School Fundraising Platforms: Fees, Pledges & Best Fit

The short answer

• You run it, and you also need forms, signups, sales, or school payments: Cheddar Up, FutureFund, or Givebacks.
• A nonprofit that wants fundraising, donor records, and marketing together: Givebutter.
• You run QR codes, per-student pages, and activity drives yourselves: ScanRaise.
• An eligible nonprofit that accepts optional donor contributions instead of fees: Zeffy.
• A US pledge event with participant pages the vendor helps set up: 99Pledges.
• You want help planning and staffing an event: Booster offers on-campus staffing with its full-service and shared-service plans. Ask for a written quote for the support level you need. Booster service model.
• You want guidance for an online campaign: Snap! Raise provides a dedicated expert to guide the campaign. Ask for a written quote tailored to your program. Snap! Raise service model.

What one $50 gift leaves the school, using the published fees in the matrix below. The math assumes a US domestic card, the school pays every listed fee, no tips or fee coverage, and fees rounded to the cent. It is arithmetic, not a prediction.

• Cheddar Up: $47.07 on Basic (3.95% + $0.95), or $47.61 on Pro or Team (3.59% + $0.59) plus the plan price. By default Cheddar Up passes card fees to the payer.
• Givebutter: $50.00 with optional tips on, where the Givebutter Guarantee covers processing on eligible online transactions, or $46.75 with tips off (3% plus 2.9% + $0.30).
• ScanRaise: $47.00 (2.5% platform fee plus Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30).
• Zeffy: $50.00 for eligible nonprofits. Donors may add an optional contribution to Zeffy.
• 99Pledges: $47.76 (3.49% + $0.49).
• FutureFund: $47.25 if the school absorbs the 4.9% + $0.30 fee. By default FutureFund adds it to the supporter's checkout, so the school receives $50.00 and the supporter pays $52.75.
• Givebacks: $48.25 on the tip model (2.9% + $0.30 processing), or $44.50 with 7.5% percent pricing.
• Booster and Snap! Raise: not published. Request a quote.

Method and ordering

This update covers the nine products already included in this article. It is not an exhaustive market directory and does not name an overall winner.

• Ordering: products are grouped by setup model, broad self-service, school or a-thon self-service, then managed or rep-guided. The groups are ordered by how much help the vendor provides. Products are alphabetized within each group, so the same rule reproduces the order.
• Best-fit labels: these are ScanRaise's interpretation of the audience, workflow, pricing, and service model described on the linked vendor pages. They are not scores or an overall order.
• Fee review: we separate a published platform fee from payment processing when the vendor does. If a vendor combines fees, funds the service with optional contributions, or requires a proposal, the table says that.
• Payment flow: we report only the payout or disbursement process described in the adjacent official source. Missing public details are labeled for confirmation.
• Review criteria: active official pages, adjacent citations, an explicit checked date, reproducible arithmetic, and no unsourced claims about results or unlisted product available actions.

School selection scorecard

Most comparisons stall on fees. The bigger difference is who does the work: with self-service software, your volunteers set up the campaign, share links, and follow up on pledges; with a managed service, vendor staff plan and run more of it, and the price reflects that. Start from the fundraiser you are actually running.

Then score two or three finalists on the same questions. The downloadable scorecard lists each question with a weight column and score columns for three vendors, and the weighted totals recalculate in any spreadsheet.

• Fees: the platform fee and processing on your typical gift, and who pays each one.
• Checkout: whether donors see optional tips or added fees, and the donor's total.
• Payouts: whose account receives the money and when it is available.
• Fundraiser tools: the pledge, activity, ticket, or auction features this drive needs.
• Attribution: totals by student, class, and grade, and what the export contains.
• Workload: the volunteer hours you supply and the staff the vendor supplies.
• Student data: the privacy agreement, consent controls, and sign-in options.
• Terms: contract length, minimums, refunds, and disputes.

Download the school fundraising platform scorecard (CSV)

When ScanRaise is not the right fit

ScanRaise is one of the products in this comparison, so here is where we would point you elsewhere.

• You want a company to plan, staff, and run the event. ScanRaise is software your group runs itself, with no event company, catalog, or on-site staff. Look at the managed or rep-guided options above.
• Keeping every dollar of every gift matters most. ScanRaise charges a 2.5% platform fee per donation, and processing is separate. Zeffy's model for eligible nonprofits relies on optional donor contributions instead.
• You also need school fees, forms, or volunteer sign-ups. Cheddar Up, FutureFund, and Givebacks are built around those workflows. ScanRaise covers donations, pledges, tickets, and auctions, plus a store where owners and admins manage products and inventory from Products on the organization page.
• Students must register themselves. On ScanRaise, an organizer adds participants by typing names, pasting a roster, uploading a CSV, or using an enabled roster integration.
• You plan to sell raffle tickets online. ScanRaise supports free-entry drawings online, and paid raffles run in person.

Illustrative fee example

Assumptions: 40 separate $50 donations, for $2,000 total, all paid with US domestic cards. The organization absorbs every listed fee. No donor tips or fee coverage, refunds, disputes, international cards, or custom processing rates are included.

• 99Pledges: $2,000 x 3.49% = $69.80. Then 40 x $0.49 = $19.60. Published transaction fees total $89.40, leaving $1,910.60 under these assumptions.
• ScanRaise with Stripe standard pricing: $2,000 x 2.5% = $50.00 in ScanRaise platform fees. Stripe processing is $2,000 x 2.9% = $58.00, plus 40 x $0.30 = $12.00. The combined illustrative fees total $120.00, leaving $1,880.00 under these assumptions.

This example demonstrates the published formulas. It is not a prediction of revenue or savings. Actual card mix, account pricing, fee settings, failed payments, refunds, and donor choices can change the result. Tip-funded and supporter-paid models also shift who pays, so compare both the organization's proceeds and the donor's checkout total.

How to choose

• Choose the setup model first: self-service software, vendor-assisted setup, or a managed event.
• Calculate the platform and processing charges for your expected number and size of gifts.
• Include optional tips or supporter-paid fees in the donor's checkout total, even when the organization receives the full intended gift.
• Ask who receives and holds each payment, when it becomes available, and how refunds and disputes affect the balance.
• For quote-based pricing, ask for the platform fee, processing, rewards or product costs, payout schedule, renewal terms, and every condition in writing.
• Confirm accessibility, privacy, school approval, and workflow requirements directly with each vendor before adopting a product.

Change log

• October 8, 2026: New title and summary. Added the scorecard for three common school fundraisers, the downloadable vendor scorecard, and a section on when ScanRaise is not the right fit. Vendor facts and fees were not rechecked in this update and remain dated August 21, 2026.
• August 21, 2026: Replaced the numbered order with a reproducible setup-model order. Added the conflict disclosure, source-adjacent pricing matrix, checked dates, review criteria, worked arithmetic, reviewer line, and updated vendor notes.
• June 20, 2026: Initial comparison published.