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CrowdRise has a rating of 2.78 stars from 101 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. CrowdRise ranks 1st among Crowd Funding sites.
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They funded my charity project in Venezuela last year. Thank you so much for impacting the world. They will take you through a myrad of bureaucracy but its neccessary to eliminate pretenders
This is one of the most needlessly confusing products I have ever used. They make you set up teams within fundraisers within fundraisers within teams, like this were the plot of Inception. Add onto that the complete lack of user support I reached out multiple times and did not receive a single email reply and CrowdRise was an absolute nightmare. Stay away!
I understand that there's often a ~3% fee for credit card transactions (although I would like to hear that crowdrise has negotiated with credit card companies to reduce these fees for charitable donations), but where exactly is the additional 5-6% going? That seems like a very high fee for simply "processing" a donation. I'd like to see a clear explanation of what you guys are doing with your fees. People making donations on your side aren't doing it to enrich the middle man.
Crowdrise has replaced decency (and common sense) with cutesy responses and an uber-friendly approach that is still b. S. What they are doing (and I can't understand the legality of this) is NOT telling you the exact fee you will be charged when you submit a donation. Instead, they feed on your general good intentions by asking if you'd like 100% of your donation to go where you want but then DON'T tell you what your actual bill will be. Slimy! When you ask about the fees, they give a pat answer about all platforms having fees and this great option they're giving you to have 100% go where you want, etc. But notice, they still don't explain WHY they didn't tell what the fee would be upfront, WHY the fees are so high and exactly WHERE each amount of your fee went. They just don't do that. Hmmm. Wonder why. They are very for profit. That's all fine if they're upfront about it, but they're not. Ultimately I'm sure they do good by helping get money out where it's needed (which is why I didn't give them a 1 star), but their tactics are see-through slimy, their fees purely for profit, and I'm really surprised so many people are just so okay with that tactic. REVEAL YOUR FEES AHEAD OF TIME, CROWDRISE! Simple.
Hey Erik,
Thanks so much for your feedback.
Fees on CrowdRise are made up of a platform fee, plus a standard credit card processing fee. These help us keep our lights on, offer customer support, and provide charities with excellent services. The suggestion to show the breakdown of how the overall fees break down is a great one and we'll pass that along to our team.
Because we give donors the option to choose, every checkout page shows the Donation Amount and Fees itemized. The donor may choose to Edit the Fees line if they wish, so they can opt out of covering them for the charity. It's totally up to you if you'd like to pay or opt out and we're happy to help if there were any oversights which caused you to pay more than your intended donation amount.
Either way, your donation is a huge help to the cause you support, and providing the platform to share your enthusiasm for giving with your social network helps them even more.
Quintas
CrowdRise Customer Service
Thank you for your response, but it a little misleading. While it is true that I was finally able to get an answer to my issue, it is not accurate that CrowdRise "connected with" e within three hours. I searched the internet and found the customer service number and called you. Wes was very helpful, but to be clear, I contacted CrowdRise. Other than the conversation with Wes, which I initiated, this review is the first contact CrowdRise responded to._________________________________________________________________________
I keep seeing reviews about CrowdRise's great customer service, but my experience has been the opposite. The Donate Now button disappeared from my fundraising page, and I can't get any response from customer service. I emailed, Facebook messaged, and tweeted, but still no response. I even sent an email to their internal review site, and no answer! I'm very upset that I can't accept more donations for the cause and very embarrassed that potential donors can't find the donate link on my page I'm appalled that CrowdRise just seems to be ignoring me completely. This derails my confidence in them as a fundraising platform.__________________________________________________________________________________
Hey Monica,
Thanks so much for posting your concerns here on SiteJabber.
I noticed that you reached out to us just this morning and we were able to connect with you within a couple of hours on the phone to resolve your issue. Our agent Wes said you were perfectly pleasant and a joy to speak with on the phone.
As you learned, the organizers of the event Move For Minds requested the donation button be taken down as they wanted to utilize our platform a little differently. I'm sure you understand what happened now and we appreciate your understanding.
