GiveForward is among the top donation-based crowdfunding platforms in the US. Since they launched in 2008, the platform has become a popular place for people to raise money for emergencies, charities, and other important expenses and life events.
The platform has hosted an impressive 270,0000 fundraisers which have raised over $192 million in total funds. Supporters have sent over 41K “Thinking of You” messages and encouraging words to others in their time of need.
If GiveForward sounds like the right platform for your fundraiser, keep on reading for more information on their features, pricing, popular campaigns, and what customer reviews have to say:
GiveForward Features
It is free to start a fundraiser on GiveForward. The setup is an easy three step process:
1. Create a page
2. Invite friends and family
3. Start accepting donations
It’s pretty simple, and users can give and show support in a few different ways:
- By raising money
- Wishlists, which lets donors purchase items for the fundraiser from Amazon or Target.
- The “Give a Meal” option, which gives donors the ability to organize meal delivery and specify the recipient’s preferences and/or dietary restrictions
- Send a “Thinking of You,” which is another way of showing the team behind a campaign that they’re on your mind. It’s one way to share words of encouragement.
Social media also plays an important role in online fundraising success, which is why there are Facebook share buttons right underneath Give Now buttons. GiveForward fundraisers can make great supplements to in-person fundraisers like bake sales and marathons.
Supported Categories and Causes
If you’re raising money on GiveForward, you can choose from a variety of categories or causes. These include: education, house cleaning, expenses, home repair, medical expenses, flights, veteran care, hotels, transportation, childcare, meal costs, rides, etc.
We’ve seen that the most popular categories for tend to be centered around educational, medical, and memorial expenses.
Sal talks more about why your category doesn’t matter in his complete guide, “Crowdfunding Personal Expenses: Get Funding for Education,Travel, Volunteering, Emergencies, Bills, and more!”
When it comes to personal fundraisers, marketing and direct outreach is far more important than the category in which you choose to launch your campaign.
Fees and Costs
When you raise money on GiveForward, you’ll experience a payment processing fee of 2.9% + $0.30 and a 5% platform fee which goes to GiveForward to cover overhead costs.
This is pretty standard for most crowdfunding platforms out there. We have seen some websites charge donors rather than campaigners. Also, there are a select few websites that have no fees, but that sell other services or products.
On GiveForward, aside from these fees, fundraisers get to keep everything they raise regardless of how much they raise or whether or not they reach any goals they set. Donors also have the option to pledge extra to cover the fees so fundraisers get to keep even more of what they raise, which they do on average 95% of the time.
Popular GiveForward Campaigns
David Hartsock became a quadriplegic after a tandem skydiving accident in August 2009, and is permanently paralyzed from the chest down. Hartsock is a hero because when both his and his student Shirley’s parachutes malfunctioned he shifted positions so he would take the most impact from the fall.
The student sustained serious injuries, but was able to walk right after the accident and later went back to work. The GiveForward campaign, David Hartsock’s Fundraiser, was put together by a family member to help cover the costs of his care, which average out to about $1,000 per week. The campaign has a fundraising team of two (David Hartsock himself and a family member, Viki Hartsock), along with five other team members helping to share the fundraiser.
So far they have raised over $159,000 of a 200,000 goal, with 1886 donations in total to help cover the cost of caregivers that are working to keep David Hartsock healthy.
Another campaign that was popular on GiveForward is the Madison Meehan College Fund. The Madison Meehan College Fund is looking to raise $40,000 to help Madison cover the costs of her college education. The campaign also mentions the death of Madison’s father in May of this year, and acknowledges him as a great father, entrepreneur, family member, and friend.
In 113 days their community has managed to raise over $33,300. Donors also have the options of Giving a Meal or donating items from a Wishlist.
Finally, The Holts Rebuild campaign is another popular GiveForward fundraiser. The Holts Rebuild is a fundraiser for Meghan and Peter Holt, who lost their home to a fire in July. The couple and their infant daughter, Margot, were out of the house when the fire happened and are all safe, but lost everything. A $30,000 goal was set for their GiveForward campaign which has now been surpassed.
Altogether, supporters have raised over $33,600 to help the family get a fresh start. Donors can also share their thoughts, Give a Meal, or purchase items from a Wishlist.
Reviews of GiveForward
One of the best ways to find out if a personal crowdfunding platform is the right pick for you is to look at reviews. A simple Google search will often give you an idea if there are any red flags about a company that you should be aware of.
My search for GiveForward taught me that they have an A- rating with the Better Business Bureau. The company had four complaints but all of them were resolved. Considering the thousands of campaigns launched on the platform that many complaints is pretty understandable.
GiveForward has an average of four stars on Yelp. One donor complained that they were asked to pay an extra amount to cover overhead charges, but aside from that most of the reviews were positive. Customers thought that the platform was user friendly, with a nice design. They also said that the customer service was very responsive and friendly, which is important when you need answers and are raising money for emergency situations.
The platform also has an 8.5 out of 10 average review score on CrowdsUnite, a crowdfunding platform review site. Here, customers praised GiveForward’s useful iPhone app, how the platform offers a lot of help for people who aren’t familiar with fundraising and how it was nice that they could send thank you notes to donors. A few negative points were waiting periods before funds could be released and some clunky design issues. After January 2014, GiveForward users could get daily access to funds with WePay.
There were more negative reviews on TrustPilot, along with many positive reviews. Most of the negative reviews highlighted the platform and payment processing fee that the website takes. Personally, if you’re using someone else’s service to raise money, we think that you have to expect to pay a fee. Nothing in this world is free, unless you set up your own crowdfunding site.
However, there were some legitimate concerns. Not every user experienced good customer support. One left a recent comment saying, “Inconsistent, horrible support and crappy interface When we first looked at this format it looked good. We also called them on the phone and spoke to them a couple of times. I thought the 8% fee was a bit high but they said it was because they included coaching.
When we were finally ready to upload our info, this is when we discovered EVERYTHING changed. They are no longer available via phone and only communicate through email… Add to this they still charge 5% for NO COACHING!!! Just email support. Hell, i could have figured out the interface on my own for 5%. I should have gone to Youcaring but we were already invested so we stuck it out.”
At the time of writing, GiveForward has not yet replied to this complaint. As the personal fundraising space becomes more and more competitive, platforms are going to have to make a concerted effort to stand out above the pack with better communication and prompt replies.
Conclusion
GiveForward stands out as a platform that gives donors multiple ways to support a crowdfunding campaign. Unlike some other personal fundraising platforms, GiveForward’s team seems responsive and they don’t seem to have very many customer complaints given their volume of transactions. This is a good thing when people are generally raising money for sensitive things like emergencies and medical expenses.
A few of the campaigns that I mentioned show that there are a variety of categories on the site that are doing well, with the right teams and supporters behind them.
To learn more about raising money online, check out Salvador Briggman’s new e-book, Crowdfunding Personal Expenses!
