Fundraiser Help
We use Chase/WePay and PayPal for payment processing on GivingGrid.com. They're both safe and secure. Chase/WePay is the only option for personal fundraisers and a great option for nonprofits.
Chase/WePay
- You can sign up and start accepting donations in about one minute.
- Chase/WePay offers a simple mobile experience for your donors. So important!
- Chase/WePay fees are 2.9% + $.30 per transaction. Certified 501c3 nonprofits can get a reduced rate of 2.2% + $.30 (if your initial campaign is at least $5,000 or you've run more than one campaign that have collected donations) by contacting GivingGrid Customer Service.
- All donations go directly into your account, less Chase fees.
- Simple to get your money! You set up with Chase/WePay how you'd like to receive your funds and how often, during the sign up. Funds are typically available within 1-2 days.
- Chase is only available to fundraisers with a U.S. bank account (does not need to be a Chase bank account). Donations can be accepted from most countries throughout the world.
PayPal is a great option for nonprofits based inside and outside of the U.S. It's required for nonprofits without a U.S. bank account.
- PayPal fees are 2.9% + $.30 per transaction. Certified 501c3 nonprofits can get a reduced rate of 2.2% + $.30 directly through PayPal. GivingGrid cannot help with that.
- All donations go directly into your account, less PayPal fees.
- Funds are typically available within 1-2 days.
- Great for organizations based outside of the U.S. PayPal is available in most countries around the world, so fundraisers can be set-up almost anywhere and donations can be accepted from most countries (and their currencies) throughout the world. Currently, GivingGrids can be set-up using US Dollars, British Pounds, Euros, Canadian Dollars and Australian Dollars.
Now you can use both Chase/WePay and PayPal, if you're a nonprofit!
Just sign up or connect with both, if you already have accounts.
Here’s why you’d want do that:
- Chase/WePay is the first choice for online fundraising credit card processing. It’s easier on your donors and easy to get your money.
- That said, there are still lots of people out there that will only use PayPal.
- So why not give your donors a choice, standard credit card processing through Chase or pay with PayPal?
Click here to see an example of what the donation form looks like.
Zero! We don't charge you any fees!
Most other fundraising websites take 5% - 10% of every donation, in addition to credit card fees. That can add up to between 8% - 13% off the donation! That means if a $100 donation is made, as little as $87 makes it to the fundraiser. When it's for a good cause, we just don't think that's right, so unlike those sites, GivingGrid takes no fees from the fundraiser. Zip! The fundraiser only pays third party credit card fees (roughly 3% which can't be avoided), so on that same $100 donation, they get $97. Big difference!
Be careful of sites that say they take 0% of your donations, but charge a transaction fee, sometimes as high as $.95 cents. Think about it. That's almost 10% of a $10 donation!
So how does GivingGrid pay for its operating expenses? We apply a unique method where the donor is given the opportunity to add a small contribution for us, in addition to their donation. Think of it as a small tip. If they think we're providing a valuable service, they give us a little something. If not, they also have the option to make it zero and give us nothing. Sound fair?
Simple! The money you raise goes directly into your Chase/WePay or PayPal account. From there it's up to you. GivingGrid never touches the funds. You can set-up the method by which you'd like the money to get to your bank account with each provider. In fact, with Chase/WePay you can arrange to have them automatically transfer the money to your account.
If you have any questions about getting the money you've already raised, please contact Chase/WePay or PayPal directly. Click the links below to contact them:
WePay is required by law to gather that information before you can withdraw funds, whether you're creating a personal or business account. It is also used for security reasons.
Of course it's always much better (and fun) when you hit or crush your goal, but you get the funds you raise either way. GivingGrid does not offer an "all or nothing" option.
It could be because you set a "Start Date" in the future. Go to your Settings and check the Start Date. Settings > Additional Settings > Set Start & End Dates. If that's the problem, just adjust it to today if you want it to show now. You should also make sure you not receiving any error messages, due to missing required fields or incorrect input.
If neither of these things are the problem, click contact us and we'll look into it ASAP and get back to you.
Yes we do! We love personal fundraisers when they're for a good cause, but only in the USA right now!
