Advantages of Fundraising on ClassWish.org
ClassWish is certainly the best fundraising platform for FIRST teams. Here are some of its many advantages.
(Also, be sure to see this sample team fundraising page).
ClassWish is a Nonprofit Platform, So Our Priority is Helping You (not making a profit)
Most fundraising platforms are businesses, which seek to make a profit for their investors. Like FIRST, itself, ClassWish is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. That means our sole mission is helping students get the resources they need to thrive.
A Custom Solution to Best Meet the Needs of FIRST Teams
Other crowd-funding platforms provide a general solution, so every type of organization or person has to adapt to it. ClassWish created a custom solution designed specifically for FIRST teams. As you will see, we provide features and benefits that no other platform offers.
Donations through ClassWish are Tax-Deductible
Donations through ClassWish are Eligible for Employer Matching
Donations through ClassWish are eligible for matching by more than 16,000 employers, and ClassWish handles the paperwork.
ClassWish Is More Affordable
ClassWish is the best deal for your online fundraising solution.
No Need to Hit a Fundraising Goal or Target on ClassWish, as on Other Sites
ClassWish Is More Flexible
We know how important flexibility is, so we respond to your needs.
ClassWish Makes Fundraising More Effective by Helping You Present Your Team in a Great Light
We provide the tools so you can easily portray your team in the most compelling manner, including:
ClassWish Attracts Donations by Encouraging Fundraising by All Team Members
If you wish, you can let donors easily specify a particular student, mentor, or volunteer who solicited their donation so you can give those team members recognition. Encouraging everyone to help with fundraising can help you reach more donors and attract more funding.
ClassWish Makes it Easier to Raise Funds for Travel
Many teams need funding for travel. ClassWish makes that easier to raise by letting donors--if you wish--direct their donation to the travel expenses of a specific student, mentor, or volunteer.
ClassWish Encourages Donations by Displaying Rewards and Providing Recognition
Many people and companies are motivated by rewards and by recognition. We provide the best possible tools to encourage their donations.
ClassWish Provides Your Team Maximum Exposure to Attract Donors
ClassWish provides your team with the greatest possible exposure to help you attract visitors and donations:
ClassWish Offers Free Tools to Generate More Awareness, Traffic, and Donations
You do not have time to create all the marketing assets that you might want to have. We do it for you (and you can still use your own materials).
ClassWish Encourages Donations by Making It Easy for Donors
Donors are most likely to give when the process is easy.
ClassWish Gives Teams Additional Opportunities to Receive More Funding, Including:
We have several ways that your team members and supporters can easily generate significant funds for your team, aside from donating.
ClassWish Give You Immediate Access to Your Funds
Some fundraising platforms do not give you your funds until the end of your campaign or only on their set schedule. At ClassWish, you can request your funds at any time.
Teams on ClassWish Are Eligible to Win Great Prizes
We offer opportunities for teams on ClassWish to win prizes. For instance, one recent prize was control of a satellite to run experiments in space for a week.
ClassWish Tools for FIRST Are Getting Better and Better
We are delighted to be getting great feedback on our FIRST team fundraising tools. We strive to make it as effective and easy as positive, so please share your questions and suggestions by emailing us at:
FIRST [AT] ClassWish [DOT] org
Ready to Start Receiving Donations?
If you are the person who will be creating your fundraising page, here is a page just for you. Be sure to refer back to this site for tips and tools.
Have questions? Just email FIRST [AT] ClassWish [DOT] org
ClassWish is a Nonprofit Platform, So Our Priority is Helping You (not making a profit)
Most fundraising platforms are businesses, which seek to make a profit for their investors. Like FIRST, itself, ClassWish is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. That means our sole mission is helping students get the resources they need to thrive.
A Custom Solution to Best Meet the Needs of FIRST Teams
Other crowd-funding platforms provide a general solution, so every type of organization or person has to adapt to it. ClassWish created a custom solution designed specifically for FIRST teams. As you will see, we provide features and benefits that no other platform offers.
