate in their annual fundraising challenges, plus we set up fundraisers throughout the year for specific needs, and our online donations go though CrowdRise.

The best thing about CrowdRise is the hands-on help. Ask a question, and they're on it. Have a problem with set-up? They'll walk you through it. Feedback is immediate and enthusiastic. They want you to meet your goal, and they have lots of great tips for making that happen.

Some reviewers complain about the fees. If you really want big expenses for raising money, try hiring a good development director! We can't do that, and neither can a lot of small, "impactful" nonprofits. CrowdRise is a bargain.

We'll stay with this fantastic group of can-do people. Fundraising can be a drag, especially if you don't have a clue about how to get started or how to follow through. It's a lot of work for your organization, and you do have to invest time and energy - but CrowdRise makes it fun as well as successful.

From the start I had nothing but grief trying to set up my fundraiser for a personal/individual reason. I only did one for myself as faced with needing legal help after domestic abuse and a liar/cheater/ fraud has financially crippled me and my sons. I turned to Crowdrise to help, but they actually made matters worse. My fundraiser had a raffle with it of something worth a lot of money. An Ali signed glove, so that if I raised the$5000 I was needing, I would raffle it to anyone who paid in increments of $20 getting more of their name in the raffle. I felt better that way in asking for money from my friends and family. It was hard enough to need this fundraiser and publicly do it on my Facebook post it anyway. They approved my Fundraiser and it seemed to get off after having trouble setting up
My bank account, which worried me that several times my personal info was submitted, and needed to be at least 3 times. Before it went through! Then once started, and I had thanked several donors/ friends... it all disappeared as showing no money donated, yet there should have bed. $250. Then a rep tells me. Ohhhh well "we pay" doesn't allow a raffle! Whaaaattt? You approved my fundraiser seeing I was having a raffle... Had to tell all my friends that their donations then did not go through as Crowdrise had said they did, why I sent them thank you's in the first place...

First of all. The site is awesome. I friend of mine needed surgery and couldn't work. The community all chipped in via CrowdRise and sent her money to help her through her problems. It was easy to use, easy to understand it helped my friend.

However, here is the other thing.

I forgot to check the box that says to show that I donated but to hide the amount. (Hey, I was helping a friend not running for office. I don't need brag!). The information went live. I emailed support and within minutes this awesome customer service rep named Quintas replied to my support request. Not a bot. Not some snotty nosed brat in customer service, but a real life human being who solved my problem and then had the incredible decency to say thank you.

Just the fact that Quintas was so cool was enough to bring me back to CrowdRise again and again. I know that this sounds fake and or staged but it's not. I'm just really impressed.

I hope that CrowdRise gives Quintas a raise, a promotion and that somebody takes this incredible customer service rep out to lunch and drinks!

This fundraising strategy has helped us reach new philanthropic people and organizations which has helped diversify the way we run our annual fundraising campaign.

My first fundraiser I have ever participated with CrowdRise. I work in retail, so I understand how important it is to give 100% or more great Customer Service. During my multiple questions to CrowdRise Chat, Latika and Melie (Sorry Melie if I misspelled your name) have been great and use real time chat without delay.

Great Job Latika and Melie

I was shocked to see not only a 6% but also a 2.9% and a per transaction fee for all GivingTuesday donations.

Save your charity some money and give to them directly! This is WAY TOO HIGH!

I just discovered that not only do they charge the donor a 10% transaction fee, they charge the charity another 15% transaction fee, so they take a total of 25% which is excessive.

They charged me $45 to make a $500 donation to a Children's Hospital. Absolutely disgusting. They should be investigated and have their tax standing pulled. Absolutely disgusting.

I needed to raise funds so that my soulmate could have my kidney. After researching many fundrasing options I settled on Crowdrise, even though it isn't as well known as some other similar organizations. The lack of familiarity with it concerned me a bit, because I worried that people would not trust it for accepting their donations.

However, I definitely made a great choice! I had zero problems and while they're was a teensy bit of confusion ("What is Crowdrise? Why aren't you doing a GoFundMe?"), there were no hesitations when people wanted to help us and everyone find out very easy to use.

I loved the platform and its ease of use and I appreciated all the options for customizing our page. Not only do they include useful tips all along the way, they even make it really simple to send personalised thank-yous to each donor.

