Questions
What is private fundraising?▼
Raising money from the people you choose, through a link you send instead of a page anyone can find. A private request is not listed anywhere on A Better Gift and tells search engines not to index it. It becomes public only if you choose to make it public.
Is there a private alternative to GoFundMe?▼
Yes. A Better Gift is private from the start: every request is shared by link with the people you choose, and nothing is listed or searchable unless you make it public. You do not have to find and change a setting to keep it that way.
Who can see my request?▼
The people you send the link to, and anyone they pass it on to — a link is a link. What a private request does not do is advertise itself: it isn't listed on A Better Gift and search engines are told not to index it, so nobody finds it by searching your name. Contributors see the request they were sent and nothing else: no list of your other requests, no feed of other people's.
Can I raise money privately for someone else?▼
Yes, and it is often the kindest way to help. The person who creates the request is the person the money is paid to, so create it yourself if you will be the one paying the bill, or help them set up their own. Either way, say plainly in the request who it is for.
Will private fundraising affect my Medicaid or SSI?▼
Money from a request reaches your own bank account, so it is treated like any other money arriving there. If you receive Medicaid, SSI or another benefit with income or asset limits, that can matter, and it is worth asking the person who administers your benefit before you raise anything. We can't advise on it and nobody should guess for you.
How do I start a private request?▼
Create an account, describe what you need and how much, and connect a bank account or debit card for payouts. You get a private link to send to the people you choose. Contributors do not need an account: they open the link, choose an amount and pay by card.
What does private fundraising mean?▼
It means raising money without publishing your situation on a page the public can find. The money arrives the same way it would anywhere else; what changes is where the request goes. On A Better Gift a private request isn't listed on the site and search engines are told not to index it, so it goes to the people you send it to rather than to an audience. The phrase is also used in finance to mean money from private sources rather than government grants — that is a different thing entirely.
Can I set up a GoFundMe for someone else?▼
On A Better Gift you can set up a request for someone else, and the rule that matters is that the person who creates it is the person the money is paid to. There's an option when you create it that says "This is for someone else," and you give their name, so the request says who it's for. The payout details are still yours. So if you'll be the one paying the bill, create the request yourself and say in it who it's for. If they'll be paying it, help them create their own and write it together — you can still send it to your own people.
Is it illegal to fundraise for yourself?▼
No. Asking people you know for help with a bill isn't against the law, and you don't need to be a charity or register anything to do it. What you do have to be is honest about what the money is for. Money you're given is yours; money raised by misrepresenting what it's for is fraud, which is true of a private request and a public campaign alike.
Is there a way to raise money anonymously?▼
Private is not the same as anonymous, and it's worth being clear about the difference. A private request carries your name for the people you send it to — they're being asked by you, and that is the whole reason they say yes. What private means is that it isn't published: not listed, not indexed, not findable by someone searching your name. If you need true anonymity from the people contributing, this isn't the right tool, and we'd rather say so.
Can you make a fundraiser private after it's already public?▼
On A Better Gift you can turn public sharing off at any time, and the request goes back to being unlisted and telling search engines not to index it. The part nobody can fix is the past: anything already indexed takes time to clear, and anything copied elsewhere isn't ours to withdraw. That asymmetry is exactly why every request here starts private instead of starting public.
Is private fundraising for individuals or for organizations?▼
Both, and the design is the same either way: a request goes to people who already know you. Most are created by a person and paid to that person's own bank account. A group can raise too, with the money going to an account in the organization's name —
a congregation repairing its building, or
a youth group raising its mission trip. Most platforms that come up for "private fundraising" are donation software built around donor databases and campaigns, which is a different product.
