This month, we're celebrating two of our most significant milestones to date: We estimate that we've saved the nonprofit community at least $100 million in tech expenses on $1 billion raised since our start in 2015.

Our active membership includes approximately 9,000 nonprofits, but we've served a wider universe surpassing 50,000 organizations. These are the organizations that have saved tens of millions of dollars a year in fundraising costs, money they would otherwise have spent on the software and fees of for-profit digital fundraising platforms. Core to our mission of making fundraising technology available to nonprofits for free, we do not require nonprofits to pay for use of our platform – no setup fees, no platform fees, no membership or subscription fees, no annual or monthly fees. 

"I'm proud of the cost savings we've achieved – real money we've been able to redirect back into the hands of the nonprofits that need it most,” said David DeParolesa, our CEO. “If anything, I continue to be shocked by how much money other tech platforms charge, and how confusing and complex their business models can be," he continued, referring to service providers like Blackbaud, Bonterra, Classy and Eventbrite, among others, that demand significant sums to use their technology. “This is a sector that deserves clarity and transparency, not hidden fees and surprise upcharges.”

Our focus on free is made possible by our philanthropist-founders, Jennifer and Jonathan Allan Soros, who underwrite our operating costs. They see Give Lively as a sustainable and efficient way to help meet the nonprofit community’s development needs, all while democratizing tech for nonprofits and leveling the digital fundraising playing field. They believe fundraising tech should be powerful, practical and free for all nonprofits. Give Lively also started welcoming optional tips from donors as a way to further extend the reach and capacity of its free products and services. 

What $100 million means

The only required fees associated with our platform are the transparent costs of third-party payment processors, like Stripe, PayPal and Shift4 (coming soon), responsible for securely managing transactions from donation to disbursement. Other fundraising platforms, however, maintain complex pricing models, often levying supplemental charges such as Classy’s 4.29% platform fee, GlobalGiving’s 5% upcharge or, in other cases, integration fees, service fees, monthly or annual fees and more.

The $100 million in savings is based on the real prices advertised by these other fundraising platforms. We've analyzed the costs that would have been charged to our member nonprofits if they had chosen to raise the same $1 billion on fee-based platforms versus our free tech and integrations.

"We think $100 million is a conservative estimate,” said DeParolesa. “There are plenty of those hidden fees and service charges on other platforms that we haven’t covered in our calculations.”

Of note, the $100 million figure includes savings for over 45,000 nonprofits that have received donations through Charity Navigator’s Giving Basket, powered by Give Lively. We were selected by Charity Navigator, the world’s largest and most trusted nonprofit evaluator, to build a new and improved Giving Basket. Launched in 2021, it enables donors to give directly to approximately 1.8 million nonprofits through Charity Navigator at no additional cost to nonprofits.

The value of values

In addition to our emphasis on the power of free, we lean on our progressive values, embraced as a core membership criterion. We personally review every membership application to ensure nonprofits align with our commitment to gender and racial equality, reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights, social and environmental justice, universal health and education, immigrant services and more.

“I could not be more proud of Give Lively,” said Jennifer Allan Soros, Give Lively's co-founder. “What started as a free, single-product alternative to expensive digital fundraising tools has matured into a fully rounded, multi-product platform and game-changing market force. That the exceptional Give Lively team has held true to our guiding ethos demonstrates how technology can amplify social impact.”