I really enjoyed the humorous style of Crowdrise communications. It made a stressful situation feel lighter and it motivated me.

I also appreciated how fair, simple, and straightforward their pricing is. And, to make the whole thing even more valuable, they have extremely helpful advice available.

Crowdrise was everything I hoped it would be and then some!

Crowdrise has replaced decency (and common sense) with cutesy responses and an uber-friendly approach that is still b. S. What they are doing (and I can't understand the legality of this) is NOT telling you the exact fee you will be charged when you submit a donation. Instead, they feed on your general good intentions by asking if you'd like 100% of your donation to go where you want but then DON'T tell you what your actual bill will be. Slimy! When you ask about the fees, they give a pat answer about all platforms having fees and this great option they're giving you to have 100% go where you want, etc. But notice, they still don't explain WHY they didn't tell what the fee would be upfront, WHY the fees are so high and exactly WHERE each amount of your fee went. They just don't do that. Hmmm. Wonder why. They are very for profit. That's all fine if they're upfront about it, but they're not. Ultimately I'm sure they do good by helping get money out where it's needed (which is why I didn't give them a 1 star), but their tactics are see-through slimy, their fees purely for profit, and I'm really surprised so many people are just so okay with that tactic. REVEAL YOUR FEES AHEAD OF TIME, CROWDRISE! Simple.

My first time using CrowdRise was for a fundraiser I was competing in for Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida. Throughout the fundraiser I had a couple of questions and some information change requests.

To get the negative out there first and wash it away with the positive, I will say that I didn't like receiving an email stating that CrowdRise "Stands with Bruce" regarding the North Carolina law for Religious Freedom. I know this is a corporate decision and not the decision of the awesome representative whom I will write about next, but when a company supports one side, they also oppose another side, and that gave me a negative view of CrowdRise as a company.

Now as an individual working for CrowdRise: Each time I contacted CrowdRise I usually received a response from Wes. My issue was solved immediately and effectively. Whether it be through email or the Live Chat option, things were taken care of right away. Even up until the last crucial minutes of the fundraiser where I asked about a company match option and received the information immediately on how to do it so I could get those funds on my account before the fundraiser closed! That was vital! So thank you to Wes for the quick assistance and all the information I needed to be successful!

A $250 donation to a non-profit with a $25 fee to CrowdRise? I thought $3 to the ATM to get my cash was bad. Hope this isn't just going to increased CEO pay.

WWW.CROWDRISE.COM/JAKE AUSTIN IS WRONGFULLY CLAIMING TO BE AFFILIATED WITH THE NATL FOUNDATION FOR ABUSED AND NEGLECTED CHILDREN. CROWDRISE IS IN NO WAY AFFILIATED WITH THE NATL FOUNDATION FOR ABUSED AND NEGLECTED CHILDREN. CROWDRISE HAS NEVER GIVEN ANY DONATIONS TO THE NATL FOUNDATION FOR ABUSED AND NEGLECTED CHILDREN NOR HAVE THEY BEEN EVER ASKED TO DO SO. THE FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION HAS BEEN NOTIFIED OF WWW.CROWDRISE.COM/JAKE AUSTIN. SHOULD ANYONE WISH TO GIVE DIRECTLY TO THE NATIONAL FOUNDATION FOR ABUSED AND NEGLECTED CHILDREN, GO TO THEIR WEBSITE WWW.GANGFREEKIDS.ORG FOR THE ADDRESS TO WHERE DONATIONS SHOULD BE SENT. THE NATIONAL FOUNDATION FOR ABUSED AND NEGLECTED CHILDREN HAS BEEN HELPING ABUSED CHILDREN FOR OVER TWENTY YEARS.

The fees associated with this organization made me not want to contribute. I did this one time but will not do it again. Shameful!

