Free Fundraising Platforms Compared: What to Look For

Every fundraising platform claims to be free. Some of them actually are. Others have creative ways of collecting money that aren't obvious until you (or your donors) are already committed.

If you're choosing a platform for your next fundraiser, whether that's a crowdfunding campaign, selling products, or collecting donations, here's what you need to know about how "free" actually works.

The different fee models

There are several ways platforms make money. Understanding which model you're dealing with helps you figure out the real cost.

Platform fee: A percentage taken from every transaction. This is the most straightforward model. You see exactly what you're paying.

Card processing fees: Every platform that accepts card payments pays Stripe, PayPal, or another processor. These fees (typically 2.5-3.5%) exist no matter what. The question is whether the platform adds anything on top.

Tip/donation prompts: The platform asks your donors to leave a "tip" or "voluntary contribution" to keep the platform running. Sounds harmless, but the default amounts can be aggressive.

Subscription fees: Monthly charges that kick in once you need real features or higher limits.

Donor-covers-fees: The platform asks donors to cover processing costs, which most will agree to. This is generally donor-friendly as long as it's optional.

Freemium: Free at a basic level, but you hit walls quickly and need to upgrade to do anything useful.

Platform-by-platform breakdown

Raised (NZ/AU)

Raised adds a 5% platform fee plus Stripe processing on card payments, and the fee is paid by the donor, not the fundraiser. That means the fundraiser receives 100% of the sale price. No subscription. No setup fees. No tip prompts pestering your donors. You get a digital storefront for selling fundraising products, support for crowdfunding campaigns, and multiple payment options including bank transfers (which have no fees at all).

The pricing is transparent. Donors see what they're paying, fundraisers keep everything they raise, and nobody is being asked for surprise extras at checkout. It's built for NZ and Australian fundraisers, so there's no currency conversion weirdness.

Givealittle (NZ)

Givealittle takes a flat 5% cut from every dollar raised. That comes straight off your total unless donors opt to cover it themselves, and many won't. There's no storefront, no product sales, no order management. It's a basic donation page. If you're running a pie drive or any kind of product fundraiser, Givealittle simply can't do it. You'd need to find a second platform and manage everything separately.

GoFundMe

GoFundMe charges 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction, prompts donors to tip GoFundMe at checkout, and slaps a 5% fee on recurring donations. For NZ and Australian fundraisers, there's also the currency conversion problem. Your donors pay in NZD or AUD, but the money routes through USD, so conversion fees silently reduce what you receive. There's no product sales, no storefront, and the whole experience is designed for the American market. Support and payout timelines reflect that too.

Chuffed (AU)

Chuffed is Australian-based with 0% platform fee, but processing fees hit around 2% + $0.20 for Australian cards and a steeper 3% + $0.30 for NZ cards. International cards cost even more. And like most "free" platforms on this list, they ask your donors to tip Chuffed at checkout. That's another platform inserting itself between your supporters and your cause, adding confusion about where the money is actually going. No product sales either.

Zeffy

Zeffy markets itself as "100% free" for fundraisers. Technically true, but it's your donors who pay the price. At checkout, they're shown a pre-selected tip of 15% or more going to Zeffy. The prompt is designed so most people assume it's required. It's a dark pattern, and donor complaints about it are easy to find online.

If your average donation is $50, your donor may end up paying $57.50 or more without understanding where the extra goes. That's a bad first impression for your cause. And Zeffy has no product sales, no storefronts, and limited presence in NZ and Australia.

Raisely (AU)

Raisely recently ditched their subscription model and switched to asking donors for tips instead. Processing fees start at 1.4% + 30c per transaction, which sounds reasonable until you realise your donors are now seeing yet another tip prompt at checkout. It's the same problem as Zeffy and GoFundMe: your supporters are being asked to pay a platform they've never heard of while trying to support your cause. Not a great look. Raisely also doesn't support product-based fundraising, so if you're selling pies or merchandise, you're out of luck.

GiveNow (AU)

GiveNow uses tiered platform fees: 1.5% on Starter, 2.7% on Basic, and 3.5% on Pro. That's before card processing costs get added on top. So even their cheapest plan ends up taking a meaningful cut, and the tiered structure makes it confusing to know what you're actually paying until the money arrives. It's unnecessarily complicated for a school PTA that just wants to run a fundraiser without reading a pricing matrix first.

Donorbox

Donorbox's "free" plan charges 2.95% on every donation, on top of Stripe or PayPal processing fees. That's close to 6% gone from each transaction before your fundraiser sees a cent. Want the lower 1.75% rate? That requires their Pro plan at $150 per month. For a school or community group running a couple of fundraisers a year, that maths doesn't work. Donorbox is built for large US nonprofits, and the pricing makes that obvious.

What "free" actually costs

Here's the thing most people miss: once you add up platform fees, card processing, and any extras, most fundraisers lose somewhere between 3% and 7% of what they collect online. That's true regardless of whether the platform calls itself "free".

Tip model platforms shift that cost to donors. But when the default tip is pre-selected and hard to remove, donors often end up paying 10-15% extra without realising it's optional. Your fundraiser page says "free" while your supporters are quietly paying a premium for it.

The honest question isn't "which platform is free?" It's "which platform gives me the best value for the total cost?"

What to actually look for

When you're comparing platforms, ask these questions:

What does my donor see at checkout? If they're being shown a pre-selected 15% tip, that affects their experience of supporting your cause.

What's the total cost per transaction? Add up platform fees, processing fees, currency conversion, and any extras. Compare apples with apples.

Do I need to pay monthly even when I'm not fundraising? Subscriptions make sense for organisations running campaigns every week. For everyone else, pay-per-transaction is usually better value.

Can I sell products, or just collect donations? If you're running a pie drive, a sausage fundraiser, or selling merchandise, you need a platform that handles product sales, not just a donate button.

Does it work for NZ and Australian dollars? Platforms designed for the US market often have currency conversion issues that quietly reduce what you receive.

Our take

We built Raised because we thought the existing options had too many hidden trade-offs. You shouldn't need a subscription to run a fundraiser. Your donors shouldn't be tricked into paying inflated tips. And you should be able to sell products and collect donations from the same platform without stitching together three different tools.

Raised works for individuals, community groups, schools, sports clubs, and anyone else who needs to raise money in New Zealand or Australia. The pricing is simple: a 5% platform fee plus Stripe processing on card payments, paid by the donor so the fundraiser keeps 100%. No fees on bank transfers, no monthly fees, no lock-in.

If you want to see how it works, set up a free storefront at raised.nz or raised.au and have a look around. There's no commitment and nothing to pay until you're actually raising money.