Technology is making it easier for nonprofits to reach out for alternate means of funding today, but at the same time these new sites, and how they vary, can make it much more complicated as well. Here we will break down the different types of new fundraising sites and how they may best be leveraged by a nonprofit organization.

One of the more popular sites is Crowdrise. It’s a tool that lets anyone create a website and raise money for their personal cause or event. It’s helpful if you only want to raise money online and are not having an actual fundraising event. Many people use it to help friends and family that are in need, but people also use it to raise money for their wedding or birthday, for example. At Swell, we are in the business of helping nonprofits – period. Our software lets nonprofits create an online site, but also provides event ticketing, social integration and helpful tutorials to ensure you are getting the most from your online platform.

Mobile Cause is another online site that lets you create mobile friendly sites for online giving and text-to-give campaigns. However, it does not provide a ticketing component for events or have an app that can be used at events to show the competitive bidding process between teams or donors on a big screen. Our experience shows that when donors or donor teams see how close they are to others in meeting the goal they get even more competitive and raise more money.

A third site that is really popular for nonprofits is Razoo. If you don’t have an event, but have some specific items that you are looking to raise funds for, this site can help. However, your organization needs to be social savvy and be able to promote it on your own and drive traffic to your Razzo page. Here again, there is no event ticketing option, no event specific site for you and no tools for peer-to-peer donations or donor retention.

So how do you know if you need a fundraising site? We suggest making a list of what you need help with and what your goals are and then see what fundraising site or software meets YOUR needs. A number of nonprofits change their events to fit a platform. At Swell, we believe the software should meet the needs of your event. 

Interested in learning more about Swell? Sign up for a demo that fits your schedule.