[Question] What’s the best platform/​app/​approach for fundraising for things that aren’t registered nonprofits?

[MichaelA]

I’m planning to fundraise for the John Hopkins Center for Health Security. I was going to do a Facebook fundraiser, but CHS isn’t a registered nonprofit (as it’s part of a university), so I think I’d have to “Fundraise for a Personal Cause”, collect the money myself, and then donate it (see here).

Is anyone aware of another platform/​app/​approach that might work better for this sort of thing? (I imagine this could be useful beyond my specific example of the CHS.)

It seems to me that ideal features would be:

• High visibility

• Minimal clicks required from seeing the fundraiser to having donated

• Some sort of “progress bar” of how much has been raised and what the target is, to motivate people

• Some way of showing other people which or how many people have donated, to create an apparent norm

[Tessa]

I came across this question today, and wanted to note that one can currently donate to the Center for Health Security though Every.org: https://​​www.every.org/​​centerforhealthsecurity, which also supports setting up fundraisers with many of the features you mention.

[alex lawsen (previously alexrjl)]

I think you can do this on the SoGive platform. Have sent Sanjay a message.

[Sanjay]

alexrjl is correct, SoGive can do this.

SoGive includes:

• a “progress bar” of how much has been raised and what the target is

• a section showing other people who have donated (and options to anonymise name or amount or both)

• customisable sections for the person running the fundraiser, including ability to customise images and text

Here’s an example: https://​​app.sogive.org/​​#fundraiser/​​sanjay.DRHEz44p.ccdce9

If you want minimal clicks from seeing the fundraiser to having donated, you could simply include one of these links and once you’re on that page you have a donate button right there.

If this is of interest to you let me know on [e-mail]. Also, might be worth checking where you are based. This was originally designed for the UK, and then adapted for overseas (e.g. USA)

[MichaelA]

Great! I’ve sent Sanjay an email—my thanks to both of you.

[MichaelA]

Two options that occur to me:

1) Use that Facebook “personal cause” fundraiser feature, and say at the end of the description something like:

(Note: Because the CHS is part of a university, it’s not a registered non-profit in the usual sense, and thus I can’t set up a Facebook fundraiser where the money goes directly to them. Instead, this would give me the money, and then I’d donate it, get the money matched, and post receipts in here to confirm.

If you can handle the effort of a few clicks, you could donate directly at http://​​www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/​​giving

Donating directly also prevents Facebook taking a cut of 0.33AUD and 1.77%. If you do that, please post here or message me, so I can still feel all good about myself, which is of course what really matters.)

2) Just make a FB post with the description I would’ve used, and the link to donate directly, and encourage people to comment if they’ve donated. And perhaps I could share the post again later to bring it back to the top of people’s feeds.

I’d be interested in people’s thoughts on those options.

[Peter Wildeford]

Can you raise money through a non-profit that regrants?