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Asking for help is rarely easy. Whether you're going through a tough season yourself or watching someone you love walk through one, just knowing where to start can feel overwhelming. 

GiveSendGo exists for real life and real stories like yours: a $40,000 surgery insurance won't cover, a mission trip to Haiti, a house fire that took everything, a cookbook you've been wanting to publish. Whatever brought you here, we've got the steps and the tools to help you reach it. Since 2015, we've been a trusted place for people to find help, and hope, right when they need it most. 

Here's a relief: it's just three steps, and you can have your fundraiser live in a matter of minutes. Below is exactly how, plus a few additional resources if you want to go deeper on any step. 

One thing worth saying plainly before you start: asking doesn't make you a burden. People generally want to help the folks they care about, they just need to know how. A fundraiser is how they find out. 
 

1. Just Click Start

Click "Start a GiveSendGo," pick your country, your goal amount, and your category (there are 20 to choose from), and now you're building. 

On the goal: pick a number givers can picture reaching. An amount that feels impossible doesn't build confidence, it does the opposite. Start modest if you need to, and raise your goal each time you hit it. Reaching a goal, even a small one, is proof your fundraiser works, and proof brings more givers. 

You'll need a title. It's the first thing anyone sees, so it has to say exactly what the need is. Don't overthink it here, we've got a whole guide on writing a title that gets donations if you want it, but a clear, specific title beats a clever one every time. "Help Sarah Beat Stage 2 Breast Cancer" will always outperform "Sarah's Fight."

Then the story. It only needs three things, in this order: what happened, who it's for, and what the money covers. That's it. One real detail carries more weight than five adjectives: not "this has been such a difficult season," but "Sarah's chemo starts October 3rd, and this covers the childcare her insurance won't." Write it the way you'd tell a neighbor at the mailbox. 

If you're stuck, start with the sentence you'd text a friend to explain why you're doing this. That sentence is usually your first paragraph.

Last, add a photo or a short video. A face people know is the fastest way to build trust with them and establish a connection to your story. 

That's it! See a full step-by-step guide here: Creating a GiveSendGo Fundraiser.
 

2. Share Your Fundraiser

A fundraiser doesn't spread on its own. It spreads because you sent it to someone first. And the ones shared early and often in the first three days are the ones most likely to reach their goal.

Start small, and start the day you launch. Text three to five people in your closest circle, the ones you'd call before anyone else. Ask them for three things: read it, give if they can, and share it with one person they know. Something like: "I set this up for Sarah. Would you take a look, and if you're able, pass it to someone who'd want to know?" 

Those first gifts matter more than their size. They're proof to every person who lands on the page that this is real and this is worth giving to. Once that base is set, widen out: your church, your job, your group chats, your socials. Share it more than once. People miss things the first time through their feed. 

One in four people who visit a fundraiser end up giving, so every share is a real chance at more donations.

For a fuller plan, see How to Build Your Fundraising Team and What To Do in the First 3 Days of Launching Your Fundraiser.

Updates count too. When you post one, a goal you just hit, a new photo, a plain thank you, everyone already following your fundraiser gets notified, and your fundraiser lands back in front of mind. More on that here: Posting a Fundraiser Update. 
 

3. Get Paid

Before any money can move, someone has to be set as the fundraiser's recipient. That can be you or the person you're raising money for. It's a quick step in your dashboard if you haven't done it yet. If the recipient isn't you, the person you invite will receive an email to fill in their details, and they'll need to complete that before they can receive their funds. 

From there, getting your donations out is called a transfer. If you're the recipient, you can set transfers to go out automatically on a schedule (weekly, biweekly, or monthly), or request one manually any time funds are available, just click "Request Transfer" in the Transfers tab. Once a transfer is processed, expect it in your bank account within 2–3 business days. More on How Transfers Work on GiveSendGo. 

On fees: GiveSendGo charges a 0% platform fee. We don't take a penny of what you raise. The only cost is the payment processing fee, 2.7% plus 30 cents per transaction, standard for moving money by card. That fee comes out before the transfer, not out of your pocket separately, so what lands in your account is simply what's left after processing. 

If a transfer ever looks smaller than you expected, it's almost always timing: recent donations can still be processing and land in your next transfer instead of this one. It's rarely a sign anything's wrong. 

Your fundraiser doesn't need to be perfect. It needs to exist. Click Start, tell the truth about what's going on, and send it to the first five people who'd want to know. Get started now.