DonorsChoose vs Fundiful

DonorsChoose connects donors with public school teachers requesting classroom resources. Teachers submit supply or project requests, donors contribute, and DonorsChoose orders and ships funded goods to verified teachers. Teachers can sign up and post projects for free. Classroom Essentials offers curated basic supplies with no minimum, shipping items as funding arrives. Classroom Projects use a catalog of more than 1 million products from over 20 teacher-favorite stores, including Lakeshore, Amazon, and Staples. These projects require a $100 minimum and can remain posted for up to four months; if the goal is missed, donors may redirect contributions to the teacher’s next project. Submissions are reviewed before posting, typically within five business days. Eligibility covers full-time educators at public or public charter schools working directly with students, subject to detailed rules. DonorsChoose says it vets requests, reviews student privacy, and requires permission for student photos. Teachers provide donors a thank-you package with two project photos.

Fundiful provides branded online crowdfunding campaigns for organizations raising money for causes and projects. Each organization can have a dedicated site that displays its branding and only its own campaigns. Campaign pages can include a title, description, picture, fundraising target, video, special formatting, and a custom URL; organizations can edit, deactivate, or reactivate campaigns through platform forms. Donations can be processed by Fundiful or through an organization's own merchant account. When Fundiful processes card donations, the processor's fee, described as approximately 2%, is deducted from the donation, and Fundiful says it adds no transaction fee. Payouts reach the organization's bank account in daily or weekly batches, at its option. Organizations processing at least $10,000 in monthly donations can use their own merchant account through Stripe or Authorize.net. The responsive platform is designed for mobile devices, tablets, laptops, and desktops. Organizations can provide translations for selected content. Fundiful serves faith based organizations and businesses running charitable projects, but is not designed for personal fundraising. Its free plan has no startup costs or monthly fees; direct services such as setup or campaign management may incur charges.