Frequently asked questions
Answers to the questions buyers actually ask
The questions that come up most often when a school, PTA, or booster-club committee evaluates Fundly for the first time. Answers are written for the person who has to defend the decision in front of a treasurer, a principal, or a school board — not for a marketing brochure.
At a glance — the launch fee
Standard campaigns: the greater of $10 or $2 per active student. Event mode: a flat $15.00. Computed from the formula at module scope so this page can never disagree with the pricing page.
| Roster size | Launch fee |
|---|---|
| 25 students | $50.00 |
| 50 students | $100.00 |
| 100 students | $200.00 |
The questions
How is Fundly priced?
Fundly charges one flat launch fee per campaign — never a percentage of donations or sales. For standard campaigns (multi-week, student-led drives and online stores) the fee is the greater of $10 or $2 per active student on the roster. For event mode (a single ticket sale, a one-day table, an in-person pop-up) the fee is a flat $15.00. The exact amount is shown to the organization admin on the launch screen before any card is charged, so there are no surprises. See the pricing page for worked examples at 25, 50, and 100 students.
Are there any other fees?
The only other charge is Stripe's standard card-processing fee — typically around 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction — which is paid out of your organization's connected account, not added on top of what a supporter gives. Fundly adds nothing on top. By way of comparison, on a $5,000 fundraiser a typical 5% platform would take $250.00; Fundly's launch fee for a 50-student roster is $100.00 and for a 100-student roster it is $200.00, regardless of how much is raised.
How does my organization get verified?
Most K-12 schools with a record in the NCES (National Center for Education Statistics) directory are matched automatically. 501(c)(3) nonprofits whose EIN appears in the IRS Pub 78 data are also verified automatically. Booster clubs, PTAs, and similar orgs that don't appear in either dataset can start right away on the self-attested fast-track — the org admin enters the legal name, address, and an attestation, and the campaign can launch. The "verified" badge on a campaign page reflects whichever of these paths the org completed; you can finish full verification later from org settings to upgrade the badge and unlock tax-deductible donation language.
Can we launch a campaign before our organization is fully verified?
Yes. Booster clubs, PTAs, and other orgs without a matching NCES or IRS record can start on the self-attested fast-track. Campaigns launched on this path use neutral donation wording (not "tax-deductible"). Once you complete full verification later, the badge updates and your existing campaign pages can switch to deductibility language without re-launching.
When is the launch fee charged?
The launch fee is charged once, at the moment an org admin clicks Launch and the campaign transitions from approved to live. The amount is shown on the launch screen before the card is charged. Charging happens at the approve-to-live transition because that is when the work is performed: the public page is configured, the Stripe payment link is generated, and the campaign clock starts. For that reason the launch fee is non-refundable even if the campaign is later cancelled, paused, or under-delivers — see the next question for the narrow exception process.
Is the launch fee refundable?
The launch fee is non-refundable as a rule, because the work of taking a campaign live happens the moment it launches. We will consider a refund in narrow cases: a duplicate charge, a charge made without org authorization, or a documented technical error. Goodwill credits may be granted at Fundly's discretion for organizations in good standing. To request an exception, email [email protected] with the campaign ID, the date of the charge, and a short explanation; we aim to respond within five business days. Donations and sale proceeds are separate: those refunds are issued by the organization out of its own Stripe account, not by Fundly.
What ages can participate in a campaign?
Students aged 13 and up can be assigned to standard campaigns, and they can hold a Fundly account. The 13+ status is established by an attestation from a responsible adult — the advisor or org admin — not by the student typing in a date of birth; that attestation is recorded with the adult's identity, the method, and a timestamp. Students under 13 are not asked to create accounts and are not named on any public-facing page. This is our COPPA posture: we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe we have, email [email protected] and we will delete it.
Is student data stored on Fundly's own infrastructure?
Yes. Application data — accounts, campaigns, donations, orders, student roster metadata, audit events — is stored on infrastructure Fundly operates; we do not pass it to a third-party data processor for storage. Payment card data is handled directly by Stripe in Stripe-hosted fields, never by Fundly, so card numbers never touch our servers or logs.
How long do you keep our data?
We keep financial transaction records — donations, orders, refunds, Stripe payouts, launch-fee payments — for at least seven years to satisfy IRS recordkeeping requirements for the organizations and donors involved. Other operational data (campaigns, rosters, audit events, support correspondence) is kept for three years after the account is closed or the campaign ends, after which it is deleted or fully anonymized. You can request earlier deletion of personal data; financial records tied to past transactions are retained for the seven-year period even after a deletion request.
Is Fundly accessible?
