Best Fundraising Platforms (We actually tried them!)

Choosing a fundraising platform can be intimidating, especially with the sheer volume of options out there. To save you some time, there is no clear and obvious winner, however, there are fundraising platforms that are better for different priorities, and not all are optimized for nonprofit organizations, so this guide will help you make an informed decision that best meets your needs.

In this blog, we will be covering our favorite options out of the ones our team of fundraising professionals have actually tried, plus listing the pros and cons, so that you can make the best decision for your organization and specific needs, desired features, and pricing.

We should start by saying that we have no personal or professional affiliation with any of these fundraising platforms, and will be presenting the information as unbiased as we can. We noticed when searching the web to see what others recommend, most people blogging about the best platforms recommend...themselves. Donorbox, Kindful, and Jotform for example, have written several articles that say "here are the top 10 or the top 15 fundraising platforms, oh and number 1 is us." Whether that is true or not, it is biased and not helpful for nonprofits trying to select the best fundraising platform.

Without further ado, here are the best fundraising platforms for nonprofits in no particular order, so feel free to browse and select based on features/price.

*One additional note, there are other websites and platforms that have built in fundraising tools that work decently well (Facebook, PayPal, YouTube, Shopify, Squarespace, etc.) but we are trying to focus on exclusive platforms for fundraising in this blog.

GoFundMe

Pros: One of the best options for peer to peer fundraising specifically, easy to share your page on social media/emails/etc., great for specific campaigns that are shorter, simple to use after it's set up

Cons: Platform is a little tricky to set up, less customization (GoFundMe branded everywhere), less website integration which makes it feel like an outside platform instead of your brand

Pricing: Starts at 1.9% processing fee plus 20 cents per transaction for the free version, 2.9% for advanced features

Indeigogo

Pros: One of my favorites (have had a couple really successful projects funded personally), and it lets you keep fundraising past the goal and deadline, and you can also raise the goal/offer perks for higher donations. There are also two versions: fixed - the goal has to be met or everyone gets a refund, and flexible - you keep the money regardless

Cons: Expensive, Long lag on payout so they can process refunds

Pricing: 5% plus 3% payment processing and $0.30 per transaction

Donately

Pros: Cheap, easy to use, fairly basic, donation form website integration was great, set up is really fast, known for great customer service

Cons: Bad donor management integration, not customizable, cumbersome tracking process

Pricing: $49/mo for the main plan plus a 2% platform fee, can also do the free plan for $0/mo but a 4% platform fee

Patreon

Pros: Excellent for behind a paywall content, monthly donations, membership, really easy to use, great integration with Discord and Zapier, popular in the content creator crowd

Cons: Not campaign based, more ongoing, not great website integration, has to run on its own platform, doesn't feel like a fundraising website, more of a membership deal, also fairly pricy

Pricing: 8% fee plus a 2.9% payment processing fee

Fundly

Pros: Fantastic donor tracking system with great integration for CRMs, easy to set up the basic version, one of the most versatile platforms on the market by far, feels like a true fundraising platform on their page and yours, social integration is clean

Cons: Because of the more complex donor reporting system, there is a learning curve, not super intuitive, also the fees are higher than average for sure

Pricing: 4.9% from every donation, plus a 2.9% processing fee and $0.30 per transaction

OneCause

Pros: Great for events specifically, great professional clean look once its set up, different donation options all in one place for the donors, online auction with ticket sales options as well - not many other platforms do this well at all

Cons: Not intuitive to set up or use, takes a bit to learn, expensive, not as customizable in terms of setup as some of the others

Pricing: This one is all over the place based on the scope, but you can expect several thousand dollars in up front fees plus a 3% transaction fee for every donation on average

Kickstarter

Pros: Large pool of donors on the platform already, so in all likelihood, their own search features will get you donations based on your cause, features list is long, brand has been around for awhile so it's a powerful site with great customer service and a proven track record

Cons: Cause saturation - so many people use it, which makes it easy to get lost in the mix. You also have to meet your fundraising goal or you do not get any of the donations (everyone just gets a refund), there are also some limitations on the type of things you can raise money for, so it may be too niche

Pricing: 5% of the money raised plus 3% and $0.20 per transaction, however pledges under $10 are only $0.05 and no percentage per transaction

Mightycause

Pros: Great peer-to-peer platform with personalization on pages. Customizable pages for each person who works as a connector asking for donations, known for great customer service, easy to use for the donor once set up, costs are very low compared to most of the market, great CRM integration

Cons: Tricky to set up and use in the beginning, a bit of a learning curve, not the cleanest or easiest platform integration, difficult to track the data on the back end without other software integrated

Pricing: $59/mo or $99/mo for advanced features plus 0.74% + $0.29 per transaction

There are certainly more options out there than those on our list, but from the fundraising platforms we have tried or our clients have used, that is the list of the best ones.

Have more questions about which option may be best for you? Reach out to us! We'd love to hear more about your mission and how we might be able to help you fund it!