Nope! Not for GivingGrid. Any organization or individual can use GivingGrid to raise funds for a good cause, but donations are only tax deductible when made to certified 501c3 nonprofits.
Sure! First, we highly recommend you head over to Fundraising Central. Fundraising Central is our comprehensive guide to marketing and managing your GivingGrid. It's filled with all kinds of advice and techniques for making your campaign successful and hitting your goal.
Fundraising Central
Afterwards, if you still have questions, you can contact us.
Yes for Standard GivingGrids and Wall of Love, but not for Urgent Help! We don't offer it for Urgent Help, because the typical campaign is over in just a few days.
Make sure you're logged in and go to Settings > Additional Settings > Run on Your Website and follow the instructions. Everything is synced, so a donation made on your website updates everywhere else. One thing to note, if you don't allocate enough space, we'll automatically show a very cool widget. Details are in your settings.
Offline donations can be made on all of our platforms,except for Blaze. Make sure you're logged in and go to Settings > Additional Settings > Manage Offline Donations. We recommend that you do not enter any offline donations until you've had several online donations. That way potential donors won't be confused by the fact that you've raised money, but there aren't any squares taken.
Note: This feature allows you to increase the total amount raised on your campaign, but it does not record any information or input donor information, photos or messages into the squares on the grid.
Make sure you're logged in, click the "Reports" button at the top of the screen and your donor data will appear. You can also download it as a .csv file by clicking the "Download Donor Data" button.
For Standard GivingGrids
Make sure you're logged in and go to Settings > Fundraising Goal & Grid Type. Next to your goal above the preview grid, click the edit link. Change your goal in the pop-up and click submit.
For Wall of Love
If you have a goal (it's optional), just go to General Settings, change it and click save.
Note: be careful how you use this function. Don't get in the habit of raising your goal, just because you're close to hitting it or have already passed it. That's great and people want to see you beat it big-time! If you keep raising it, donors will start to wonder why you even have a goal and lose interest. One increase would be the maximum we'd recommend. It's primarily there to lower your goal if you were a little too ambitious and set it too high.
For all platforms, with the exception of "1,2,3..." the minimum is $5. For "1,2,3..." it's $1.
Yes you can! You can easily add, change or delete any of those things even after launching. Make sure you're logged in and click on "Settings" for the campaign you'd like to change. You'll see all the options.
For Standard GivingGrids, make sure you're logged in and go to Settings > Fundraising Goal & Grid Type. This is to do it manually. There's also an automatic feature (on Blank Squares) you can turn off or on in your settings.
- If your GivingGrid is a Blanks Squares grid, there's a big button near the top that says "Add More Squares." Click it and it will add another ring of squares.
- If your GivingGrid is a Preset grid, you simply add a new ring from "Fundraising Goal & Grid Type" in your Settings. After your first donation, you can't add squares the same way. A new option appears near the bottom of the page, to add individual squares.
Please note: Once you receive your first donation, you can still add squares, but you cannot delete them.
For Wall of Love, it's all automatic, unless you turn it off in your settings. Anytime 75% of your squares are taken, another ring of squares is added.
This feature is only available on GivingGrids. Make sure you're logged in and go to Settings > Additional Settings > Set Start & End Dates. This feature is not available with Blaze.
Someone clicks on a square and gets this message:
"This square is currently on hold for another supporter for X MORE MINUTES. Please pick another square or if this is the square you've got to have, you can check back in a little bit. Maybe they won't take it before their time is up? You can also keep clicking this check again button. Maybe they'll cancel it before their time is up?"
GivingGrid works just like when you buy theatre or event tickets online with reserved seating. When someone clicks on a square we hold it for them for 15 minutes to complete the donation. If they don't complete their donation in 15 minutes or if they click on another square, that square becomes available again.
Yes you can and we encourage it! It adds credibility to your campaign. You do that in Settings > Organization Information.
We recommend only linking to your homepage.
You can delete any GivingGrid, Wall of Love (WOL) or Blaze campaign in your account that has not had any donations. Simply go to your dashboard and click the "delete" button for the GivingGrid, WOL or Blaze campaign you'd like to remove. To get to your dashboard, make sure you’re logged in and click your name (the drop-down menu) in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.
