Social Fund

What Social Fund does

Social.fund is a Chicago-based, self-service online fundraising and crowdfunding platform founded in June 2017. It enables Campaign Organisers (individuals, nonprofits, and charitable groups) to create fundraising pages for causes including medical bills, emergencies, disaster relief, humanitarian aid, animal welfare, and community needs, and to receive donations directly from individual donors. The platform explicitly excludes business-investing campaigns and is governed under Illinois law. Named customers include registered nonprofits such as SEMA Syrian Expatriate Medical Association, Muslim Relief, The Emergency Response Organization, Amma Canada, and Milly's Place, alongside a long tail of personal-cause campaigners.

The platform is built as a web-based marketplace that connects Campaign Organisers and Donors but does not itself custody or process funds. Payment processing is delegated entirely to third-party Payment Processors, including PayPal and Stripe (with other gateways also supported), and the platform supports multi-currency donations as small as $1.00. Underlying functionality includes Campaign Creation & Management tools, donor communication, and a specialized Crisis Campaign Management module with enhanced identity/beneficiary verification, phased disbursement, and stricter monitoring for humanitarian and conflict-zone fundraising. Compliance posture includes GDPR and CCPA alignment, and the Terms of Service place responsibility for tax, AML/KYC, sanctions, and charitable-solicitation registration on the Campaign Organiser.

Social.fund's revenue model is unconventional: the platform charges zero platform fees, service fees, commissions, or mandatory tips on donations. The company solicits voluntary user contributions via a "Support Us" page as its only disclosed monetization mechanism, making it effectively a freemium/donation-supported service. Distribution is product-led growth with no sales force, relying on organic social sharing (Facebook sharer integration is prominent), direct website discovery, and platform browse/search. The firm is privately held with 1–10 employees, no disclosed institutional funding, and no management team information available, indicating a bootstrapped, founder-operated operating model.

Name

Social Fund

Legal name

Social.fund

Website

https://social.fund

Company type

Private

Founded year

2017

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Social.fund is a Chicago-based, zero-fee online crowdfunding platform founded in 2017 that enables individuals and nonprofits to raise donations for medical, emergency, humanitarian, and charitable causes via PayPal/Stripe-integrated campaign pages, monetizing only through voluntary user contributions.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Crowdfunding Platform

NAICS

Other Grantmaking and Giving Services (813219)

SIC

Services-Social Services (8300)

akta.pro primary industry

Creator Fundraising & Crowdfunding Platforms (Recurring/Project-Based) (MPACAFAJ)

Keywords

• Fee-free crowdfunding
• Online fundraising platform
• Peer-to-peer donations
• Personal fundraising campaigns
• Nonprofit crowdfunding

Headquarters

HQ city

Chicago

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, Operations, Personnel, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Voluntary donations to support operations: Social Fund operates on a zero-fee model and does not charge platform fees, service fees, or commissions on donations. The company solicits voluntary donations from users who wish to support the platform's operations through a 'Support Us' page. Payment processor fees (PayPal, Stripe, etc.) are charged by third parties and are beyond Social Fund's control.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Social Fund operates a zero-fee online fundraising and crowdfunding platform that connects campaign organizers with donors. The platform enables individuals and nonprofit organizations to create and manage fundraising campaigns for medical bills, emergencies, disasters, animal care, community needs, and humanitarian causes. All donation transactions are processed directly between donors and organizers through third-party payment processors (PayPal, Stripe), with Social Fund never taking platform fees, service fees, commissions, or mandatory tips.

