Business Fundraisers

Crowdfunding for small business

A small business runs on thin margins, so one bad month can undo a year of work. When the walk-in cooler quits in July, the people who already know your shop, your truck, or your farm are usually willing to help, and most are waiting to be asked. A GiveSendGo fundraiser is how you ask them all at once.

You don't need an EIN and you don't need to be a nonprofit. Anyone can start a fundraiser, and nobody approves you before you publish. Log in, go to My Fundraisers, click Start a GiveSendGo, then set a goal, write your story, add a photo, and publish. Choose the recipient's country carefully: it's locked once the fundraiser is created, and the only fix for a wrong one is starting over.

Have three things ready before you publish:

• A goal that covers the real cost, broken out by line item, since a fundraiser has to be transparent about how the funds will be used.
• A plain story that says what happened and what the money buys, with a photo of the shop, the truck, or the equipment.
• The recipient's bank and ID details, because verification can't finish without them.

Start a GiveSendGo

What it costs to raise money for your business

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.

Two different optional amounts get called the tip. Every giver sees a suggested tip to GiveSendGo at checkout that they can set to any amount, including zero. Separately, you can send GiveSendGo a percentage of what you raise, and if you set that at creation it's added on top of each gift and shown to your givers at checkout, so some read it as a platform fee. Change or remove it anytime in your fundraiser Settings.

The business fundraisers listed further up this page are raising right now. Back one of them

Who receives the money, and where it lands

The recipient must be 18 or older, live in the fundraiser's country, and have a bank account there. If their country isn't supported, a trusted adult in a supported country can be named as recipient and pass the funds along. Every recipient completes identity verification before any transfer. The recipient's country can't be changed after the fundraiser is created.

The money doesn't have to land in a personal account. When the recipient sets up bank details they can choose the Business account type and enter the legal business name with the business's own bank details, so funds arrive in the business account. A person still stands behind it. Whoever fills out that form does so as an authorized legal representative, 18 or older, and provides:

• A bank account in the fundraiser's country, and in the US make it a checking account, since transfers go out as checking transactions and savings accounts can be rejected.
• A tax ID, a government-issued photo ID with a date of birth, a phone number, and a residential address rather than a PO box.

Verification runs through the payment partner and isn't waived for anyone. It starts once the ID is uploaded and the first gift has landed.

When you can move it to your bank

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 set transfers to go out weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly, or request them manually from the Transfers tab. Minimum transfer amounts vary by country. A manual transfer sends your whole available balance, and after one is approved you wait 24 hours before requesting another.

Taxes, plainly

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.

On your own side of it, funds raised are in most cases treated as personal gifts rather than taxable income, as long as nothing is given in exchange, and GiveSendGo doesn't issue 1099s or report gifts to the IRS. When a fundraiser involves a business, or rewards for givers, the IRS may treat it differently, and that one belongs with a tax professional.

What actually brings the money in

The business fundraisers that do well here post updates while people are still giving, because an update brings a giver back a second time. They also get shared more than once.

A new fundraiser can take up to 48 hours to appear in GiveSendGo's search, and it joins a category listing like this one once it has been published 5 days and raised $100 USD in online gifts. Your own link works from the minute you publish, so start with your regulars.

Start a GiveSendGo