FreeFunder has never charged platform fees. We are proud to support people in their time of need by taking nothing from the Beneficiary, and instead relying on optional donations in order to operate. 

But even with no platform fees, every personal crowdfunding site has to charge for payment processing, since the payment processors (Stripe, PayPal, etc) charge fees! They are small, but they can add up. 

FreeFunder is proud to present really, truly free personal crowdfunding by allowing you to accept off-platform donations using PayPal, Venmo, and CashApp! When someone makes an off-platform donation to your FreeFunder campaign using peer-to-peer apps like Venmo or CashApp, you pay no fees at all. No platform fees, no payment processing fees, nothing!

With this feature built into FreeFunder, your donor can send you funds via the off-platform link you provide, and still have the donation recorded on your FreeFunder fundraising page - it will update the Amount Raised, the Contributors section, and any note that your friend wanted to leave for you will show up. It will work the same way as any other donation - just without fees!

So What's So Special About This?

It was always possible to send your friend or family member money through PayPal, Venmo and CashApp. But running a personal crowdfunding fundraiser is different, and better in many ways. Having a central place to share information about the need, share progress toward the goal, see and add encouraging comments and donations, and being able to share updates are huge factors in building momentum and group effort toward the goal. The issue (before) was that in order to have all of these benefits, the payment processing fee was a necessary cost - a fairly low cost, but still a cost. Now you can have the best of both worlds - a centralized fundraising page that your supporters can interact with, while still avoiding payment processing fees when someone has an applicable off-platform account and wants to donate that way.

To accept off-platform donations, the setup is simple:

1. Go to your Account page and click on the "Add Off-Platform Donation Link" button

2. Choose PayPal, Venmo, or CashApp, and enter your details

3. In your Campaign Management section, turn on Off-Platform donations in the "More Settings" section

That's it! Each campaign can turn Off-Platform Donations on or off, and will use the links you set up on your account page. When friends or family want to donate directly to your PayPal, Venmo, or CashApp, they can do that and still have their contribution recorded on the fundraiser page!

If you haven't started your FreeFunder yet, you can get started now.

A couple of notes:

PayPal, Venmo and CashApp all have "friends and family" versions of sending money that does not have any fee. If your donor chooses "buyer protection" or something similar, it's not a friends-and-family transfer and might have fees related to it. They should just send as friends and family if it's a donation.

If someone does not use PayPal, Venmo or CashApp, and still wants to donate using debit or credit card, they can do that! The regular payment processing fees of 2.9% + $0.30 will apply to any donation done using the regular checkout system, but any donations that are done off-platform through those apps will avoid all fees.