10 Best GoFundMe Alternatives for Supercharging Your Funding
By Millions use GoFundMe as their go-to platform for fundraising campaigns. But while GoFundMe is easy to use and has a solid reputation, it lacks some features and isn’t ideal for all campaign types.
Today we’ll look at why you might want a GoFundMe alternative and our top 10 options.
Why consider a GoFundMe alternative?
GoFundMe is a leading fundraising platform for charities, individuals, and organizations. You can use the platform to start your fundraiser, set goals, share it with friends, and manage donations.
Although it’s a trusted and popular fundraiser platform, there are limitations to using GoFundMe. Here are several reasons why you might want a GoFundMe alternative:
- Use case: While GoFundMe covers a variety of use cases, you’ll see that emergency, educational, and medical fundraising are the most popular fundraising reasons. If you’re an entrepreneur, creative, or would like to set up recurring giving, you may find other platforms better suited to your use case.
- Customizability: When users land on your campaign page, you want them to know it’s you. GoFundMe pages sometimes look alike. Look for platforms with ultra-customizable pages that help you stand out.
- Platform fee: GoFundMe charges a 3% platform fee and a payment processing fee of 2.2% + $0.30 per donation. These fees can quickly add up and you may be better off with platforms that charge a flat monthly rate instead.
Depending on your fundraising goals and reasons, GoFundMe could be a great choice. But at the same time if you’re a founder, entrepreneur, artist or software designer you might need more specific features to help you reach your goals. So you may want to consider one of these GoFundMe alternatives.
10 GoFundMe alternatives for successful fundraising campaigns
Here are our top 10 GoFundMe alternatives to help you raise more funds.
1. Fundly [Best for mobile-first fundraising]
Fundly allows fundraisers to raise money for virtually any cause, project, or event without raising requirements or startup fees. It’s also a KIA (keep it all) platform which means Fundly doesn’t require fundraisers to reach their goal to receive the money they raise.
Fundly makes it easy to build visual and fully customizable crowdfunding campaign pages. Each fundraising page has a photo and video gallery front and center. Insert content from Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, or your desktop and create an interactive slideshow to display your cause.
The platform enables users to tell campaign stories, post updates, add photos and videos as well as share their page on social media platforms.
There’s also a handy iOS app that allows you to make posts, send emails, and thank new donors from anywhere.
Pricing: Fundly has a platform fee of 4.9%, a credit card fee of 2.9% and a $.30/transaction fee.
2. Snowball [Best for auctions]
Snowball has a complete set of fundraising tools to help you extend your reach for any campaign.
One of its standout features is the ability to quickly build silent auctions that allow your supporters to bid both in-person or virtually. You can run unlimited auctions, list unlimited auction items, and host unlimited bidders.
Snowball’s mobile-optimized campaign pages make it easy for users to leave donations. Using flexible campaign pages you can manage charity events, launch capital campaigns, and collect fund-a-need donations. You can also enable once, weekly, monthly, or annually recurring gift options.
In-depth analytics tools take the guesswork out of tracking funding and donor data with accurate reporting.
Always focused on bringing out new tools, next Snowball will release Apple Pay and Google Pay donations. They’ll also make peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns available too.
Pricing: The platform fee is 2.9%, $.30/transaction. The Essential plan is free and has enough features for creating mobile-optimized campaign pages. You can get the Premium plan for $549/year and it allows unlimited text-to-give, unlimited campaigns, and up to 10,000 email blasts each year. There’s also a Professional plan at $849/year including unlimited auctions and text-to-bid.
3. AppSumo [Best for launching software]
If you’re launching software or any kind of digital product, AppSumo is the right GoFundMe alternative for you. With 2 million newly acquired customers including affiliate marketers, small businesses, founders, and other entrepreneurs, AppSumo gives your product the exposure it needs.
The best part is that AppSumo is free for anyone to use––there are no upfront fees or hidden limits. You only need to pay commission on the sales you make.
With over 2K+ previous SaaS partners, AppSumo has a proven track record of making it easy for entrepreneurs to sell their products.
Given its community of thousands of tech-savvy users, AppSumo is also a great way of building a network to increase your funding opportunities. Engaged, vocal, early adopters who are impressed by your products may then become product evangelists.
AppSumo can also help you target a new geographical market or user base. When you run a deal, your product is sent to a whole new global user-base who will use your product and be able to provide detailed feedback if you need it.
Pricing: AppSumo uses a commission structure based on customer type. Earn 95% of revenue with new customers you bring to AppSumo—just pay a 5% processing fee. Earn 70% of revenue from returning AppSumo customers.
ArtistShare is a fully managed “fan-funding” platform and is often recognized as the internet’s first rewards-based crowdfunding platform. The service provides professional funding services and support for entrepreneurial artists.
ArtistShare gives artists a one-stop-shop for launching and setting up their creative projects successfully. Using the platform, creatives can not only receive funds but also professional project consultation, product manufacturing, fulfillment, and marketing tips.
The platform has a great track record of promoting successful projects including 10 Grammy award wins and Pultizer nominated writers.
The only downside is that ArtistShare isn’t for everyone—it’s currently by invitation only and each project must pass a careful review before it gets through.
Pricing: The project owner keeps all the funds but ArtistShare takes 15% in royalties.
5. Indiegogo [Best for new products]
Indiegogo enables donation-based fundraising for pretty much any project type. Individuals can raise money for product improvements, films, personal projects, and tech; which makes it a solid option for entrepreneurs launching new products.