Donations through ClassWish are Tax-Deductible
- Donors are far more likely to give, and they are likely to give more, if their contribution is tax-deductible. ClassWish is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit (unlike the for-profit fundraising platforms), so donations are tax-deductible, even if your team is not a nonprofit.
- Some teams have said they are glad that ClassWish frees them from having to go through their school for raising and spending funds.
Donations through ClassWish are Eligible for Employer Matching
Donations through ClassWish are eligible for matching by more than 16,000 employers, and ClassWish handles the paperwork.
ClassWish Is More Affordable
ClassWish is the best deal for your online fundraising solution.
- ClassWish provides teams customized, branded fundraising pages at no cost, unlike one platform that charges monthly fees of as much as $99 and requires a 12-month commitment.
- ClassWish credit card fees are lower than for-profit fundraising platforms charge, since we get a discounted nonprofit rate of just 2.2% and 30 cents. Aside from that, the full amount of every donation is credited directly to your ClassWish account, with no fees deducted.
- One big fundraising platform takes 15% of donations by default and charges a $30 fulfillment fee. ClassWish takes no portion of the incoming donations, and we do not charge any fulfillment fees.
- We waive all fundraising fees when you have us purchase items for your team from a growing list of vendors; we charge your account only the amount you would pay if you bought the items online. See details.
- If you want us to send you funds, rather than buy resources for you, the ClassWish fee is just a modest 5%, which is lower than other platforms. See details.
No Need to Hit a Fundraising Goal or Target on ClassWish, as on Other Sites
- Some fundraising platforms charge a higher fee if you do not hit your target. Not ClassWish!
- One big fundraising platform returns all donations to funders if you do not hit your goal. Not ClassWish!
- Another big fundraising platform has the funders pick another project if you do not hit your goal. Not ClassWish!
ClassWish Is More Flexible
We know how important flexibility is, so we respond to your needs.
- One big fundraising platform is limited to public school educators. ClassWish welcomes teams affiliated with public schools, private schools, home schools, no schools, or nonprofits. We are here to help all FIRST teams.
- One big fundraising platform makes you specify your exact shopping list when you define your project and will not let you change it. ClassWish lets you modify your wish list at any time and apply funds to on any of your team's needs.
- One big fundraising platform will not accept donations in excess of your fundraising target. We know that you need more, so anyone can continue to donate any amount to support your team.
- Other fundraising platforms let you run a campaign for only a fixed period. We know that your needs are open-ended, so ClassWish fundraising pages stay up until you take them down. That lets you keep receiving donations month after month and year after year.
ClassWish Makes Fundraising More Effective by Helping You Present Your Team in a Great Light
We provide the tools so you can easily portray your team in the most compelling manner, including:
- A gallery of large photos
- A selection of videos
- A content management tool, which lets you present your team exactly the way you want (including more graphics and videos, if you wish)
- Downloadable documents to provide visitors with more information
- Optionally display students, mentors and volunteers to recognize their hard work, engage them in fundraising, and help attract more donations.
- Display customized wish list of needs (registration, robot parts, tools, space rental, travel, pizza, etc.) so people understand what you need and are inspired to contribute.
ClassWish Attracts Donations by Encouraging Fundraising by All Team Members
If you wish, you can let donors easily specify a particular student, mentor, or volunteer who solicited their donation so you can give those team members recognition. Encouraging everyone to help with fundraising can help you reach more donors and attract more funding.
ClassWish Makes it Easier to Raise Funds for Travel
Many teams need funding for travel. ClassWish makes that easier to raise by letting donors--if you wish--direct their donation to the travel expenses of a specific student, mentor, or volunteer.
ClassWish Encourages Donations by Displaying Rewards and Providing Recognition
Many people and companies are motivated by rewards and by recognition. We provide the best possible tools to encourage their donations.
- We make it easy to establish and display rewards for contributors and sponsors. Some fundraising platforms do not allow that at all. One just shows little icons. ClassWish lets you display whatever images and descriptions you want to make your rewards as compelling as possible.