Unless there are special circumstances, you cannot delete GivingGrids, WOLs or Blaze campaigns that have had donations. Once someone donates to a campaign, we're obligated to leave it available, so they can view or share their donation. If you believe there are special circumstances, please contact us.
To remove your account, please contact us. Unless there are special circumstances, we cannot delete accounts that are connected to GivingGrids that have had donations. Once someone donates to a campaign, we're obligated to leave that GivingGrid available, so they can view or share their donation. Therefore, the account also needs to be left intact.
While we do not share specific information as to why an account has been suspended, it could be for many reasons, including but not limited to:
- Originating from a country not currently supported by GivingGrid.
- Suspected fraud.
- The nature of a campaign (i.e., offensive, abusive, making false claims, inappropriate for GivingGrid, etc.).
- Violates our "Terms of Use."
Unfortunately, no. Each campaign must have a unique website address.
The simple difference between the two is that with a Standard GivingGrid the donor can upload a photo with their donation and with Wall of Love they post a heart and a message with their donation. No photo. Some campaigns work great with photos and other are better without, so you have both.
We don't recommend Wall of Love for animal campaigns, because people love uploading photos of their fur kids.
Here’s Google’s definition of peer to peer fundraising:
“Peer to peer” fundraising is a method of fundraising that leverages your supporters to fundraise on your behalf. It's also known as social fundraising, team fundraising, or p2p fundraising. Peer to peer fundraising is a great way to get new donors and reach new networks of people.
With GivingGrid P2P you put the power of your supporters to work for you! It’s so simple and automatically a part of every campaign (unless you turn it off)!
Keeping your donors up-to-date is super important! How would you feel if you donated money to a cause and never heard from them again? With GivingGrid and Wall of Love, you’re not only raising money, you’re expanding your supporter base. Stay in touch with these guys and do several “updates to donors” throughout your campaign and even after it ends. 30% of donors either donate a second time (as you near your goal) or refer people. That’s huge!
To prepare and send an update to donors, go to Settings > Emails > Send an update to all your donors. You have some great editing capability, so you can add photos, links, bold text, etc. Make sure you click the Preview button to see what it will look like before you send it. If you want to send it right away, click the Send Update button below it, but we recommend sending a test first. If you’re not quite ready to send, make sure you click save at the top or bottom of the page. It will be there when you come back.
This auto feature is not available with Blaze. You would have to download your donor data and do it yourself.
During the donation process we make it very clear to the donor that these tips are optional. That being said, these tips are our only source of income. We rely on them to keep the lights on and provide you and your donors with the support you need.
If you still feel the need to write something in your campaign that in any way suggests to donors that they don’t need to tip us or not to tip us, we won’t stop you and we’ll still allow you to use our service. However, we will not be able to provide you or your donors with any support and there will be no exceptions. We hope you understand.
GivingGrid is a free service and our entire income comes from optional tips provided by donors. We do our very best to provide speedy customer support to everyone, but we do have limits. While we rarely reach these limits, we cannot continue to provide support to users who have an excessive amount of customer service requests or are abusive or disrespectful of GivingGrid support personnel.
We hope you understand.
Yes and no. You are welcome to include a mailing address in case someone wants to mail you a check. There are still some people who just don't like donating online. What we don't allow is the direct solicitation from your GivingGrid, WOL or Blaze campaign for people to donate online elsewhere. In other words, what you can't do is put a link to your website (or other) donation page on your GivingGrid, WOL or Blaze campaign and ask people to go there and donate. It's confusing and why would you want to do that anyway?
Yes we do, but not all countries at this time. We also allow GivingGrids to be set-up using Pounds, Euros, Canadian dollars, Australian dollars and New Zealand dollars. Simply choose the currency you want in your payment processing settings, after PayPal has been enabled.
Yes, GivingGrids can also be set-up using Pounds, Euros, Canadian dollars, Australian dollars and New Zealand dollars. through PayPal, assuming it's available in your country. Simply choose the currency you want in your payment processing settings, after PayPal has been enabled.
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