One of the key advantages of Indiegogo is the two funding options. Either choose the flexible option where you can keep the earned funds regardless of whether you meet the funding goal or fixed where you can only keep the funds if you reach your funding target. Keep in mind that Indiegogo doesn’t allow contributors to become shareholders or investors.
An automated review process speeds up project approval but also means that low-quality projects get through too, which can lower the appearance of the platform.
Pricing: There’s a 5% platform fee on all funds raised for your campaign. There’s also a transaction fee set according to your payment currency. For USD, it’s 3% + $0.20.
6. Fundable [Best for entrepreneurs]
Launching a startup is hard work. If you’re a business founder you’ll know that it takes a lot to succeed, which is why if you need funding you’ll need to choose the right platform to kick things off.
Fundable is a great GoFundMe alternative for founders looking to raise funding for their next ventures. First create a profile then decide whether you’d like to raise funds by selling your product, taking pre-orders, or by raising funds from accredited investors.
Fundable has two different funding strategies for founders to choose from. The former, known as a rewards program, is best for consumer-facing companies looking to raise up to $50,000 while the second equity approach is best for funding goals between $50,000 and $10 million.
Pricing: There’s a flat rate of $179/month to create and manage your fundraising campaign. There are no success fees but there are standard credit card processing fees.
7. Kickstarter [Best for creative projects]
Kickstarter is a top GoFundMe alternative for fundraising creative projects—keep in mind that the crowdfunding platform can only be used for creative projects. You’ll find that Kickstarter’s main success stories come from video, games, tech, published works, food, and other similar project types.
One of the biggest advantages of Kickstarter is its strong community of backers. Since its launch in 2009, 13.9 million people have pledged more than $3.39 billion to bring Kickstarter projects to life.
Fundraisers create a visual campaign page, set their funding goal, and offer their backers (supporters) rewards for their contributions. The key thing to know about Kickstarter campaigns is that they’re all or nothing—you have to raise or exceed your funding target, otherwise, you don’t receive any funds.
Although this can help incentivize some backers, it could be tough for individuals or business owners in need of some revenue quickly. You’ll also have to think about your funding target carefully beforehand—make it too high and you risk walking away with nothing.
Pricing: If your project is successfully funded, Kickstarter charges a 5% fee along with payment processing fees between 3% and 5% as well as a charge of $0.20 per pledge. Kickstarter doesn’t charge anything if your project doesn’t reach its goal.
8. Patreon [Recurring giving]
Patreon is a top GoFundMe alternative for creatives and entrepreneurs looking to build a loyal community of supporters to back them on a regular basis. Fans and supporters are known as patrons and pledge a monthly amount to their favorite creators.
Creators produce content that their supporters find useful, entertaining, or educational. Supporters then pay to access this content—creators can set up multiple monthly membership tiers for different content access levels.
Given the emphasis on content, Patreon is especially popular with YouTube creators and podcasters. But the platform also works well for entrepreneurs, writers, and nonprofits. Since the campaign length is unlimited, Patreon is a great way of increasing your monthly revenue and recurring donations.
Pricing: Patreon charges between 5% and 12% of monthly income depending on the plan you choose. Patreon also charges credit card processing fees between 3% and 5%.
9. Kiva [Microlending]
Kiva is a non-profit funding tool for entrepreneurs and startups looking to borrow money. According to their site, more than 2.5 million people have raised over $1 billion on Kiva.
Its flexible lending policies and solid due diligence measures make it popular with both borrowers and lenders. All borrowers on Kiva are extensively vetted or endorsed either by a local Field Partner, Trustee, or members of the community.
Using Kiva, supporters can lend as little as $25 and as much as they want to support your cause. Once your business can and has the funds available, you then pay the loan back to your lender.
Kiva works especially well for small business founders or early-stage startup founders who may need an early cash injection to help push their project forwards.
Pricing: Borrow up to $15,000 at 0% interest over 36 months.
10. Givebutter [Best for donor management]
Givebutter is a free fundraising software that has ultra-helpful tools for managing your donors and funds for the duration of your fundraising campaign.
Just like other GoFundMe alternatives on this list, it all starts with creating customized, visual, and engaging campaign pages that showcase your business’s story. One-click sharing tools and multiple software integrations make it easy to promote your campaign to possible supporters.
A donor CRM makes it easy to track supporter activity all in one centralized place. You can easily migrate and import contacts and recurring donations from any system. With the management system, contacts are automatically saved every time someone donates, buys a ticket, or takes any kind of action. You can then optimize your data with notes, tags, and custom fields.
Givebutter also helps you engage potential donors by making it easy to send personalized campaign messages and requests. For instance, group your supporters by any criteria like event attendees or geographical locations. Choose to customize your message with images, text, Loom videos, or Canva designs.
Inbuilt analytics tools then help you track your message’s conversion rates and identify areas of improvement for next time.
A supporter feed helps engage donors with campaign updates and public donor messages. Peer-to-peer fundraising encourages your more passionate donors to engage their friends, family, and peers in supporting your mission.
Pricing: Givebutter charges a platform fee of between 1% and 5%. There are also payment processing fees of between 1.9% and 2.9%.
AppSumo’s final verdict: Best GoFundMe alternative
GoFundMe is a top fundraising platform. But it’s not the right choice for every fundraising campaign. For that reason, it’s important to think about why you’re raising money and how you plan on promoting your campaign.
Entrepreneurs looking to raise equity might prefer Fundable while a new product launch might be best for Kickstarter. But if you’re launching a digital product, it’s worth using AppSumo to tap into our community of tech-savvy entrepreneurs.