- ClassWish gives your sponsors and donors more recognition than any other fundraising platform. They even get an entire page with photos, such as this, so they are more likely to donate. Because those pages make them look good, they are more likely to share them with others, so you get more exposure to more potential contributors.
- Ancillary pages such as this help engage the employees of your sponsors.
ClassWish Provides Your Team Maximum Exposure to Attract Donors
ClassWish provides your team with the greatest possible exposure to help you attract visitors and donations:
- Your team will appear on your school's ClassWish page so more people see you.
- Your team will appear on your region's ClassWish page so anyone wanting to support a team in the region can easily find you.
- Your team will appear on the page we create for each of your sponsors, so people reading about the sponsors' support of your team there will see how they can help support you, too.
- We let you display links to your team website and social media presence to encourage engagement.
- We encourage visitors to "like" your page so they feel more involved and so other visitors recognize one another.
- We let people join your newsletter list to keep them involved.
- Your page can link to other teams' pages (and they can link to yours) in the spirit of coopetition.
ClassWish Offers Free Tools to Generate More Awareness, Traffic, and Donations
You do not have time to create all the marketing assets that you might want to have. We do it for you (and you can still use your own materials).
- We provide web banners designed specifically for each type of stakeholder to display so that your team gets more exposure, more links, more visibility, and more donations.. That includes students, friends, mentors, volunteers, sponsors, schools, parents, grandparents, and others. See the banners here.
- Our advertising professionals work with us to provide text for emails, tweets, and other communications that you can easily share to ensure your success.
- Our built-in social media sharing tools help you spread the word and reach donors, and they also help your supporters help attract donations for you.
- We provide a regular stream of email tips to your team leader and members to keep them enaged in fundraising and let them know how they can easily help.
ClassWish Encourages Donations by Making It Easy for Donors
Donors are most likely to give when the process is easy.
- We allow anyone to donate via PayPal, as well as by credit card. That is important because the extra effort of entering credit card info discourages many donors. At least two other platforms do not allow donations to nonprofits via PayPal.
- We allow people to donate any amount up to $10,000, unlike other platforms that impose a minimum.
- One major fundraising platform tells donors that the default is for the platform to take 15% off the top, which likely discourages many donors. ClassWish doesn't say that--because we do not charge that fee.
ClassWish Gives Teams Additional Opportunities to Receive More Funding, Including:
We have several ways that your team members and supporters can easily generate significant funds for your team, aside from donating.
- Your team can receive referral rewards when you and your supporters invite teachers to join ClassWish
- We partnered with an online bookstore that offers a 10% discount on all titles (so it is competitive with the big online book vendors) and also donates 7.5% of each purchase to the customer's selected team (or school, teacher, or nonprofit). If you get just 100 families to purchase $200 of books, that will generate $1500 for your team. All they have to do is shop at this online bookstore (7.5% of every purchase goes to your team).
- An affiliate of Wyndham Resorts offers vacation resort certificates for just $599. If your supporters visit our partner's site to get a promo code, they can save 25% and earn a $100 donation for your team. Here is the link for those discounted vacation resort certificates
- Soon, your team will also be able to earn donations when supporters purchase gift cards, shop online at more than 1,500 stores, or shop locally.
ClassWish Give You Immediate Access to Your Funds
Some fundraising platforms do not give you your funds until the end of your campaign or only on their set schedule. At ClassWish, you can request your funds at any time.
Teams on ClassWish Are Eligible to Win Great Prizes
We offer opportunities for teams on ClassWish to win prizes. For instance, one recent prize was control of a satellite to run experiments in space for a week.
ClassWish Tools for FIRST Are Getting Better and Better
We are delighted to be getting great feedback on our FIRST team fundraising tools. We strive to make it as effective and easy as positive, so please share your questions and suggestions by emailing us at:
FIRST [AT] ClassWish [DOT] org
Ready to Start Receiving Donations?
If you are the person who will be creating your fundraising page, here is a page just for you. Be sure to refer back to this site for tips and tools.
Have questions? Just email FIRST [AT] ClassWish [DOT] org