Yes. Fundly is built to WCAG 2.2 AA. Every page has a single h1, semantic landmarks (header, main, footer), a skip-to-content link, and form fields with associated labels. Theme colors are checked for contrast at upload time — a poorly chosen color is adjusted automatically so text stays readable. Tables on the public site use scope attributes; interactive controls meet the 44×44 px touch-target guideline. If you find a barrier, email [email protected] with the page URL and a short description.
Does my organization need to be a 501(c)(3) to use Fundly?
No. Any K-12 school, PTA, booster club, or similar US-based youth organization can use Fundly, whether or not it has IRS tax-exempt status. The difference is what language we let you use on the donation page: a verified 501(c)(3) (or a verified government entity, see below) can describe donations as "tax-deductible"; everyone else uses neutral wording like "contribution" or "donation." See the buyer decision aid below for the full 501(c)(3) vs government-org comparison.
Are donations to our campaign tax-deductible?
It depends on your organization's status, and we are careful to keep the wording conditional. Donations to a verified 501(c)(3) are generally tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law; donations to a verified government entity (a public school district, for example) are also generally tax-deductible where allowed. Donations to a self-attested org on the fast-track are not described as tax-deductible on the campaign page. In every case, the donor's transaction record is not a tax receipt issued by Fundly — it is a record of the transaction. Donors should consult their own tax advisor.
What is Stripe Connect, and what does it mean for payouts?
Stripe Connect is the Stripe product that lets your organization receive card payments into its own bank account. When you onboard, you complete a one-time Stripe Connect setup (handled by Stripe, in Stripe's hosted flow) and the org's bank account is connected to your Fundly account. From then on, every donation or order is processed by Stripe on your connected account and deposited by Stripe directly to your bank on Stripe's standard payout schedule (typically twice a week). Fundly never holds, custodies, or disburses donor or buyer money — the launch fee Fundly keeps is the only money that touches a Fundly-controlled account.
How long does it take to launch our first campaign?
Our current target is under 30 minutes from registration to a live campaign for a self-attested organization. The path is: sign up → enter the org's name and address → invite an advisor or build the campaign yourself → add students → submit for approval → approve and pay the launch fee. NCES-matched schools skip the attestation step; the rest of the path is the same. We track the actual median time per cohort and update this target when our data contradicts it, so check back if you are evaluating us after a few months.
How does support work if something goes wrong with our campaign?
Email [email protected]. The current response-time targets are: billing or account-access issues, one business day; feature questions, three business days; everything else, two business days. If your issue is time-sensitive (a campaign is live and donations are misbehaving, a payout is missing, a child-safety concern), mark the subject line with URGENT and we triage those first. The status page at /status reports platform-wide incidents.
Buyer decision aid — what changes between a 501(c)(3) and a government organization?
Both verified 501(c)(3)s and verified government entities (such as a public school district) can use tax-deductible donation language on their campaign pages, but the verification path is different. A 501(c)(3) is matched automatically when its EIN appears in IRS Pub 78 data; a public school is matched automatically when it appears in the NCES directory. Private schools, charter schools, and homeschool cooperatives without an NCES record fall back to the self-attested path. In all three cases the launch fee is the same flat formula; only the badge wording and the donation-page vocabulary change.
Buyer decision aid — do we need to register with our state before soliciting donations?
That depends on the state. Texas currently does not require general charitable registration for most school-affiliated and youth-org fundraisers (specific event-based and out-of-state solicitations may have separate requirements). Other states do require registration or a filing exemption, and the rules vary — a useful starting point is the National Association of State Charity Officials (NASCO) multi-state filer portal, which links to each state's charity office and registration forms. Fundly does not file state registrations on your behalf; the organization is responsible for its own compliance.
Can I import my contacts and roster from another platform?
Yes. On the contact side, Fundly accepts the contact CSV exported from Mailchimp or Constant Contact — email and display name, with a header row — and turns each row into a supporter you can message. On the roster side, Fundly accepts a OneRoster CSV (the standard format used by student information systems) and creates the corresponding student accounts in one batch, with the org admin's age attestation covering the whole upload. See the switching guide for the full migration walk-through.
Want the long version?
The pages below spell out the same story in policy-grade language. The FAQ above is the short, plain-English answer; the linked pages are the source of truth at audit time.
- Pricing — the formula, worked examples, and the comparison with percentage platforms.
- Fees & Refunds — the launch-fee and refund policy in full.
- Privacy Policy — what we collect, how we use it, and your rights.
- Terms of Service — the agreement between Fundly and the organizations that use it.
- Support — how to reach a human, and the response-time targets we hold ourselves to.