I have shopped soo many event/ fundraising platforms it feels like my actual job. Cowdrise turned out to be my fave bc outside of having the best all inclusive and descriptive name the service is the best for the fee scale. I've created two fundraisers and one event and though the event/registration fundraiser was little more difficult, the expedient service by Crowdrise made all the difference. Kelly L is off the charts with response time and turnaround time for edits/modifications! First they set up my event/registration just a few hours after our call and then post testing for the reg, a number of modifications were requested. Kelly, who I thought was only supposed to help set up our registration has been a main point of contact and replies to inquiries at lightning speed. Even after "business hours" good for me, but it makes me wonder how much they're all working over there. I felt like my event/fundraiser was one of only a few and even the only at times that Kelly was working on, but realistically I'm sure she's probably working on hundreds or possibly even more. Thanks so much Kelly L and crowdrise for keeping it simple and being the 1st supporters of any fundraiser. Love ya

Update 8. 30. 16
My fundraising event is over and during initial set-up I thought donor fees would be 3-5%. It wasn't until after that I learned they were being charged 10% from a donor who ended up making a donation offline. I realized that if we had chosen to cover the fees, we would not have covered more than the 5%, however i'm not sure it would have inspired people to donate more. Reconciling fees and donations was a bit confusing but the customer service was still amazing a helping clarify things and considering all the support provided from start to end and the platform i think they earned what we paid in fees, plus our donors. We raised enough money where we can look and likely purchase a our own CRM for future events, so it worked out as a starting platform.

Crowdrise: Social Networking Site For Fund Raising & Advocacy

Somewhere in us all exists a desire to push advocacy and help those in need. Crowdrise was created to help people wanting to help other people. It is a "charity- social-networking" website that lets users send donations online for various fund-raising activities and advocacy... or create his/her own advocacy program.

Once you sign up for a Crowdwise account, you can either start a fund-raising campaign, volunteer for a project, or get sponsors for your volunteer projects. You can choose whether you just want to donate money or be part of the volunteering team. You can also set up as many fund raising campaigns and volunteer projects that you want.

There is, however, a transaction fee once you donate to the project or charity you set up. Crowdrise deducts 5% on donations made through their site and a $1 transaction fee for donations under $25 or a $2.50 transaction fee for donations $25 and above. That rather sucks, but the web-site is a business and charges a fee to organize.

Crowdrise not only aims to help volunteers and fundraisers but is also a fun way for people who share the same passion of helping people in need to bond, interact, share stories, share visions, and be friends with.

Features:

* Easy search engine for the charities or foundations you may want to be part of.
* Users can win amazing prizes as long as they incur many points.
* Donations are secured since the Crowdrise uses Amazon Payments.
* Easy user-interface; adding friends, uploading photos and videos are easy.
* Transaction fee applies.
* Share your project.
* Team fund-raising esprit de-corps!

Good luck,

Ron.

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

Crowdrise is the BEST online fundraising site there is. The staff is always so helpful and kind. They put the FUN into fundraising.

Crowdrise is absolutely, 100% the antithesis of transparent. The site obfuscates its FAQs and its guarantee.
I had to actually go to a donation page and make a donation to see how it really worked because the descriptions are not transparent.
If a donor wants to donate $100, the final donation page boosts it to $109.10. The recipient can edit that amount back down to $100. But apparently, the donor usually ends up donating the $109.10. So the recipient gets $100, and Crowdrise gets $9.10. But the donor actually gave $109.10. That means the fee is 8.34% ($9.10 out of $109.10).
But Crowdrise doesn't count that extra $9.10 in its calculations. So it claims this:
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CROWDRISE'S MISLEADING CLAIM
CrowdRise fees are super simple and lower than any other crowdfunding website around. $97 out of every $100 goes directly to your cause. Guaranteed. And, most fundraisers are getting up to $99 out of every $100. Pretty amazing.

If you're raising money for a cause, CrowdRise will guarantee 3% pricing (includes credit card fees). That means you keep at least $97 of every $100 you raise. For real. Nearly every other fundraising site will charge you at least 8%. Plus, there are no fundraising goal or deadline requirements so you keep what you raise.
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It is blatantly misleading to say the recipient gets 100% of the donations even if everyone increases their donations to cover their costs because the extra they give is part of their donation; you can't exclude the $9.10 as part of the donation in order to claim that 100% goes to the recipient.
This is my first time raising funds for someone. I would never use Crowdrise. I would never recommend it to anyone, and I would tell anyone who is using it to stop immediately.
If this type of marketing is not illegal in the United States, I would encourage people in other countries to sue Crowdrise.

Why would I have to give Crowdrise $109.10 to deliver $100 to the charity?

This company is all about giving back which is what is most important

These folks reply like your best friend in a good mood :)

Why do they discriminate in allowing some people to set up donation funds and don't allow others?