Best fundraising platforms
We’ve created a Top 10 of the best fundraising platforms for different causes to streamline your sponsorship – whether you’re on a one-woman mission, or there is a team of you rising to the charity challenge, here are the sites that will help you reach your target.GoFundme
GoFundme is a great option if you’re raising funds for any UK charity, regardless of size. As long as they are registered with the Charity Commission you can raise money for them through GoFundme and the funds are passed automatically to the charity (without the charity having to pay a processing fee). Also, unlike many fundraising sites, GoFundMe gives 100% of Gift Aid directly to the charity you’re raising money for.
Golden Giving
Golden Giving is a not-for-profit fundraising site for both registered and non-registered charities that can sign up for free (admin fees per donation do apply however). Great for Parent Teacher Associations, small community projects or social organisations. You can create individual pages for solo challenges, or team pages for group efforts.
Givey
Givey is a great fundraising platform for small UK charities with a focus on social giving. It allows supporters to donate to via social media channels and businesses can run match-funding schemes, too. This means that if an employee raises money for a charity, their employer can match their total up to double the amount raised. They offer great marketing support for charities too; a great option if you are looking to make a noise for your cause online.
Wonderful
Wonderful is as good as it sounds; there are no membership, subscription or admin charges to pay. It is just 100% profit for the charity you are raising funds for. The sites’ processing fees are all met by the Wonder Organisation’s philanthropic corporate sponsors. There is a small but wide range of charities registered that you can raise money for, from children’s charities to animal shelters and international aid foundations.
JustGiving
JustGiving was one of the first online fundraising platforms, having collected over £4 billion for charities since its launch in 2001. There are 25,788 charities registered and the site offers lots of support and toolkits to get you started, plus inspiring ideas for fundraising challenges.
Virgin Money Giving
Virgin Money Giving, as the name might suggest, is the online fundraising site from Virgin Money. It’s a not-for-profit site, borne out of the company’s sponsorship of the London Marathon. But you don’t have to run 26 miles to use the site – there are 11,000 charities registered and the Fundraising Hub is a great edit of useful tips and advice, from marathon training tips, to the best apps to help boost your fundraising message.
Everydayhero
Everydayhero is great if you’re taking on a sports challenge for charity – it partners with MapMyFitness and Strava so you can keep sponsors up to date with your training progress. The website also has a global outlook – focusing on social and educational fundraising in developing countries too. Their blog, ‘Wonderwall’ is full of first-hand experiences that are guaranteed to make you ‘think big’ when it comes to your next fundraising adventure.
Everyclick
Everyclick allows you to raise funds for any charity, regardless of whether they are registered or not and they simply contact them as soon as your funds are ready to donate. What’s more, their clever ‘Give as your Live’ portal allows you to generate money for your chosen charity simply using their search engine to browse the web – yep, you raise funds simply by surfing the internet via their search engine. What could be easier?
PayPal Giving Fund
Paypal Giving Fund allows you to raise money for charity through eBay sales, or Paypal usage. You can donate a proportion or all of your profits from your eBay store (a great digital option to boost traditional charity goods sales), whilst also allowing the usual one-off donations through the site.
CAF Donate
Using a charity to donate to charity makes sense – plus one with 90 years’ experience in the field, you know your fundraising is in good hands. If you’re looking for the tools to create online donation forms and buttons that can easily be added to your own website, emails and Facebook pages – the CAF Donate site (Charity Aid Foundation), could be just the ticket.
NOTE: Remember, always look at the individual processing fees and overall percentage that your chosen charity will receive when collecting fundraising through a site. These can vary and will affect how much of your total sponsorship end up going towards funding your worthy cause.
By Lydia Mansi
May 2019
READ MORE:
Give As You Live
Interview with Rob Solomon, CEO of GoFundMe
Interview with Jon Douglas, Director of Biz Dev at charity fund raiser, Givergy
