What if there were GoFundMe alternatives that…
…put plenty of donations on your plate?
…gave supporters happy memories of your charity?
GroupRaise and get up on out of here! you’re thinking. Hold on! I’m not done with this fantasy yet.
What happens if you use GoFundMe alternatives that…
…make giving tasty?
…make donating as easy as eating?
All that sounds like a relief, right? But there’s more. The restaurant brand sells itself (*thinks of Smashburger fries*). GoFundMe just says secure donation processing (*snore*).
A Smashburger fundraiser? A Krispy Kreme fundraiser? Make marketing for in-person meal purchases as easy as sharing date, time, and venue. Make marketing for virtual meal buys as easy as receiving Venmo or Paypal.
I won’t exaggerate. You always need persistent promotional activity leading up to your fundraiser. But Smashburger and Krispy Kreme are loved restaurants. Established restaurant brands rack up RSVPs and online orders on their own.
So here’s the GroupRaise offer: the above is what happens when you schedule a Smashburger or Krispy Kreme fundraiser.
This article lays out the pros and cons of 3 alternatives to GoFundMe, including two food favorites by popular demand, as well as Facebook fundraising. Today, you will hold in your hands GoFundMe alternatives that make more moolah.
Try juicy Angus Beef still hot from the grill, underneath a melting slice of tried-and-tasty American cheese. Enjoy the flavor-add of fresh lettuce, ripe tomatoes, and condiments of choice. All this classical goodness packed in-between two toasted hamburger buns. Oh, and the bacon. I forgot the bacon. Applewood smoked bacon. I present to you, the Double Bacon Smash Burger. It’ll smash your appetite, not your budget.
While a classic burger never goes out of style, digital technologies definitely do. The name of the game in marketing is adapting. And in terms of digital fundraising, the times & technology have changed! Gone are the days when you needed GoFundMe to really do digital fundraising well. With new online ordering and smart payment structuring, GoFundMe is really just a digital donation box.
Let’s take two ideal cases. One, you get enough donations to make you happy. Two, your event marketing goes viral and you get a ton of donations. In both cases you don’t need GoFundMe (or its fees, for that matter). This GroupRaise article explains why!
Let’s first chat about the mechanics of GoFundMe, cover at a high-level its alternatives, and then discuss each in turn: Smashburger, Krispy Kreme, and Facebook fundraising.
Before we go through each option, remember:
Ask: for your Saturday afternoon, would you prefer:
Let’s dig in.
How does GoFundMe work for a charity organizer? Step one. Make an account. Two. Connect payment methods and bank account transfers. And three. Promote the fundraiser. If you get donations, you get yours after GoFundMe gets its share.
The fundraiser’s digital marketing is on you. GoFundMe is a trusted brand for handling donation payments. It gets a cut, asks you for a tip, and lets you crack away at promotional activity to rack up the donation clicks.
GoFundMe takes 2.9% + 30 cents from each donation a supporter wants to give to your charity. Generally, charities get the final sum 2-5 days after their supporter fills out the payment method. But you can modify your settings for daily, weekly, or monthly transfers.
If you want to dedicate your charity’s limited staffing resources to a GoFundMe campaign, then you need persistent and impactful promotional activity. So, ask: Has our charity grown goodwill recently with supporters? If not, you need to.
But there are themes that charity organizers have figured out. Like…making things easy racks up the number of participants. Or thoughtfully picking how supporters donate can make them feel joyful because donating comes with an activity they love already.
Excellent promotional activity is an important part of using GoFundMe. People trust GoFundMe, in summary, to hand off almost all of a supporter’s money to the charity. And that’s it. Every fundraising charity still has to promote and promote to pull people in. GoFundMe is a trusted brand for handling donation payments.
But so are Smashburger and Krispy Kreme, for in-store cash or card-paid meals. If the donation is virtual, then supporters can rely on Venmo, Cash App, or PayPal to send meal prices. That’s why these loved restaurants are smart GoFundMe alternatives!
Do you want…
Then you clicked on the right result. Discover the GoFundMe alternative to excite your team for the next fundraiser. Read on!
Hang out with chilled summer coffee & donuts at a Krispy Kreme fundraiser.
Tip: Schools, churches, and sports teams benefit the most from Krispy Kreme fundraising.
A Smashburger give back program isn’t just donations in the account, it’s the experience of a classic food trio done right.
Imagine. In the center of your spot at the table, toasty buns pin together the goods. Fresh veggies. On a melted cheese-covered, thick beef patty hot off the grill. To the side of your current craving, smell the crispy seasoned fries. And there’s the red-pink strawberry milkshake, creamy and cool-cold (but not too much).
This is a classic American fast-casual experience. It feels just right, when it’s done right.
Smashburger delivers just that. And it can take one-minute to send a request directly to the restaurant, by the way. You may need a couple napkins. Smashburger food might make you forget your manners (but just for a second).
