Choose the right online fundraising platform for your organisation

Why do you need an online fundraising platform? We’ll dive into that, what to look for, and compare some of the top options to find the best fit.

You might think it takes a lot of different tech widgets to pull off a successful online fundraising campaign. But that's not always the case, especially if you use an all-in-one fundraising software!

Creating a meaningful and user-friendly donor experience is your first priority for success, so it’s critical to find online fundraising tools that are intuitive and user-friendly for your team.

We created Raisely so you can start with a creative vision and then use technology to build a unique experience that’s dictated by your cause and your audience — not the other way around.

Online fundraising platforms function a little differently than other payment processing and crowdfunding software like GoFundMe. This guide will help you start to envision what you can do with the right software and determine what features you really need to get the job done.

Benefits of Using an Online Fundraising Platform

The moment each new donor gives to your nonprofit organisation for the first time is a key moment in their relationship with you. In just a few seconds, they determine if the donation process is convenient and makes them feel good — or they might get sidetracked and put it off for another day.

The right online fundraising platform takes the guesswork out of building donation pages and helps you meet new supporters wherever they are. Here are a few more benefits you can expect from your ideal platform:

1. Accept donations anywhere, anytime, and offer your audience’s favourite payment options
2. Leverage your social media following with peer-to-peer campaigns and connect with native tools like Facebook fundraising
3. Manage all of your processes in one dashboard, incorporating donation data from your CRM, marketing automations, and more
4. Skip expensive hosting and website maintenance costs: Use a platform that can function as your entire website for free!

How Much Does an Online Fundraising Platform Cost?

As you might guess, costs range from free to several hundred dollars per month, depending on the size of your organisation and the amount of funds you bring in. Some operate on flat platform fees that cover credit card processing, and others may charge payment processing fees and other transaction fees separately on each donation. Watch out for hidden setup fees!

Raisely as an online fundraising platform is free to use, but we do allow you to choose whether you pay credit card processing fees or pass them on to donors. Donor-provided tips to keep our platform up and running are always optional, and we make this clear on our donation forms so there are no surprises.

What Features and Functions Do You Need?

In the past several years, dozens of online fundraising platforms have popped up with different features and capabilities. The best tools for your nonprofit will depend on the kinds of fundraising campaigns you run throughout the year and how your community of supporters prefers to get involved.

Think about the tools you’re currently using and how you want to improve in each of these three basic areas:

Create

Your campaigns, website, and fundraising pages should work together to tell one cohesive, branded story. Start with templates that support your fundraising ideas and put it all together with no code required.

Fundraise

Again, your fundraising pages and online donation forms are the stars of the show. Make sure your platform can handle peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns and includes payment methods that work seamlessly on all kinds of devices.

Grow

Growth is the ultimate fundraising goal, so the best online fundraising platforms have some flexibility to change and evolve with your organisation. Find a platform that either works with your CRM or includes its own donor management features. You’ll also want to check which integrations you’ll need now and in the future, like Mailchimp, Salesforce, Google Analytics, payment processors, and others.

Questions to Consider

Every online fundraising platform has a unique combination of features, integrations, and pricing. What’s on your list of must-haves?

Answer these questions to start collecting your thoughts:

• What processes and steps do you want to automate?
• Which processes do you want the most control over?
• What are your supporters’ preferences for communication? Where are they most active on virtual platforms and in person?
• Are there opportunities for new software to support other fundraising efforts such as event ticketing, webinars, text-to-give campaigns, or other outside-the-box initiatives?
• What features do you want to be built into the platform, and which integrations do you need? For example, Raisely has a built-in CRM but can also connect with other CRMs.
• What’s your budget for software right now?

Let’s Compare Online Fundraising Platforms

Besides including the right features and integrations, ease of use and pricing are usually the two most important factors in this decision. Ready to see which online fundraising platform offers the best value for your organisation’s needs?

Here are a few of your top choices:

Raisely

Best for: Raisely is the best in the industry for peer-to-peer fundraising and mobile-first campaigns.

Features & Integrations: Control every part of your strategy with built-in donor management, recurring giving and matching gift capabilities, ready-to-use templates, event ticketing, marketing automation tools, and a long list of integrations.

What’s Missing: Platform fees and overly complicated design tools.

Pricing: FREE. Raisely’s basic platform is powered by optional donor tips, and you can choose to cover payment processing fees yourself or pass them on to donors. Only pay for custom messaging and extra CRM records if you need them.

Classy

Best for: Organisations that balance recurring giving with crowdfunding campaigns and events.

Features & Integrations: Classy supports peer-to-peer campaigns, recurring giving, auctions, and event registration.

What’s Missing: Page designs and form questions have limited customization.

Pricing: Classy scales pricing based on your organisation’s size.

Kindful

Best for: CRM and donor management features.

Features & Integrations: Embed donate buttons, text-to-give, recurring donations, peer-to-peer fundraising, and integrations through Zapier.

What’s Missing: Searching for specific data and detailed reporting can be a challenge. Some users have reported issues with synced integrations creating duplicate contacts. There’s no internal email or web hosting, so you must use separate platforms for these features.

Pricing: Starts at $100/month

Double the Donation

Best for: Matched giving, with a large database of companies with matched giving programs.

Features & Integrations: Long list of integrations.

What’s Missing: Double the Donation focuses purely on matched giving, so it doesn’t have a suite of fundraising tools that many other nonprofit platforms have, like donation pages, event hosting, and peer-to-peer fundraising capabilities.

Pricing: Starts at $999/year

GiveButter

Best for: High-tech campaigns and virtual events supported by multiple integrations.

Features & Integrations: Peer-to-peer fundraising, recurring giving, events, donor management, and a list of integrations.

What’s Missing: Donor profiles could be more detailed, and payouts must be taken in a lump sum. Donation matching isn’t included, but they offer it through a paid integration with Double the Donation.

Pricing: Almost free — when optional tips are set to “on,” they cover platform fees and most credit card processing fees. If they're set to “off,” you’ll incur both platform fees and payment processing fees.

Your All-in-One Online Fundraising Platform

There are a lot of choices out there, but we think we’ve simplified the search process by putting the features and integrations that small and medium nonprofits need all in one online fundraising platform.

Raisely gives you everything you need to get started with next-level peer-to-peer campaigns in a completely free plan. We even go the extra mile with website hosting, custom URLs, in-platform email functions, detailed custom reporting, and a really neat integration with Strava for active events.Heard enough yet?

Sign up for your free account and start exploring today!