How to Run a Donations or Crowdfunding Fundraiser

SuccessFund will only send funds to bank accounts owned and managed by schools, districts, or an approved organization. Money is deposited on a weekly basis. Access to the funds can vary by district, but in most cases, you can put donation dollars to use immediately following the deposit. Every district follows its own use of funds process, so be sure to follow the process outlined by your district for requesting funds.

SuccessFund will aggregate contributions over a 7 day period and then initiate a transfer. Transfers take 3-5 days from when they are initiated to when the deposit arrives. Deposits will typically arrive on Fridays. On average, the time between a transaction and a deposit is 8 days. SuccessFund does not invest or utilize your funds in any way.

Campaign organizers can view the status of the funds at any time. From your campaign page, click Results, then Switch Report, to Payouts.

SuccessFund does not charge any subscription, upfront, monthly, or annual fees, nor will schools or districts receive invoices. Creating fundraisers and getting them approved online is free. Campaign organizers won't be charged a portion of the amount raised at the end. Instead, a $1 + 5% fee is applied to each payment. For in-person transactions using SuccessFund card reader, that fee is discounted to as low as 15 cents at checkout.

Here’s how it works:
Online Donations: If a donor makes a $100 donation to your fundraiser, they will see a $6 fee at checkout. Donors can choose to cover this fee, which they do over 90% of the time. If they prefer, they can opt to deduct the fee from their donation amount.

For product sales, the fee is still $1 + 5%, but it operates slightly differently. The 5% is subtracted from the product price, and the $1 fee is added at checkout. For example, if you’re selling gourmet cookies for $20 and need to net $20 from each transaction, we recommend raising your price to $21 to cover the fee.

For in-person sales using a SuccessFund card reader, the transaction fee is discounted for smaller amounts. For a $1 bottle of water or a $2 hotdog, the patron would see a 15-cent fee. Remember, this fixed fee covers the entire transaction, not just the individual product.

Card readers can be purchased at https://www.successfund.com/readers.

Cash and other offline transactions: You can easily log, track, and report cash and other offline transactions using the SuccessFund mobile app. These transactions don’t incur any fees and can be viewed anytime under the Results tab, along with a detailed cash report.

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Most likely. Districts across the country are raising and keeping more funds by using SuccessFund for crowdfunding, concessions, school stores, sponsorships, banners, camps and clinics, tickets, and hundreds of other types of campaigns. SuccessFund is a DIY platform, so it's crucial to help your students spread the word by sharing the link to your campaign. Unlike other platforms, SuccessFund doesn’t take a portion of the fundraiser at the end. Instead, it charges a simple transaction fee of $1 + 5% for online transactions, with discounted fees for in-person payments using a card reader (patrons pay as low as 15 cents for transactions of $2 and below). For donations, the fee is paid entirely by the patron, and they often (90%+ of the time) increase their payment to account for the fee, making SuccessFund a home run for school groups raising money.