How Does FundCru Compare to Facebook & Amazon?

We’ve talked a bit about some of the major sites like how Groupon doesn’t include fundraising, undercuts businesses by charging huge fees and being bad for your brand, customer acquisition and retention. We’ve mentioned how GoFundMe takes nearly 10%, almost a tithe, of all funds raised. How Kickstarter only lets you donate to a specific cause for a certain good or service, being unable to choose the charities you support AND the goods you get separately.

None of these sites support donating with cryptocurrencies or other digital assets, like the last little bit left on that gift card you got last Christmas.

None of these sites allow you to make a donation to a charity of your choice just by sharing the cause to your social media channels.

But we haven’t talked about two of the biggest. Amazon and Facebook.

As of the third quarter of 2017, Facebook had 2.07 billion monthly active users. With so much of the world’s population on their site, it makes sense that in 2013, Facebook introduced a new way to donate to charity — directly through their site with a 3-click process for donors.

A person simply goes to the page, clicks on “Donate” on their causes page or on a friend’s page who is promoting the cause, decide how much you want to donate, and click “donate.” The credit card already attached to the user’s account is charged and they get an email receipt.

For the fundraiser, the process is a bit more difficult. For one thing, ONLY U.S.-based 501(c)(3) nonprofits can use the Facebook platform for donations. Many international organizations are frustrated by the lack of access.

There is then a 3 step vetting process for a nonprofit to apply, including a Facebook Page verification, a Community Standards Review, and detailed financial requests to set up a donation account. Your organization will be paid every 30 days on the 15th of the month if you have gotten over $100 in donations. There is a 5% fee.

The limitations for businesses are clear. You must be based in the United States, you must receive donations through Facebook itself, you only get the donations every 30 days if you meet a threshold, and you are not able to gather any additional information on your donors, such as “where did you hear about us?” There has also been some issues with businesses claiming they have been unable to get the names of donors from Facebook — even months after the fundraiser ends.

For supporters, the limitations include having to choose among U.S.-based charities only, which means a much lower chance on a major international charity you want to support being available, doesn’t allow for small local organizations like a kid’s soccer team raising money for uniforms, and continue to be aware of Facebook’s data collection, which they have been under fire for in the past.

Amazon is said to have an active user base of about 244 million people. As they grow larger every day, it makes sense that they introduced a way to donate to charitable organizations through smile.amazon.com.

For supporters, the pros of using AmazonSmile are very clear. They shop as they normally would, and a small amount of each purchase goes toward a charity of their choice.

The main negatives are that it can be confusing switching between charities and the donation amount is incredibly small and cannot be adjusted. The percentage donated is just 0.5%.

The biggest issue for charities is that despite people knowing that Smile exists, many people simply don’t go to it. You are not automatically rerouted to Smile if they have previously selected a charity. Supporters must go to a different URL and Smile does not work on the Amazon mobile apps.

While they have nearly one million charitable organizations to choose from, the organizations cannot just list themselves on Amazon and hope they get money. With so many to choose from, charities must advertise themselves effectively, which can cost a lot more money.

In addition, it is something to keep in mind that Amazon has not had the best record when it comes to employee conditions a corporate taxes. So this may be something to keep in mind if you are a charitable organization thinking about partnering with them.

Overall, both Facebook and Amazon have their pros and cons, as do most things in life. But in this case, FundCru has addressed these issues and made it a pleasurable way to give, buy, and donate.