Mightycause (formerly Razoo) Review

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Pros

• Keep-whatever-you-raise funding
• No platform fee
• Small payment processing fee
• Good customer support
• Advanced software package for nonprofit fundraising

Cons

• Limited communication between campaigners and backers
• No way to offer rewards to backers
• Less popular than Kickstarter/GoFundMe

Overview

Formerly known as Razoo, Mightycause has been around since the early days of crowdfunding. While it may not receive the same level of attention as Kickstarter and GoFundMe have gotten lately, Mightycause’s crowdfunding platform has facilitated the raising of over $600 million in its time, which speaks to the power of the platform.

Founded in 2006 in Alexandria, Virginia, Mightycause is a jack-of-all-trades as crowdfunding sites go. Mightycause allows for business crowdfunding, campaigns based on personal need, fundraising for nonprofit charities, and even team fundraising in which a group of people can come together to raise money for charity. Mightycause’s platform is as flexible as possible, catering to the broadest possible audience.

Let’s delve into Mightycause’s versatile crowdfunding platform.

Services Offered

As I said earlier, Mightycause offers four different types of fundraiser pages. The most common is the Personal Fundraising page (which allows you to fundraise for any personal cause, from startup business projects to medical expenses and everything in between). In addition, Mightycause offers Nonprofit Pages (which permit US-registered 501(c)(3) nonprofits to raise funds for their cause), Charitable Fundraiser pages (which let individuals raise funds for nonprofits), and Team Fundraising pages (which permit groups of individuals to raise money for nonprofits).

We here at Merchant Maverick focus on the needs of the entrepreneurial/business community, so my focus will be on Mightycause’s personal campaigns.

When setting up a personal fundraising campaign, you’re asked to choose at least one of the following categories:

• Animals
• Arts & Culture
• Children & Family
• Community
• Economic Development
• Education
• Emergencies
• Environment
• Faith
• Humanitarian Aid
• Ideas
• International
• Medical
• Memorials
• Science, Tech, & Business
• Sports
• Travel
• Volunteer
• Wishes

Project Qualifications

Mightycause isn’t a restrictive platform — it’s meant to be used by as wide a variety of people and causes as possible. Minors ages 13 to 17 can even launch their own Mightycause campaigns with their guardian’s permission.

Pretty much any cause qualifies for the use of Mightycause’s platform. However, Mightycause does lay out what it prohibits in its terms and conditions. Your campaign can’t involve anything unlawful, obscene, or copyright-infringing. You can’t use your campaign to advertise or sell goods and services. You can’t conduct raffles, lotteries, or other gambling activities. You can’t defame or threaten anybody. That’s about it, really — Mightycause’s list of proscriptions is shorter than that of Kickstarter, for example.

Terms & Fees

These are the terms and fees for Mightycause’s crowdfunding campaigns:

Some time ago, Mightycause eliminated their platform fee — the payment processing fee is the only fee you’ll be paying on what you raise. Even the payment processing fee, at 2.2% + $0.29 per payment, is lower than that of most competitors (the typical payment processing charge is 2.9% + 29 or 30 cents per transaction).

You’ll notice that Mightycause doesn’t limit the extent of your fundraising period. Your crowdfunding campaign can be as long — or as short — as you’d like. Most campaigners will likely appreciate this flexibility. However, one should be cognizant of the fact that a longer fundraising period isn’t necessarily a good thing. According to data compiled by Kickstarter, a project’s funding duration and its success rate are inversely correlated — a longer funding period correlates with a lower chance of ultimately reaching one’s funding goal. Granted, this data isn’t from Mightycause, but it does illustrate issues inherent in longer crowdfunding campaigns. I’ll also note that Mightycause doesn’t set an upper limit on the amount of money you can raise in a campaign.

One difference you’ll find when comparing Mightycause to other crowdfunders is that, while other such platforms are set up to enable the offering of rewards (also referred to as “perks” or “gifts”) to your donors on a sliding scale — the bigger the donation, the cooler the reward — Mightycause doesn’t do this. Seems odd to me, as offering rewards to your donors/backers is a good way to generate interest in (and donations to) your campaign. Were it not for this, I’d give Mightycause an “excellent” rating for this category.

For nonprofit organizations, Mightycause offers fundraising software to assist you in running your campaign. This software is offered in both Starter and Advanced packages:

Starter

• Free
• Organization profile for year-round giving
• Unlimited fundraising campaigns
• Unlimited peer-to-peer campaigns
• Donation widget for your website
• Matching grants
• Customizable donation levels and labels
• Recurring donation management
• Donor data collection
• Social media sharing and integration
• Real-time donation reports
• Team and event management

Advanced

• $99/month
• All of the above, plus:
• CRM for supporter management
• Donor management
• Digital marketing and email messaging
• Volunteer management
• Branded donation page
• Advanced analytics
• Data integration
• Advanced donor data collection
• Donor surveys
• Custom branded donation receipts

Application Process

Mightycause doesn’t pre-screen funding campaigns before allowing them on their site, so if you set up an account, you’ll be able to put together and launch your own campaign on Mighycause immediately. This is a good thing for campaigners, especially if the funding need is time-sensitive.

Sales & Advertising Transparency

Mightycause’s terms of use are spelled out quite plainly, and there isn’t any hint of shadiness in terms of how they present their product.

Customer Service & Technical Support

Customer support is available via phone, chat, and email.

User Reviews

Negative Reviews & Complaints

Mightycause, being a lower-profile crowdfunding site than its rivals Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and GoFundMe, hasn’t received a great deal of attention from professional reviewers and thus few complaints — though one reviewer noted: “The payout is delayed and a bit confusing when compared to other crowdfunding sites.” As for customer complaints, I found a few people who had bad experiences with Mightycause’s customer service, but that’s about it as far as recent feedback goes.

Positive Reviews & Testimonials

Again, reviewer feedback — from both professional and user sources — on Mightycause is extremely limited, though the service has been praised for its mobile-friendly site and donation widgets. Beyond that, its fee rates are seen as competitive and its keep-what-you-raise funding policy has been applauded. Those who have used the site to raise funds have been largely positive about Mightycause as well.

Final Verdict

For US residents looking to raise funds on a crowdfunding site, Mightycause is a solid option. The platform is open to a wide variety of funding campaigns, the policies are flexible and forgiving, there is no platform fee, and you won’t have to wait for company approval before you can launch your crowdfunding project. There’s a lot to like about Mightycause.

I feel compelled to note, however, that Mightycause’s platform may not be the best first choice for those looking to fund a business-related project. At the beginning of this article, I highlighted the fact that Mightycause has seen the raising of $600 million in its 13-year history. While this isn’t chump change, I’d be neglectful if I didn’t mention that Kickstarter and GoFundMe have raised approximately $3 billion each, despite being in existence for a shorter period of time than Mightycause. While there are reasons why these platforms may not suit your particular cause or project, the fact remains that these competitors have been more successful in extracting funds from The Crowd than Mightycause.

However, for personal causes and for nonprofit fundraising, Mightycause makes a very compelling case for itself.