Crowdrise

Author: Kaitlyn Short

Established in 2010, CrowdRise is an online fundraising platform dedicated to raising money for charitable causes. Fundraisers can be set up to benefit a nonprofit organization or an individual. The company was founded by actor and activist, Edward Norton; producer and activist, Shauna Robertson; and internet entrepreneurs, Robert and Jeffrey Wolfe. The core principles of this impressive company are that “giving back should be fun, and that people have unprecedented power to leverage their personal capacity for good.”

 

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The Good

• Model type
• Fund type
• Fees
• Maximum allowed raise
• Deadlines
• Receiving funds

Model Type

CrowdRise offers personal and nonprofit model types. Unlike most crowdfunding models that serve businesses, they do not offer equity or rewards models. For nonprofit organizations and individuals alike, there are three different funding options: Basic, Featured, and Royale. Crowdrise is the everyday person's crowdfunding. Their website reflects a sense of humor, quirkiness and light-heartedness. You can raise money for anything from medical bills, volunteer trips, memorial funds or your pet-as well as charities. They also have redeemable points (like a Credit Card does) called Crowdrise Impact Points (CIPs) for those successful at fundraising. Users can redeem points for items like t-shirts, hats and hoodies on Crowdrise's website. They include these incentives to encourage generosity (i.e. donating to other charities).

Fund Type

Crowdrise is a Keep What You Raised funding type. Unlike some crowdfunding sites that are All or Nothing, you receive all the funds donated even if you fall short of a specific monetary goal. Setting up a campaign is free.

Fees

Crowdrise offers individuals launching personal campaigns a cost-effective 3%. This is a flat fee, including transaction and processing fees. This is superior to the majority of crowdfunding sites, which charge individuals a percentage plus transaction and processing fees.

Maximum Allowed Raise

Crowdrise does not appear to have any cap to amounts that can be raised. Many crowdfunding sites have a nominal amount of funds that can be raised. Not having a ceiling provides greater flexibility-especially for businesses, non-profits and other organizations.

Deadlines

Crowdrise campaigns have no deadline requirements. This can take the pressure off having to raise money in a short amount of time. Typically a campaign deadline is at least 30-60 days.

Receiving Funds

At the end of the campaign, individual fundraisers receive their money through WePay. This requires individuals to link their Bank Account through Crowdrise's FUNDS page. They can then choose to have funds electronically deposited in their bank account on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Deposits can take 1-5 business days to appear in your bank account, depending on the bank. This transfer is relatively fast compared to the typical timeframe of 7 days with other crowdfunding platforms. Charities (with ongoing campaigns) can choose between WePay and Network For Good. WePay sends funds to charities in real time. Network for Good sends payments to charities on the 15th of each month-including all donations made in the previous month.

Administrative Work Options

CrowdRise offers users personal, customized support, such as adding custom branding to their campaign page. Fundraisers are personally responsible for administrative campaign tasks, such as manually emailing all your donators.

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The Bad

• Fees

Fees

One thing that is a little less-than-appealing about CrowdRise is their somewhat complicated fee structure-especially for charities and organizations. Firstly, CrowdRise charges a percentage on funds earned (standard for crowdfunding) but they also charge a monthly fee for two of their three account types, which is rare among crowdfunding platforms. The monthly fees can get taxing for a charity or non-profit that solely relies on donations. For all three of Crowdrise's funding account types (Basic, Featured and Royale) A processing fee of 2.9% +$.30 is charged per transaction for donations made. Crowdrise's Basic account charges 5% on funds raised and has no annual fee; all core features are included in this package. The Featured account charges 4% on funds raised and has a monthly fee of $49 (with annual commitment); this package includes all core features, lower pricing, and Best Support Ever. The Royale account charges 3% on funds raised and has a monthly fee of $199 (with annual commitment); this package includes all core features, lower pricing, Best Support Ever, and custom branding.

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The Bottom Line

While CrowdRise has worked with many well-known individuals and organizations and they have received impressive awards and recognition, the bottom line is that their fees are quite high. It is rare for a crowdfunding platform to charge both a percentage on funds raised and a monthly fee. Potential users are likely to spend less money on another crowdfunding platform and receive the same-but possibly more-benefits than they offer; however, for individuals raising money for themselves or a persona cause, the all-inclusive 3% fee is one of the lowest out there.