Memorial Fundraisers

What a memorial fund is

A memorial fund is money raised after someone dies, so the family isn't carrying the funeral costs alone in the same week they're planning the service. Usually that means the funeral home's bill, burial or cremation, a headstone, and the paychecks nobody is earning while all of it happens. Funerals and memorials are common reasons people raise funds on GiveSendGo. The page you create is a fundraiser, the person who sets it up is the fundraiser creator, and whoever's bank account receives the money is the recipient. Those last two don't have to be the same person. So if you're the friend who can still function this week, build the page and name the family as the recipient. The money goes to their account, not through yours.

How to start a memorial fund

You don't need the service date, a final number from the funeral home, a nonprofit, or an EIN. Nothing in the setup asks for any of it, and anyone can start a fundraiser, including on someone else's behalf.

• Pick the recipient's country first, because it's locked once the fundraiser is created, and the recipient has to live there and have a bank account there.
• Set a goal and choose the Memorial category. A realistic number does more work than an ambitious one.
• Write the title and the story in your own words, then add a photo or a short video.
• Publish it now, or save it and come back when you can find the words.
• Add the recipient's details so the money can move: a bank account in the fundraiser's country, a valid tax ID, a government-issued photo ID with date of birth, a phone number, and a residential address that isn't a PO box.
• Share it more than once. Our help desk lists these key elements every time: consistent sharing, updates as things change, and a specific breakdown of what the money covers.

Start a GiveSendGo

What it costs

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. On a $50 gift, $48.35 reaches you. Outside the US, a $100 gift lands at $96.20, and non-USD fundraisers can also pick up currency exchange fees set by the processor.

GiveSendGo runs on the optional tip at checkout. Every giver sees a suggested tip they can set to any amount, including $0, and that covers our operating costs and mission outreach. So no percentage of what a family raises comes to us.

Before you publish, check your optional giving settings. If you set a percentage to GiveSendGo while creating the fundraiser, that amount is added on top of each gift and shown to the people giving at checkout, and some of them read it as a platform fee. You can edit it anytime from your fundraiser's Settings.

When the money reaches the family

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 yourself from the Transfers tab whenever funds are available, or set them to go out weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. Before any of that, though, the recipient has to be verified.

• Review starts later than you'd expect. It begins once the recipient has uploaded their ID and the fundraiser has received its first gift, whichever comes later, and it usually finishes 1 to 2 business days from there.
• Three things get checked: the fundraiser's content, the recipient's identity, and the recipient's bank setup.
• Nobody is exempt, because identity verification through the payment partner is a standard financial-industry requirement.
• The status says where a transfer stands. Processing means it was accepted and is moving. Paused means something needs review, and it resumes once that's resolved. Transferred means it's with your bank, which posts it on its own schedule.

What a memorial fundraiser can cover, and what isn't allowed

Nearly anything a family actually needs when facing a loss is allowed here, including the hard situations other platforms turn away, and the category you choose doesn't affect how well a fundraiser can do. The limits are short and published:

• A fundraiser can't promote or glorify violence, and it can't raise money for illegal activity.
• Abortion procedures and gender-transition surgeries for minors aren't allowed.
• Nobody can impersonate someone else or mislead the people giving.
• Every fundraiser has to be transparent about how the money will be used.

GiveSendGo also follows the laws of every country it operates in and its payment partners' rules, so occasionally a fundraiser that meets our guidelines still can't be processed.

Start a GiveSendGo

If you came here to give

Plenty of people open this page to help a family they will never meet rather than to start something. The fundraisers listed above are real ones in this category, and each one appears here only after it has been published 5 days and raised $100 or more in online gifts.

When you give, you can leave a comment with your gift, and it stays on the page beside it. Recipients who opt in can also get a prayer call from GiveSendGo. Card details run through a PCI Level 1 certified processor, the top tier in the payments industry, and are never stored on GiveSendGo's own servers. Your name and email are never sold or passed to anyone else.

Support a memorial fundraiser on this page