Smashburger and Krispy Kreme fundraising just illustrate why the best kind of GoFundMe alternatives / an activity-based fundraiser is centered around food. Read here for more on why!
Interested in a different type of menu? You can search for more fast-to-schedule fantastic food-supplying restaurants, here.
And don’t miss out on people who want to save a meal for later and donate now. Help supporters do a Smashburger order online or try Krispy Kreme’s Digital Dozens. In fact, you can go viral just as quickly with restaurant fundraising as with GoFundMe.
Remember, the promotional activity is on you – when you rely on a digital donation box. All GoFundMe offers to charities is a trusted payment structure (see more below).
But other GoFundMe alternatives (discussed below) offer the same thing to someone who has never engaged with your charity, but is in the area. They:
More on this below, as well as a Facebook fundraiser vs GoFundMe comparison!
But note. GroupRaise meals are often only for truly non-profit organizations that are trying to solve a problem that affects a group. Fundraising through GroupRaise is usually not for personal causes or businesses. But GoFundMe and Facebook fundraisers are able to assist with these other situations!
Even if you use GoFundMe, be sure to use the tactic below to get more clicks & conversions when you circulate your requests to donate. Trust me, we’re on our way to the promised land of alms (in secular currency).
Pretend you just hosted a Smashburger or Krispy Kreme fundraiser.
Image by Vasily Koloda at Unsplash
Everybody liked the restaurant! They enjoyed their meals and chatting with other people. That’s goodwill glow for your charity.
Every charity event that makes people happy builds goodwill. And goodwill translates to more donations. Practically this means people with nice memories of your charity donate more than they would otherwise. When the GoFundMe or Facebook donate click comes around the bend, well… people will feel better about your charity and cause.
Eating meals is a relaxed, traditional, socially viable excuse to bond with other people. So don’t…
You don’t need much of a reason to have a satisfying burger and crispy fries at a Smashburger fundraiser. Look over the calendar here. It can even just be a delicious donut and some hot fresh coffee, something people love to have at Krispy Kreme fundraisers. When the time comes for a GoFundMe campaign, the memory of a pleasant meal and the water-cooler talk will help your charity get the results it needs.
You might think the opposite is true. Would a RSVP be less inclined to donate to a GoFundMe campaign? Maybe they feel like they already gave, so contributing again is super extra… Nah. Two reasons why.
First reason: People like helping other people. They feel good knowing they helped someone. And if they have a good time with your charity while giving, they’ll want to give again to have another good time.
Here’s the second reason why GroupRaise makes you more GoFundMe (or Facebook fundraiser) cash… The menu prices don’t increase because the food is sold for charity. Meaning, people don’t give more than they otherwise would, to comfort in two things. One: simple social harmony. And two: attendees have a memorable ‘the food there is so good’ experience.
That is, if you pick the right restaurant (for your unique charity’s social network, read more here).
Anyone who comes to your (for example) Smashburger fundraiser meal isn’t really giving, in the sense of giving up something. They aren’t losing anything. It’s all benefit, plus people enjoy the feeling of contributing. A restaurant fundraiser, as a result, is pure upside for your GoFundMe campaign or Facebook fundraiser.
And with all that learning behind us, we need some coffee & donuts to keep up the pace. We’ll feel good about the calories because they’re charity calories. That’s right. Charity calories are different.
At a Krispy Kreme fundraiser, the classics sell well.
Image by The AGE Picture by MARINA OLIPHANT from Getty Images
People want a hot and fresh coffee in one hand, satisfying bites of sweet coming from the other. Schools, churches, and sports teams have really found success with Krispy Kreme fundraisers.
Krispy Kreme fundraisers are great GoFundMe alternatives! Have your donuts & friendly chats on a bright, pretty weekend morning before you go about a relaxed day.
Let’s start with the Krispy Kreme fundraiser price. Guess what it is? Zero. It costs nothing to make +50% back on all sales. Yup, +50% back. Krispy Kreme, GroupRaise, and all GroupRaise partners charge nothing because these restaurants love the extra charitable sales.
Supporters pay, say $10-15 for 12 donuts, depending on the price a % of the total is donated back and supporters receive a redeemable Krispy Kreme code. Your supporter can pick up what they bought (in this example, 12 donuts) from a nearby store whenever they want. Lip-smacking donuts and fast donation flows.
Look on the GroupRaise or Krispy Kreme website for a convenient day & time to launch your Krispy Kreme fundraiser. Flows can start happening as soon as 2 days!
But give yourself enough time to promote the event. Got a lot of potential donors and promotional go-getters on your team? Do a fundraising rapid-fire repeater, with up to two weeks of daily-satisfied glaze-covered donut dreams! Krispy Kreme hours for fundraisers are all days of the week, between 6:00 am and 10:00 pm.
Krispy Kreme fundraisers setup through GroupRaise come with promotional help. That’s right, GroupRaise and its restaurant partners help charities with marketing fundraiser meals. Read here about how to use these tools successfully! They’re all customized to your charity and event. Like a Krispy Kreme fundraiser flyer, sure to incite imagination about glazed this and that.
