Education Fundraisers

What people raise for in this category

Education fundraisers on GiveSendGo run from a single tuition balance to a school's whole budget gap. In this category you'll find a classical Christian school or homeschool co-op closing a shortfall, a seminary or Bible college student covering fees for a program they've been accepted into, and a parent facing a preschool or special-education bill no financial aid applies to. You'll also find a college student with a gap between the aid letter and the invoice, and a teenager whose school offered a trip with a payment deadline attached.

Anyone can start a fundraiser here. Education is one of the things GiveSendGo explicitly hosts, and you don't need a nonprofit or an EIN to do it.

Every fundraiser listed above names its creator and its recipient, so you can see who a gift reaches before you send it.

Give to a student or a school listed on this page

How to raise money for school fees

The most common mistake in this category is a goal set for the full amount. A fundraiser asking for four years of tuition reads as impossible. Someone asking for this semester's balance reads as finishable, and people give toward what looks achievable. So build the ask around the gap:

• Set the goal to the actual gap: the semester balance, the program fee, or the part aid didn't reach, rather than the full published cost of the degree.
• Say exactly what the money covers, and show the arithmetic if you have it. A specific breakdown of the cost sits on the help desk's short list of what makes a fundraiser work.
• Write the story in the student's own voice where you can, or have MICA, GiveSendGo's AI writing assistant, draft one from a short description and edit from there.
• Send it to the people who already know the student: family, the church or small group, the school's own parent list, coaches, neighbors, and whoever wrote the recommendation letters. A page nobody has seen raises nothing.

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Schools, PTAs, homeschool groups, and scholarship funds

The schools and programs that do well here bring their own people: a parent list, a congregation, an alumni base, a giving-day push. GiveSendGo gives that list one link and one page to give through, and it doesn't take a percentage of what comes in. One account can run more than one fundraiser, so a school can keep an annual fund open and still run a separate ask for a specific class, trip, or family.

You can start a scholarship fund the same way, today, with no nonprofit status and no EIN. GiveSendGo won't administer one for you, so it doesn't select recipients, disburse to a school, or verify anyone's nonprofit status. If tax-deductible giving is the point, GiveSendGo Charities is the path. It's a registered 501(c)(3) running a Donor-Advised Fund program (3% administration fee, no minimum) and a Fund a Grant program, which is a tax-deductible gift to a specific eligible fundraiser. Not every fundraiser is eligible for either program.

If your school is already a verified 501(c)(3), say so yourself on the page. GiveSendGo doesn't display or verify nonprofit status for you, and the official receipt can't be edited to add it, so put your status, your legal name, and your EIN in the fundraiser story and in a custom thank-you message.

If the student is under 18, a parent has to receive the funds

This one catches people off guard. The recipient on a fundraiser must be 18 or older, live in the fundraiser's country, and have a bank account there, which means a 16-year-old raising for a school trip can't be their own recipient. A parent, guardian, or the sending organization has to be.

An organization can be the recipient too. Whoever completes verification is always a person acting as legal representative, but that person can choose the Business bank account type and enter the school's legal name and its own bank details, so the money lands in the school's account rather than a personal one.

What it costs, and when the money reaches the school or the student

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. At checkout your givers see an optional tip to GiveSendGo they can set to any amount, including $0.

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 the bank within 2 to 3 business days. Non-USD transfers can take longer, and minimum transfer amounts vary by country.

Two things worth knowing before a tuition deadline:

• Verification runs on its own clock. Review starts once the recipient has uploaded ID and the fundraiser has received its first gift, whichever comes later, and it typically finishes 1 to 2 business days after that. It can't be waived for anyone, and it doesn't begin until that first gift lands, so publish earlier than feels necessary.
• Getting the money out is your call. Request a transfer from the Transfers tab whenever funds are available, or set transfers to go out weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. In the US, use a checking account, since transfers are sent as checking transactions and a savings account may be rejected by the bank.

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