Snap! Raise Alternatives: 6 Top Online Fundraising Providers

Learn more about six team fundraising providers you can use in place of Snap! Raise.

Start fundraising for your team with 99Pledges.

As a parent or coach of youth involved in sports teams, the performing arts, or another extracurricular group, you understand the need to fundraise. The arts are often critically underfunded by schools, and participating in sports teams can be expensive, particularly when you consider travel and equipment costs. It can be extremely difficult for schools to fund these activities, and the burden of filling in the funding gaps often falls on students and parents.

Snap! Raise is a mobile fundraising platform designed to help these groups raise money. The software is intended to be used as a digital fundraising tool and is an alternative to traditional door-to-door fundraising which is often unsafe or inaccessible to young people. Because fundraising takes place online, groups can expand their reach to supporters outside of local areas.

Digital platforms like Snap! Raise can help combat some of the challenges your team may have faced with other, offline fundraising methods. But while Snap! Raise is more effective than a door-to-door or catalog fundraiser, for example, it comes with some drawbacks as well. In this guide, we’ll cover why you should consider choosing an alternative and suggest some other top providers:

For smaller groups or schools, you may not have funding available to invest in pricey fundraising software. Let’s get started by discussing Snap! Raise’s pricing structure and how you will be losing a significant portion of your funds raised.


Why choose an alternative?

For teams that choose to work with Snap! Raise, they will need to agree to pay a certain percentage of the funds raised to the provider. According to Snap! Raise, if 70% of your group participates in the fundraiser, the team will keep 80% of the funds raised. While Snap! Raise does not require any upfront payments before you start fundraising, you’ll need to allocate 20% of your total earnings to them.

Additionally, participation requirements can be harmful to students. Some students and families may not be in a position to support the fundraiser due to extenuating circumstances, and Snap! Raise’s 70% participation requirement could make them feel guilty about not participating.

Snap! Raise is more effective than traditional or door-to-door fundraisers because it leverages the power of the internet to make giving easy for donors and reach supporters who are not local. But since there are other online fundraising platforms out there, why not choose a solution with the same benefits that allows your team to keep the majority of the proceeds (i.e., with 99Pledges, you’ll keep close to 96% to 98% of your funds raised)?

Here are six high-quality Snap! Raise alternatives.

6 Alternatives to Snap! Raise

1. 99Pledges

99Pledges is a fundraising platform designed with schools and teams in mind, making it easy to raise the money your group needs. 99Pledges’ solution helps users raise two to three times more than before using the platform—after all, online donations among 99Pledges users tend to be higher than offline gifts. Because the software assists with digital fundraising, your team can easily reach supporters across the country.

One of the major benefits of using 99Pledges is that it is a free platform. You won’t need to pay a pricey startup fee, and the platform doesn’t take a percentage of the funds you raise. Your organization is only responsible for the standard transaction fee of 3.49% plus 49 cents per transaction which is charged by the credit card companies. There are no other fees whatsoever, and most groups keep 96% to 98% of their funds raised.

99Pledges is designed to support pledge-based fundraisers for sports teams. Let’s say you are fundraising for your high school’s baseball team and decide to host a hit-a-thon event. Supporters will make pledges to participants based on specific units, like every ball their participant successfully hits during the fundraiser. For example, your team member’s aunt might pledge $5 for every hit he makes.

Once the participant completes the event and tracks their number of hits, supporters will submit their pledged donations. If the team member from our example successfully hit the ball 10 times, his aunt will then make a donation of $50. With a little creativity, this type of fundraiser can be adapted to almost any sport or activity!

Here’s what the process of setting up one of these fundraisers with 99Pledges looks like:

  • Create donation pages. Setting up these pages only takes a few minutes. As seen in 99Pledges’ sample fundraiser, you can quickly and easily set up a class or team donation page as well as fundraising pages for individuals that include links to donate.
  • Spread the word. Share about your fundraiser with your supporters. You can use more classic methods like creating flyers and posters to hang around the school and community. But, you can also win additional support from donors who are not in your local area by sharing the donation pages through email, text, and social media sites like Facebook and Instagram.
  • Collect donations. Leverage the ease and convenience of online giving for your team. Because online donations are more secure than offline cash donations, your donors may feel more comfortable giving in larger amounts. They can give at any time, from anywhere, and rest assured that the donation will reach your team. 99Pledges’ donation pages are mobile-friendly, and donors have the option to use their credit card, PayPal, ApplePay, and GooglePay to contribute.
  • Track fundraising data. The easy-to-use reporting system allows your team to track fundraising progress along the way. You can see how close you are to your goals and make tweaks to your strategy if needed. With these details, you can even turn fundraising into a competitive game to see which member of your team or group can raise the most.
  • Receive your funds. When your fundraiser ends, you’ll receive your funds from 99Pledges. The platform will initiate payment within one business day after your fundraiser ends. Depending on the payment method you choose (99Pledges offers direct deposits and checks via USPS mail), you can receive funds in as little as one to four business days.