But there is icing of choice on this donut (ooohh)…because fundraising with Krispy Kreme or Smashburger through GroupRaise means your charity also gets:
It’s no charity cakewalk with a Krispy Kreme fundraiser, just boxes of delicious donuts and less investment for more return.
Cash in hand, as a result, is king at Krispy Kreme fundraisers. No need to & for delay, head on over to Krispy Kreme’s Digital Dozens!
A Smashburger menu is easy on the eyes. So is walking in and ordering a burger at a Smashburger restaurant.
RSVPs will thank you for the meal, the one they attended because you used those special promo tools.
What are Smashburger prices like? The average meal costs a very affordable $10!
As with Krispy Kreme, a Smashburger fundraiser comes with useful promotional tools, including a unique Meal Page, fundraiser flyers, and a meal-day text reminder!
Great burgers & fries are good meal options for a larger swathe of people. Finding a Smashburger near me through GroupRaise is as easy as…
*The burger disappears in the blink of an eye*
The wait for a Smashburger fundraiser once scheduled, and to get donations back, is a bit longer than with a Krispy Kreme fundraiser. But burger please, ketchup bottle squeeze, that’s just more time to look forward to Smashburger fries.
A fry-to-mouth experience is a time-honored, pure-pleasure, guilty-pleasure, tradition. Make it taste rosemary and garlic-y, too. Just keep the crispy. Drizzle that stack of guilty carbs with the neutralizing agent of altruism. And now the fries are guilt-free. And that is what Smashfries are like, at a Smashburger fundraiser.
Smashburger fundraising is nice conversation in-between bites of better burgers. That’s a better time than looking at a computer screen and dealing with a digital donation box.
Among GoFundMe alternatives, Smashburger is perfect for charities seeking a craving-satiating and fast-casual source of donations. So fast-casual check the calendar to keep thinking about a Smashburger fundraiser. Find the right choice among nearby Smashburger locations. Smashburger hours for fundraisers are all days of the week generally from mid-morning to late evening.
Sometimes the best meal choice is a classic, like a burger. You’re one click away from a classic, done right!
We covered two craving-crushers. And donation boxes? Short version: The wood and metal ones work when charities and churches put them near people who want to give already. Ditto with the digital versions.
Image by Katt Yukawa
With that in mind, are you interested in a fundraiser Facebook style? Looking for a Facebook fundraiser vs GoFundMe comparison? With both platforms, you need to do three core things:
Whichever you end up choosing, both platforms work well for charities when the campaign lines up with the engagement of that charity’s unique supporter and social network.
Ask: Is online social engagement with my charity concentrated heavily on Facebook?
Unlike the other digital donation box, people go on Facebook for reasons other than donating. But remember that Facebook network’s reach is limited to, well, the network. It’s big but a lot of people don’t engage on Facebook, but they want to in other ways.
Remember, for both platforms, the charities don’t pay up, but the people donating do. That’s not true with GoFundMe alternatives like a Smashburger or Krispy Kreme fundraiser. It’s all free! Supporters donate a percentage of their meal price that goes straight to you.
Questions about the money mechanics? Ask, and you shall receive! (less than what your supporter wanted to give). What are Facebook fundraiser fees? 2.6% + 30 cents per donation, a bit cheaper than GoFundMe. When is the Facebook fundraiser payout? On a rolling basis, deposited into the account 6 days after the donation is made. That’s a bit slower than GoFundMe’s 2-5 day average.
In sum, Facebook fundraisers are great ways to put donation boxes in front of supporters who engage with your charity on Facebook.
Don’t short-change your charity’s donation-yield. Don’t limit your organization’s potential success. Ask people for plata, sure. Do it big with the big networks, definitely. But give people more of what they want, and they’ll throw some love back.
That’s where GroupRaise fundraising comes in. It’s not even fundraising. It’s enjoying food and beverages with people who care about something you care about. At a restaurant you’d all like to go to anyway. And then a chunky portion of the money you all spent goes to the cause you all care about. It’s not fundraising, it’s fun & food tasting.
If asking for donations is the spice, a value-add activity is the sauce. And there’s no better way to add value in a turn-key style to people’s lives than giving them a delicious meal. At the same price they’d pay anyway, at a restaurant they’d go to anyway. But they’ll go at the day & time you pick. Because they want to give to charity. And they’ll remember how great the group meal was.
So…help people savor the memory even more! Circulate photos of the crew afterward. Send an email around with a “testimonial” or two! Come time for the ask, the donation push, you can count on the goodwill you built!
One delicious meal at a time. That’s how GroupRaise makes good things happen. Krispy Kreme? A glazed donut dream. Smashburger? Classic American food-fare, done right. Juicy patties, creamy shakes, and friendly conversations start happening here.
Interested in another type of restaurant? No worries, GroupRaise has over 10,0000 partners across the nation. Find the right fit on GroupRaise’s page for charity organizers.
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