Our Customer Service has a guarantee to respond to every different form of communication within 24 hours. We were able to connect with you within 3 hours of your first message. Our Customer Service team is responding to all customer inquiries 7 days a week, starting at 9am EST. We work until 8pm EST Monday through Thursday, and until 5pm EST Friday through Sunday.
If you have any other questions or wish to amend your review of CrowdRise given the circumstances, feel free to reach out again. Have the best weekend.
Max
CrowdRise Customer Service Person
I'm giving crowdrise two stars only because it may offer charities some benefits I'm not aware of. As a donor, I was ticked off that crowdwise wants a 10% fee for processing a transaction.
This seems egregiously excessive to me, especially if they fancy themselves as somewhat of an altruistic company.
Why would I have to give Crowdrise $109.10 to deliver $100 to the charity?
Hey there,
Thanks for the email. Great feedback and we're here to help explain it all.
A few months ago we launched functionality for the donor to cover all the processing fees and credit card fees so that 100% of donations go to the causes on CrowdRise. The $9.10 you're inquiring about represents the fees to get 100% of your donation to your cause. So, the $109.10 is a total of your donation of $100 plus the $9.10 in additional fees.
Two more quick notes...
If you have donated, we can refund your donation and you can submit a new donation opting out of covering these fees. If this works for you please say so and we’ll make it happen right away.
Since we launched CrowdRise, we've tried to use innovative ways to keep the costs to the charities low so that donations can have the greatest impact possible. In the past, all the fees used to come out of the donation and we used to have a separate charge to the donor to help fund the CrowdRise platform. But, we've worked with charities to develop another solution for the donor to cover the fees so that 100% of the donation goes to charity.
This may be slightly confusing so please let us know if you have any other questions and we’ll be ready to dig in.
Thanks so much and please feel free to email Quintas@CrowdRise.com with any other questions.
Quintas
CrowdRise Customer Service Person
I wanted to love crowdrise, it seems awesome, but then... you go to donate and unless you read every detail on that donate page an extra 10% "tip" will be tacked onto your donation. This is WRONG! Of course, I should read every detail, and I did, but what if I didn't? This just screams deceptive. How many people are they tricking?
Gain trust and grow your business with customer reviews.
CrowdRise is about giving back, raising lots of money for great causes, and having the most fun in the world while doing it.
CrowdRise is the world’s largest community raising money for great causes. CrowdRise was named one of the “best online fundraising websites” by Mashable and Forbes. The CrowdRise community was named a “Top 25 Best Global Philanthropist” by Barron’s. We beat Oprah. The NYC Marathon, Boston Marathon, Ironman, Red Cross, UNICEF, as well as celebrities like Sean Penn, Seth Rogan, Ian Somerhalder, Sophia Bush, Paul Rudd, Olivia Wilde and Will Ferrell all CrowdRise. We used to try to keep CrowdRise a secret but we're making a slight change and encouraging you to tell two friends and one person who you don't like all that much about the site.
CrowdRise was founded by actor and activist, Edward Norton, producer and activist Shauna Robertson, and internet entrepreneurs Robert and Jeffrey Wolfe. CrowdRise was named a "Top 25 Global Philanthropist" by Barron's and a "Top Fundraising Website" by Mashable.
Hey Eiling,
Thanks for the comment and I can definitely help explain all of our fee structure details for ya.
We offer fundraisers, charities and events on CrowdRise a pricing structure that allows their donors to cover their processing fees so 100% of the donation goes to their cause. The estimated 9% you're inquiring about represents the fees to get 100% of your donation to your cause. If you didn’t cover the fees, your fees would be 0% and your charity would see 5.9% (CrowdRise fees) + 2.9% + $0.30 (credit card fees) less go to their cause.
All charitable platforms charge fees to fundraise on their site plus standard credit card fees. CrowdRise is the ONLY platform that has built functionality so the donors can cover those fees. Right now 93% of donors choose to cover the fees, which is pretty amazing. And, that means, on average, over 98% of money raised is going directly to the cause. That's less than credit card fees. So, while this may have been slightly confusing, please know that this pricing structure is awesome for the benefiting causes and Charities.
We really want to help and hope this explained everything. If you have any more questions, please email us at Quintas@CrowdRise.com and we’ll be ready to dig in.
Quintas
CrowdRise Customer Service Person