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Many charities just opt for Just Giving or GoFundMe for their charity fundraising platform, but there is an enormous range of online donation platforms, some sites are free with no fees. This simple guide to donation websites, gives you the questions to ask and links to 100+ different fundraising platforms, sorted by category to choose the best fundraising website for your charity
The most important thing in choosing a charity online fundraising platform or donation website is does it pay you back for the time and cost in using it? Do you have the social media reach to drive people to your donation platform, or are there volunteers who will be undertaking challenges to raise donations, or is there are realistic chance that the platform will encourage others to find and support you?
And here are some other things to think about to choose the best donation platform for your charity:
Almost all online donations websites charge fees but sometimes these can be hard to spot. There may be subscription, processing or a service fee and these may be a flat rate or a percentage. The real cost is the combination of all 3 but, in general, if your donations are small, a flat fee can be more expensive. Some platforms raise income from your donors by adding charges to their donations.
Here's a guide to the best free and cheap online fundraising platforms for charities, including an analysis of costs and a downloadable fundraising platform price comparison list.
A registered charity ourselves, the CEF platform works for any non profit, not just charities.
Plus, 100+downloadable funder lists, 40+ policies, 8 online health checks and the huge resource base.
Find Funding, Free Help & Resources - Everything Is Free.
ActionFunder - virtual funding agent for community groups and small charities enabling them to pitch to companies.
1% For The Planet - pairs businesses and individuals with approved environmental nonprofits.
Benevity - US based, links non-profits to business funders, fees paid on any payment made.
Maanch - global platform to link funding to high impact projects using the UN SDGs.
Big Give - matched funding platform.
CAF Donate - charges for each donation.
Charity Saver - fundraising from corporate and individuals, plus a bulk buy service to save money and access cash-back opportunities. A non-profit run on Quaker ethics.
Donate Pal - donate to multiple charities in one transaction, via website or a mobile app.
Donor See - global platform to raise funds to alleviate poverty.
Enthuse - allows charities to run their own fundraising platform on their website, and set up branded fundraising pages with their own custom branding.
Fundr - social crowdfunding platform.
Ethical Much - get people to post their good deeds and nominate you for £5 donated by an ethical business and even have the chance to win prizes themselves.
Give A Dinner Party - organise and sell tickets for mini fundraising events; dinner parties, picnics, barbecues or cocktail evenings
Give Panel – helps non-profits manage their Facebook fundraising.
Give Penny - charity sponsorship platform.
Give Directly - send money directly to people living in extreme poverty.
Givey – online fundraising platform, focussed on small charities.
Giveto - volunteer run, allows people to give to a different charity each month through one direct debit.
Global Giving - global crowdfunding community.
Go Fund Me – online fundraising platform.
Golden Giving - charities/social enterprises charged for online payments only.
Charities Trust – a charity itself, takes 4% of Gift Aid to cover costs.
Chuffed - fee free crowd funding platform, run by a social enterprise.
Local Giving - fundraising campaigns, matched funding, crowd funding.
Just Giving - online fundraising.
PayPal Giving Fund - raise funds through PayPal, eBay and other platforms.
People's Fundraising - non profit - create page for a wide range of activities.
Tap Simple - contactless donations, virtual events and online giving.
Tiltify– online fundraising platform.
Total Giving - use of the platform is free to charities.
Raisely - donors invited to add optional processing fee, need to use Stripe payment service.
The Good Exchange – online charity matching platform.
What Impact - uses AI to match companies and grant-makers with charities and social enterprises.
Wonderful - fee-free, online fundraising event platform and also direct donations for charities to use on their own websites.
Kindlink - organises supporters, donations and beneficiary records all on one platform.
Or, do it yourself. GiveWP is a WordPress fundraising plugin that allows you to accept donations through your charity’s own WordPress site.
aDoddle - a brilliant online community map that links charities to local businesses and volunteers.
Investors In Community – donate funds, gifts or volunteer.
Make Good Grow - connecting charities to volunteers, provided by businesses.
Art for Charity - uniting charities, artists and companies to raise funds.
Ethical Angel - matching charities to businesses looking to help.
Goodstead - post a ‘challenge’ to find volunteer support.
Neighbourly – connects businesses to good causes.
Semble - bringing community groups together with businesses and volunteers.
What Charity - volunteers, goods, services and funding from the public.
Micro donations can be made via a website or app and enable donors to make very small, but regular donations.
Pledjar - free app to enable people to donate.
Pennies - till point micro-donation platform that gives customers the opportunity to make a small, one-touch donation instore or online. Retailers must must have the potential to raise at least £10k pa, but there are no set-up or ongoing costs. Can be used in charity shops.
Roundups - rounds up card payments. Fee 5% of all donations.
Browsio - a buy/sell website. A bit like E Bay, but for charities.
