GiveForward

What GiveForward does

GiveForward was a Chicago-based, for-profit online crowdfunding platform founded in 2008 that enabled individuals to create and share fundraising campaigns for personal causes, with primary use cases including medical expense coverage, funeral costs, and small-scale community or youth projects. The platform was self-serve and product-led: organizers independently set up campaigns without direct sales engagement, and demand was generated through organic social sharing, word-of-mouth referrals, and community distribution rather than paid acquisition. Following its acquisition by GoFundMe, GiveForward no longer operates as an independent entity; its website now redirects users to GoFundMe's unified platform, and the GiveForward name persists as an acquired sub-brand within the larger ecosystem.

The consolidated product is an online crowdfunding platform with a 0% platform fee for campaign organizers, no goal requirements, and no deadlines, monetized solely through standard payment processing fees on credit and debit card transactions. Notable platform features include the GoFundMe Guarantee (a donor refund protection), 24/7 campaign coaching support, and a content library of campaign tips and success stories. The underlying technology consists of standard web-based campaign creation and donation processing tools, now integrated into GoFundMe's broader infrastructure rather than maintained as a proprietary GiveForward stack.

GiveForward's go-to-market motion is product-led growth: campaign discovery is driven by organizers sharing campaigns across their personal social networks, with secondary demand generated through educational content and referral flows from existing donors. The customer base is horizontal and highly distributed, segmented into individuals facing medical and personal crises (primary) and community project organizers (secondary), with no enterprise or anchor accounts. Pre-acquisition, GiveForward raised approximately $2.55 million in disclosed funding across four rounds between 2010 and 2013, with First Round Capital and Founder Collective co-leading the largest disclosed 2012 round, before being absorbed into GoFundMe, where the parent platform reports cumulative donations raised exceeding $5 billion and over 10,000 new campaigns started daily.

Name

GiveForward

Legal name

GiveForward

Website

https://giveforward.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2008

Operating status

Acquired

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

GiveForward was a Chicago-based online crowdfunding platform founded in 2008 that helped individuals raise funds for medical expenses, funeral costs, and community projects. Acquired by GoFundMe, it now operates as a redirecting sub-brand within GoFundMe's unified personal fundraising platform.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Personal Crowdfunding Platform

NAICS

Other Grantmaking and Giving Services (813219)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

Federated Giving Organizations (e.g., United Way-type) (BPAGAKAG)

akta.pro secondary industry

Grantmaking & Philanthropic Funds (Institutional Donors) (BPADAOAB)

Keywords

• Personal crowdfunding platform
• Medical fundraising
• Online donation platform
• Community fundraising
• Personal cause fundraising

Headquarters

HQ city

Chicago

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Operations, Personnel, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Transaction processing fees: The platform charges no platform fee to campaign organizers (0% platform fee), but standard payment processing fees apply to all credit and debit card transactions. This means revenue is generated through transaction processing fees assessed on each donation rather than upfront campaign fees or subscriptions.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

GiveForward is an online crowdfunding platform that enables individuals to create and manage personal fundraising campaigns for medical expenses, funeral costs, community projects, and personal crises. Following acquisition by GoFundMe, the service has been consolidated under the GoFundMe platform, which offers 0% platform fees, a donor refund guarantee, and 24/7 campaign coaching support. The platform facilitates donations through web-based self-serve tools with payment processing fees applied to credit and debit card transactions.

Product overview

GiveForward operates as a crowdfunding platform for personal fundraising causes. Following its acquisition by GoFundMe, the service has been consolidated into GoFundMe's platform. The unified offering consists of the GoFundMe core crowdfunding platform (featuring campaign creation tools, 0% platform fees, the GoFundMe Guarantee for donor protection, and 24/7 campaign coaching) and the GiveForward acquired brand, which now redirects users to GoFundMe's platform. The product portfolio functions as a single unified platform with an acquired sub-brand.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• GoFundMe (core crowdfunding platform)
• GiveForward (acquired brand)

Quantifiable outcome

• Over $5 billion raised on GoFundMe platform
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• GoFundMecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerGiveForward has been acquired by and integrated into GoFundMe, the largest and most trusted free fundraising platform. The acquisition brought GiveForward's user base, campaigns, and team into GoFundMe's ecosystem. GoFundMe now operates as the unified platform, offering GiveForward's former users access to GoFundMe's features including the donor refund guarantee, 0% platform fee model, and 24/7 campaign coaching support.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• GoFundMe: Parent company and the largest direct competitor in personal/medical crowdfunding. Operates the same 0% platform fee, self-serve model, and personal-cause use cases that originally defined GiveForward, and is the reference benchmark for the segment.
• FundRazr: Personal fundraising platform serving medical, memorial, and community causes with a self-serve model. Explicitly named alongside GoFundMe in third-party trust research, making it a directly comparable peer in the personal crowdfunding category.
• Fundly: Self-serve crowdfunding platform focused on personal, medical, and cause-based fundraising. Also explicitly named in GoFundMe's trust comparison and competes head-to-head for the same medical/personal-crisis campaigns.
• Generosity by Indiegogo: Indiegogo's personal-cause fundraising vertical, supporting medical, memorial, and emergency fundraising. Comparable in product, target user, and transaction-fee revenue model to GiveForward.
• GiveSendGo: Personal crowdfunding platform with a 0% platform fee model and a strong focus on community, faith-based, and personal-cause campaigns. Directly comparable positioning and revenue model.

Broad incumbents

• Indiegogo: Established crowdfunding platform with a wider portfolio spanning creative, tech, and personal-cause (via Generosity) campaigns. Broader incumbent whose Generosity vertical overlaps with GiveForward's offering.
• Kickstarter: Large, well-known crowdfunding platform. While primarily focused on creative and product campaigns, it operates the same self-serve, transaction-fee-based model and is a broader competitive incumbent in online fundraising.
• Bonterra (Network for Good): Larger nonprofit and grantmaking technology platform that includes personal fundraising and donor-management capabilities. Comparable business model overlap and shared customer base of nonprofits and individual fundraisers.
• Network for Good: Established donor-management and personal-fundraising platform serving individuals, nonprofits, and charities. Overlaps with GiveForward in personal-cause campaigns and donor-fund infrastructure.

Emerging players

• RallyUp: Smaller, growth-stage platform for nonprofits, schools, and individuals running online fundraising, auctions, and personal-cause campaigns. Comparable self-serve, transaction-fee-based model and overlapping customer segments.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/GiveForward
• Facebookfacebook.com/GiveForwardINC
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/giveforward

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds4 records

Investors9 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about GiveForward