What Piggybackr does

Piggybackr, operated by Future Bright LLC (New York-domiciled, founded 2011), is a self-serve, product-led crowdfunding platform purpose-built for youth, schools, families, and nonprofit organizations. Its core product is a web-based fundraising workflow that lets individuals or teams create campaigns, accept donations through Stripe, and promote them via built-in email tools and social-share integrations (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter). A distinguishing feature is the team-fundraising model, in which multiple members maintain individual pages while donations flow to a single account, providing both individual recognition and unified treasury management.

The platform's technology stack is composed of commodity SaaS components rather than proprietary ML systems: Stripe and WePay handle payment processing and PCI compliance, AWS/Heroku provide hosting, Cloudinary stores images, and Mailchimp/Zendesk/Intercom manage communication and support. Analytics layers include Google Analytics, Mixpanel, and Optimizely. The most distinctive technical element is the COPPA-compliant parental consent system, which enables children under 13 to participate through verifiable parental approval with limited data collection.

Piggybackr monetizes exclusively through a flat 4% platform fee on donations, with no signup fees and a flexible model allowing organizers or donors to absorb the fee. It competes on price against GoFundMe, Fundly, Razoo, and Kickstarter, and on safety/age-inclusivity as the only major platform explicitly supporting under-13 fundraisers. Geographic reach is limited to the United States and Canada, headcount is in the 11-50 range, and the company has disclosed only a single $325,000 seed round in April 2013 led by AngelPad with participation from InterWest Partners and Sierra Ventures.

Name

Piggybackr

Legal name

Future Bright LLC

Website

https://piggybackr.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2011

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Piggybackr is a self-serve crowdfunding platform with a 4% flat fee, focused on team-based fundraising for youth, schools, PTAs, and nonprofits in the U.S. and Canada, and uniquely COPPA-compliant for children under 13.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

San Francisco

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Platform Transaction Fees: Piggybackr charges a 4% platform fee on all donations received. Fundraisers can choose whether to cover the fee themselves or ask donors to pay it. This is a transaction-based revenue model where the company takes a percentage of each donation processed through the platform.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Piggybackr is a self-serve web-based crowdfunding platform that enables individuals, teams, schools, PTAs, and nonprofit organizations to create and run fundraisers. It supports team-based fundraising with individual member pages that collect into a single account, includes built-in email and social sharing tools, processes donations through Stripe, and uniquely allows children under 13 to participate through a COPPA-compliant parental consent system.

Product overview

Piggybackr is a crowdfunding platform focused on team-based fundraising for youth, families, schools, and nonprofit organizations. The platform consists of a core crowdfunding product with team collaboration features, built-in social media promotion tools, and secure payment processing via Stripe. Unique to the market, Piggybackr explicitly supports children under 13 through a parental consent system. The platform offers a flat 4% fee model with donor tip options as its primary pricing structure.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Piggybackr Crowdfunding Platform

Named customers8 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration6 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• StripecoreTechnology or IntegrationStripe is used as the payment processor for all donations on Piggybackr. All credit card information is transmitted via SSL directly to Stripe and is not stored on Piggybackr servers. Stripe handles PCI compliance and payment processing fees.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• GoFundMe: GoFundMe is the dominant consumer crowdfunding platform serving personal, medical, memorial, and charitable causes. It directly competes with Piggybackr in the school/team fundraising segment but operates at vastly larger scale and brand recognition, making it the primary incumbent threat in Piggybackr's market.
• Kickstarter: Kickstarter is a major rewards-based crowdfunding platform with a 5%+ fee that Piggybackr explicitly compares itself against. While Kickstarter targets creative projects rather than charitable causes, it competes for the same small-dollar online giving audience and is cited on Piggybackr's pricing page.
• PayPal Giving Fund: PayPal Giving Fund enables donations to nonprofits via PayPal's massive payment network with low or zero platform fees. It represents a structural fee competitor to any charitable crowdfunding platform, including Piggybackr, for the nonprofit donor segment.
• Bonterra (Network for Good / CauseVox / Salsa): Bonterra is a larger suite of nonprofit software products (donation forms, CRM, peer-to-peer) including CauseVox for peer-to-peer campaigns and Network for Good. It competes in the broader nonprofit fundraising space where Piggybackr also operates.

Direct peers

• AdoptAClassroom: AdoptAClassroom is a crowdfunding-style platform that lets donors fund specific teachers' classroom needs. It overlaps with Piggybackr's education/PTA segment and addresses the same K-12 funding gap.
• Funraise: Funraise is a nonprofit fundraising platform providing donation forms, peer-to-peer campaigns, and event fundraising. It serves many of the same nonprofit and donor-management use cases as Piggybackr but at a higher price point targeting established nonprofits.
• DonorsChoose: DonorsChoose is a crowdfunding platform specifically for K-12 teachers and classrooms to fund projects and supplies. It is the closest direct competitor to Piggybackr in the school-segment niche, with strong brand recognition among educators.
• Givebutter: Givebutter is a fundraising platform purpose-built for nonprofits, schools, teams, and community organizations. It offers a comparable mix of team fundraising, low fees, donor tools, and event ticketing — overlapping closely with Piggybackr's nonprofit/education positioning.
• Fundly: Fundly is a general-purpose crowdfunding platform used by nonprofits, schools, sports teams, and individuals. It is explicitly listed as a fee comparator on Piggybackr's website (7.9%+) and competes head-to-head in the same customer segments.
• Classy (by GoFundMe): Classy (now GoFundMe Pro) is a fundraising platform focused on nonprofits with peer-to-peer campaign tools, event registration, and donor CRM. It directly competes for the nonprofit organization segment that is a secondary customer for Piggybackr.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/piggybackr
• Facebookfacebook.com/piggybackr
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/piggybackr

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors3 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 Piggybackr