Amazon Smile - donations and you can also publish wish lists for your supporters.
E-Bay for Charity - receive donations and sell items.
Givergy – mobile and tablet auctions.
Vintage Giving - donation of old or vintage items.
Good Good Giving - participants choose an experience they want to win, and donate an amount from as little as £10 to be in with a chance.
Charity Shop Exchange - collect books and DVDs from you and sell them.
Refashion - donate clothes to be sold online.
Thrift+ - donate clothes to be sold online.
Vintage Cash Cow - turn unsold and non-saleable donations into income, including jewellery, watches, cameras and toys, in any condition.
Amazon Smile - Amazon donates 0.5% of the price of your eligible AmazonSmile purchases to the charitable organization of your choice.
Charitable Bookings - hotel/restaurant booking site with donations to charities.
Every Click - raise money by asking your supporters to use their web browser.
Easy Fundraising - another online shopping fundraiser.
Give As You Live – yet another shopping fundraiser, but also has an I phone app
Kindred - online shopping fundraiser.
Give A Little- contactless, Chip+PIN and online donations.
National Funding Scheme – integrated text, web and contactless.
Good Thyngs - QR codes.
Tap Simple - virtual events and online giving.
Tap-On-Phone - via smart phone.
Wonderful- fee-free, online fundraising event platform and also direct donations for charities to use on their own websites.
Change Star Charity Calendar – free online advertising for your events
These are paid for, but allow you to book individual places, rather than make block bookings, so can work for small charities. Alternatively, they also list events and offer some guides and resources on their websites.
Sport For Charity – walks and treks, extreme sports and triathlons.
GivingLottery - a weekly lottery that enables good causes to raise funds at no cost. You get your own lottery page that you can customise with your branding.
Stewardship - fundraising for churches and charities
Taha Funder - global crowdfunding platform.
MuslimGiving.org - fundraising platform.
My10Nights - automates donations over the last 10 nights of Ramadan for Laylatul Qadr.
Saddaq - a paid for global crowdfunding platform.
Recycle4Charity - funding for recycled printer inkjet cartridges.
RecyclingforGoodCauses - funding for whole range of items; watches, phones, stamps etc.
Terracycle - recycle hard to recycle goods to earn points for your charity.
If you're working with a commercial recycling partner, you may wish to ensure they've signed up to the TRUST registration scheme.
Charity Vouchers - recipient donates value of voucher to a UK charity of their choice.
Don't Send Me A Card - receive donations, in lieu of cards.
Making A Difference – charity cards and e cards.
Charity Worker Discounts - money saving deals and vouchers.
Try the Good Finance online social investment tool or;
Here’s a Social Impact Bond toolkit and;
Another to find investors, funds and advisers.
Barrow Cadbury Trust - investments and grants for organisations providing support services for charities and social enterprises in England seeking social investment.
Kiva - peer to peer lending.
CAF Online – banking, online donations, investments, loans, savings accounts.
Wadappt – using blockchain to match impact investors with companies. Very interesting concept, but I don’t know anything about them, so you need due diligence, if you were considering. Not UK based.
InvestMyCommunity- a dedicated fundraising platform for local community organisations.
Crowdfunder - a crowdfunding platform for community groups, businesses, charities and social enterprises.
CrowdJustice - crowdfunding legal action and public interest law.
Ethex - making investing into projects with a social purpose easy to understand and do.
GoGetFunding - helping individuals crowdfund for the causes they care about.
Hubbub - crowdfunding university student and alumni projects.
Spacehive - crowdfunding local projects to transform public spaces.
JustGiving Crowdfunding - helping anyone raise money to fund their own good cause.
DigVentures - crowdfunding archaeology and heritage projects.
GlobalGiving UK - crowdfunding for grassroots organisations around the world.
This work was done by Nesta, not myself. The links are to their pages, which have much more information on each.
You may also be interested in Crowd Fund List, which is a platform for sharing best practices on digital giving, crowdfunding and peer-to-peer fundraising.
The best UK text donation services from Charity Digital News.
Formunauts - online marketplace for charities and agencies, to deliver campaigns in partnership, specialist campaign creation and software solutions, from digital pitch decks to contactless donation platforms.
Here's a list of some of the best online fundraising platforms for charities, with some details on each.
And another on the best free fundraising donation websites.
A registered charity ourselves, the CEF works for any non profit, not just charities.
Plus, 100+downloadable funder lists, 40+ policies, 8 online health checks and the huge resource base.
Quick, simple and very effective.
Find Funding, Free Help & Resources - Everything Is Free.
To access help and resources on anything to do with running a charity, including funding, click the AI Bunny icon in the bottom right of your screen and ask it short questions, including key words. Register, then login and the in-system AI Bunny is able to write funding bids and download 40+ charity policy templates as well.