Product overview

Social.fund is a single, unified online fundraising and crowdfunding platform built around a zero-fee model. The core offering consists of the main Social.fund platform which enables Campaign Organisers to create fundraising campaigns and connect with Donors. The platform includes integrated Campaign Creation & Management Tools for organizers to build and maintain their campaigns, Donation Processing capabilities through multiple payment processors (PayPal, Stripe, and other gateways), and specialized Crisis Campaign Management features with enhanced verification and monitoring for humanitarian emergency fundraising. All products share the common value proposition of never charging platform fees, service fees, commissions, or mandatory tips on donations.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Social.fund Online Fundraising Platform Core fee-free online crowdfunding platform that connects Campaign Organisers with Donors for medical bills, pets/animals, disasters, nonprofits, personal emergencies, and humanitarian causes. The platform differentiates itself by never charging platform fees, service fees, commissions, or mandatory tips.
• Campaign Creation and Management Tools Self-service tools enabling Campaign Organisers to create fundraising campaign pages with descriptions, images, and videos, post regular updates (every 30 days for standard campaigns, every 14 days for Crisis Campaigns), and communicate with donors.
• Donation Processing Donation collection and processing through multiple third-party payment processors including PayPal and Stripe. Accepts donations as low as $1.00, supports multiple currencies, and offers anonymous donation options. Social.fund does not handle, hold, or process donated funds directly; transactions occur between Donors and Campaign Organisers.
• Crisis Campaign Management Enhanced features and stricter verification for Crisis Campaigns related to armed conflicts, wars, natural disasters, and humanitarian emergencies. Includes mandatory identity verification, beneficiary verification, organisational credentials, fund delivery plans, ongoing monitoring, and phased disbursement options.

Quantifiable outcome

• $4.76 Million+ raised on platform

Named customers5 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

Integration3 records

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• PayPalcoreTechnology or Integration · 1 June 2017PayPal is listed as one of the supported payment processors on Social Fund's platform, enabling donors to make payments using PayPal for campaign donations. PayPal handles payment transactions directly between donors and campaign organizers.
• StripecoreTechnology or Integration · 1 June 2017Stripe is listed as one of the supported payment processors on Social Fund's platform, enabling donors to make credit/debit card payments for campaign donations. Stripe handles payment transactions directly between donors and campaign organizers.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• JustGiving: JustGiving is an established UK-headquartered online fundraising platform for charities and individuals, owned by Blackbaud. It overlaps with Social.fund on personal-cause and charitable campaigns but operates a fee-based model and is more deeply integrated with UK and EU charity infrastructure.
• GoFundMe: GoFundMe is the dominant personal-cause and charitable crowdfunding platform. It overlaps directly with Social.fund on individual fundraiser and nonprofit use cases, but charges platform fees and operates a much larger, branded, mobile-first experience, making it the broad incumbent Social.fund is positioning against on price.

Emerging players

• Patreon: Patreon is a creator-monetization and membership platform enabling recurring supporter payments. While its core model is creator/artist subscriptions rather than charitable crowdfunding, it is comparable to Social.fund as a peer in the broader online tipping/donation-platform category and represents the recurring-giving alternative to one-off campaign giving.
• Donorbox: Donorbox is a recurring-donation and fundraising platform built primarily for nonprofits. It is comparable to Social.fund on serving 501(c)(3)-style charitable organizations, but differentiates through subscription-based recurring giving rather than one-off campaigns.
• CrowdRise (by GoFundMe): CrowdRise is a charitable fundraising platform (now operating under GoFundMe Charity) that focuses specifically on nonprofit and peer-to-peer fundraising. It is comparable to Social.fund on nonprofit and humanitarian use cases, particularly the value proposition of helping more dollars reach causes.

Direct peers

• Fundly: Fundly is a crowdfunding platform targeting nonprofits, personal causes, and political campaigns. It is comparable to Social.fund as a peer in the personal-cause and nonprofit fundraising category, differentiated by a fee-bearing pricing model and broader feature set.
• Givebutter: Givebutter is a fee-free fundraising and donor management platform widely used by nonprofits, with optional tipping to cover processor fees. It competes head-to-head with Social.fund in the nonprofit and community fundraising segment while offering a more developed CRM and event tooling layer.
• FundRazr: FundRazr is a Canada-based crowdfunding platform for personal causes, nonprofits, and community projects. It is directly comparable to Social.fund on segment (individuals, nonprofits, crisis/campaign causes) and offers multi-currency and global access similar to Social.fund's footprint.
• GiveSendGo: GiveSendGo is a zero-fee crowdfunding platform focused on personal causes, faith-based fundraising, and crisis campaigns. It is the closest direct competitor to Social.fund on the no-fee positioning and on serving humanitarian and religious organizers, including campaigns related to conflict zones.

Others

• PayPal Giving Fund: PayPal Giving Fund is PayPal's own charitable giving and donation platform, deeply integrated with the PayPal checkout flow. It is comparable to Social.fund as an enabling/distribution peer: it represents both a partnership surface (PayPal is one of Social.fund's payment processors) and a competitive surface for charitable donations.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/SocialFund_
• Facebookfacebook.com/socialfundweb
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/socialfund

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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 Social Fund