99Pledges is perfect for fundraisers at any experience level. For example, if you’re a first-time member of the booster club and are new to raising money online, 99Pledges can offer tech support and a dedicated fundraising coach. Even seasoned fundraisers will appreciate how quick and easy it is to get started on the platform, giving your team more time to spread the word and recruit supporters.

2. GoFundMe

GoFundMe is a community-powered fundraising platform. It can host fundraisers for individuals, groups, teams, and even charities. In particular, GoFundMe supports donation-based crowdfunding for these groups and individuals, encouraging online supporters to make donations to recipients to support their cause or need.

GoFundMe allows you to set a fundraiser goal, tell your team’s story, explain why you are fundraising, and add a photo of your group to the donation page. Then, you can share links to the page with potential supporters. Once donors start interacting with the fundraiser by donating and sharing, you can send them thank-you messages and withdraw the funds.

This platform is another alternative to fundraising through Snap! Raise as your group will only need to pay credit card transaction fees. But, keep in mind that there is no simple way to set up both team and individual participant pages for the same fundraiser. So, you could create one page for your Little League team but miss out on creating individual donation pages for each participant.

3. Vertical Raise

Vertical Raise is an online fundraising system created to help teams fundraise to better meet their needs. This provider specializes in team fundraising rather than serving other parties like nonprofits and individuals.

With this solution, your team can quickly set up an online fundraising page and observe the fundraiser’s progress and participation rates with its reporting dashboard. If you coach a basketball team, for instance, you might center the fundraiser on a basketball tournament or three-point competition. Live updates help ensure that you are on track to meet your fundraising goals and can even add an element of competition.

The platform also strives to spread awareness about your fundraiser by assisting with text and social media campaigns. Once the campaign wraps up, you’ll receive funds from Vertical Raise as soon as possible. Vertical Raise does require a certain percentage of the donations your team raises, so be sure to explore how those fees will impact your ability to reach the team’s fundraising goals.

4. Mightycause

Mightycause aims to help nonprofit organizations further their mission, but they offer a solution built for team fundraising that can serve a variety of groups ranging from high school football teams to volunteer groups raising money for a specific cause.

With this solution, you can create leaderboards based on fundraising progress that promote friendly competition, offer participants fundraiser templates to speed up the setup process, and add your team’s branding to your pages. You can also easily add an event to your fundraiser to maximize fundraising with fun events like galas or 5Ks.

To get started with Mightycause’s basic plan, your team will just need to cover credit card transaction fees. To access its full range of features, however, your group will need to make a monthly payment.

5. RallyUp

RallyUp is a platform that primarily services nonprofit organizations. However, it offers tools for sports teams as well. The platform allows you to choose from various methods of fundraising like a raffle or sweepstakes fundraiser. Your team can also choose a basic crowdfunding approach.

This solution encourages teams to use the peer-to-peer function to add a competitive element to motivate participants to fundraise. For example, you might set milestones and offer prizes to those who pass them.

While this platform does offer some free options, to access premium features like donation pages or email marketing capabilities, your team will need to pay a monthly $99 fee for the duration of the fundraiser.

6. GiveSmart

GiveSmart is a fundraising platform that focuses on growing your fundraising efforts through fundraisers like games of chance, item and merchandise sales, and raffles. Specifically, they offer a mobile bidding solution that simplifies organizing and executing both in-person, virtual, and silent auctions that benefit your team.

As with these auctions, you can set up virtual, in-person, or hybrid events to cater to local and remote audiences. And with built-in registration tools, you can give supporters a smooth experience no matter how they plan to attend.

GiveSmart also offers a solution for peer-to-peer fundraising that allows passionate participants and supporters to fundraise on your team’s behalf. They can set up branded, shareable fundraising pages and post links online so their friends, families, and other members of their social network can contribute. You can track all of the exciting progress they make through the analytics dashboard.

Check out these additional fundraising resources.

Wrapping Up

Your team or group can benefit greatly from the extra revenue raised during team fundraisers, particularly when you leverage the benefits and reach of online fundraising. But highly-effective digital fundraising doesn’t have to come at the expense of a portion of your team’s hard-earned fundraising revenue. Instead, seek out a low-cost or free fundraising platform like 99Pledges that allows you to maximize your funding and invest as much as possible back into your program.

To learn more about 99Pledges’ software, reach out today to get started!

Now that you’re up-to-speed on the best team fundraising platforms, check out these additional resources for some creative ideas to help you raise money for your group:

Contact 99Pledges to learn more about the best tool for team fundraising.