Animals / Pets Fundraisers

What people raise for in Animals & Pets

Most fundraisers here start with a number nobody was expecting. It might be a surgery quote after the dog got hit, or an x-ray that turns into a specialist and then a second specialist, or a cat with a long diagnosis and a monthly bill behind it. Rescues and shelters raise here too, for intake and medical care, food, transport, boarding, and hay through a bad season.

Put the actual numbers in the story. If the clinic gave you an estimate, break it out into the surgery, the overnight stay, the medication, and the follow-up. Then use the animal's name, add clear photos, and say what happens next once the money comes in. Those specifics are what keep a stranger reading, and they're what make the people who already know you comfortable sharing it.

Crowdfunding for pets and animals: how it works

Crowdfunding for pets works the same way every other fundraiser on GiveSendGo does. People assume a vet bill needs some kind of special program, and it doesn't. You don't need a nonprofit, an EIN, or a registered rescue behind you. Anyone can start a fundraiser. Setup takes about ten minutes: create an account, open My Fundraisers, click Start a GiveSendGo, then pick the recipient's country, set a goal, choose a category, write your title and story, and add a photo or a short video. What GiveSendGo does require is that you're transparent about how the funds will be used.

What actually moves an animal fundraiser:

• Break the clinic's estimate into its parts, so people can see what they're covering.
• Use the animal's name, and photos clear enough that a stranger stops scrolling.
• Say what the surgery or the treatment is meant to fix.
• Ask the people closest to you first, because early gifts tell everyone else the fundraiser is real.
• Post an update once treatment starts, so the people who gave find out how it went.

Start a GiveSendGo

What it costs to run one

GiveSendGo doesn't take a cut. There's no platform fee. What's deducted is the payment processor's fee: 2.7% + 30¢ per gift for US fundraisers, 3.5% + 30¢ outside the US. On a $100 gift to a US fundraiser, $97 reaches you.

Here's how that lands on the gifts you're most likely to see:

Non-USD fundraisers may also see currency exchange fees set by the payment processor. When you create a fundraiser you can also pledge a percentage of what you raise to GiveSendGo. If you set one, that amount is added on top of each gift and shown to your givers at checkout, so some read it as a platform fee. It's editable any time in your fundraiser Settings, and it only applies to gifts that come in after you change it.

When the money reaches your bank

Nothing here is same-day, so it's worth knowing the timing before you promise anything to a clinic. Your first gift becomes available 5 days after it's received. Every gift after that becomes available on a rolling 3-day basis. Once you request a transfer, it typically lands in your bank within 2 to 3 business days. Non-USD transfers can take longer.

You can request a transfer from the Transfers tab whenever funds are available, or set transfers to go out weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. A manual transfer sends your whole available balance, and once one is approved you wait 24 hours before requesting another. If the bill is due before the money clears, tell the clinic you're raising funds and ask what they can do on timing.

Who receives the money

The recipient must be 18 or older, live in the fundraiser's country, and have a bank account there. That can be you. If a rescue or shelter is receiving the funds, the person completing the recipient form can choose the Business bank account type, entering the legal business name and the organization's own bank details, so the money lands in the organization's account rather than a personal one. Either way a real person, 18 or older, stands behind it and completes identity verification. That step is a standard financial-industry requirement and isn't waived for anyone.

Review starts once the ID has been uploaded and the first gift has landed, whichever comes later. So it pays to get these right early:

• Choose the country the recipient lives and banks in carefully, because the recipient's country can't be changed after the fundraiser is created.
• Upload the ID as soon as the fundraiser is live, since verification has to clear before any transfer.
• US recipients should connect a checking account rather than savings, because a savings account can be rejected by the bank.

Start a GiveSendGo

If you came here to give

Every gift runs through a PCI Level 1-certified payment processor, the highest tier in the payments industry, and card details are never stored on GiveSendGo's own servers. You can check "Hide My Name from Public View" at checkout and appear as an Anonymous Giver on the page, though the creator and recipient still see your name and email so they can thank you. You can send a prayer along with the gift, and plenty of people do.

A rescue that sounds charitable isn't automatically a deductible gift, so this part matters before tax season. Nothing given on GiveSendGo is tax-deductible unless it goes through GiveSendGo Charities, the 501(c)(3). That includes the Giver Army, which is Charities' recurring giving program. The one exception is a recipient that is itself a verified 501(c)(3). GiveSendGo itself is not a 501(c)(3), does not verify any recipient's tax status, and does not issue tax receipts for a personal fundraiser. When the recipient is a nonprofit, the receipt comes from them, not from us.

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