Best practices when making a donation

A few small habits make your donation smoother for you and safer for the family you are supporting. You do not need an account to give, so these tips are all that stand between you and a completed donation.

Use your own card and your own email

Pay with your personal card and enter an email address you actually check. Your receipt goes to that email, and donations made with someone else's card can look suspicious to our security screening and may be declined or refunded.

Use your real name

Enter your real name at checkout rather than a nickname. If you would rather not appear publicly, check the Make this donation anonymous box on the donation checkout page and your name will not be shown on the fundraiser.

Give once rather than many times

If you want to give more, one larger donation beats several small ones. Every card payment carries its own processing fee of 2.9% plus $0.30, so the flat 30 cents comes out of each separate gift. One combined donation sends more to the family. See the full breakdown on our pricing page.

Many rapid back-to-back donations from the same card can also look like card testing fraud, and our security systems may block them.

If you add an optional tip at checkout, it supports the platform and never reduces the amount that goes to the fundraiser.

Do not donate to your own fundraiser

If you are an organizer, giving to your own fundraiser does not help it. Self-donations are flagged by our fraud review, they do not count toward launch rewards, and they may be refunded. Share your fundraiser with friends and family instead; you can invite people from your Contacts page.

A note on security refunds

Our payment processor may proactively refund a donation if it cannot verify the donor's identity. These protections exist to shield families from fraudulent donations, so an occasional refund is the system working as intended. If your genuine donation was refunded, contact us and we will help.