FAQs - Givio

FAQ.

Are you using Givio in your online banking app? Click here for Charitable Banking™ FAQs.

Why give with Givio?

Because the Givio app is made for givers. Whether you’re an individual who likes to give to charities or schools, you’re a small business owner who wants to give back to the community, you’re a passionate advocate who wants to fundraise for your favorite causes or you actually run or work for a nonprofit, Givio makes giving and fundraising as simple and effective as it gets.

With Givio you can:

Give quickly & go. No need to sign up for anything or connect to a bank account just to give. Apple Pay, Google Pay, Stripe, Venmo and crypto giving through Coinbase are fast, easy and SECURE.
Choose to donate anonymously if you want to keep your inbox clean or share your information w/ your nonprofit to get updates on their progress
Register for free to track all your giving and download your tax records at tax time
Create fundraising campaigns for your favorite causes in 3 minutes or less and share them across all of your networks
Discover new causes that are having an impact in your neighborhood and around the world

Why fundraise with Givio?

Givio is more than a personal giving tool – Givio is great for setting up fundraisers to support your favorite nonprofit. Why? Because Givio not only makes it super easy to share your fundraising campaign with your entire network, but it also makes it easier than ever for people to take action and make a donation.

Create a fundraising campaign in 3 minutes or less. Just search for and select your favorite organization in Givio. Click the Launch a Fundraiser button, and fill in a few blanks. Launch. It’s the easiest campaign builder you’ll find.
Share your fundraiser, anywhere and everywhere. Givio is designed to help you expand your donor reach by allowing you to share your campaign across any social or communication app or channel, anywhere. In the app, just click the share icon – that curved arrow in the upper right of your giving page – and your mobile device will show you every app at your disposal for sharing. Text, email, Slack, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, etc. You can even post your campaign link to a webpage, or promote it on a poster with the link or a QR code. There are no limits with Givio.
Watch the campaign progress. The Givio mobile app allows people to donate quickly, easily and even anonymously if they want with secure payment options like Apple Pay, Google Pay, Stripe, and Venmo. But anyone can donation through the public nonprofit or campaign web page (shareable from the Givio app). No registrations, sign-ups or even app downloads are required for people to give to and then re-share your campaign.

Can I use Givio for my business?

Yes! Givio makes engaging others in giving campaigns incredibly easy because it’s infinitely shareable and there are no barriers to giving. Anyone can participate in your giving campaigns.

Givio requires no training, no contracts and no software. Just create your business account (it’s free), launch your campaign (takes 3 minutes or less) and share with your entire network, across any communication or social media channel.

Connecting your business, employees, partners and customers with the nonprofits making a difference in your community and around the world is not just easy, it’s impactful!

Does the Givio app support matching gift campaigns?

Yep. We’ve got that, too. A matching gift can be the fuel that lights the fire for any campaign.

Individual givers, businesses and even nonprofit organizations can create matching campaigns. You can recognize the match-gift sponsor or let them remain anonymous.

Does it cost anything?

With Givio, there are no direct costs to the giver. Both the app and membership are free.

If using a credit card to give, the payment merchant (GooglePay/Stripe) will charge a standard financial processing fee (usually 2.2% + 30¢) which is netted from the donation before sending it to the designated nonprofit. If giving through a banking portal, your bank may or may not charge an ACH fee when processing the gift. Givio also charges an administration fee of not more than 4%, for the processing of the donation, which helps us keep the lights on. So if you donate $100 to your favorite nonprofit through the Givio app, your nonprofit would receive $93.50. If you donate that same $100 through your online banking account, your nonprofit could receive as much as $96.00. Though some of our financial institution partners cover the administration fees, in which case, 100% of the donation makes it to the nonprofit.

If you’re using Givio through your financial institution, the fees are reduced to 2% and may be covered by your financial institution. You can inquire with your bank or credit union if they cover the administration fees.

How do Givio costs compare to other giving methods?

Fundraising can be expensive. Experts estimate the cost of fundraising ranges from 10% for a large capital campaign to 20% for a direct mail campaign to as much as 50% for a special event.

When the giver controls the experience – and especially when the giver uses Givio – the costs are just about as low as can be in the fundraising world. In fact, the only way for a gift to be cheaper than using Givio is if (a) somebody else pays for the costs of your donation or (b) if you walk into the nonprofit’s office and hand them a check.

Does Givio protect my personal giving data?

Yes! With Givio, you control what happens to your data. Share it or maintain your privacy – you decide. Givio believes that respecting the rights and privacy of donors is the first step towards building trust and raising funds for the causes we love.

Givio does NOT monetize donor data.

How does my gift get to the nonprofit I choose?

Your donation using Givio is immediately received by the Givio Charitable Foundation (GCF), a 501c3 sponsoring a donor-advised fund (DAF). GCF then grants your donation directly to your nonprofit. GCF provides three really important benefits for givers and nonprofits alike:

Security. GCF screens nonprofits making sure they are registered with the IRS and in compliance with certain regs and rules that impact giving.
Acknowledgement. GCF provides the giver immediate acknowledgement and receipting of the donation.
Cost savings. By pooling donations from many donors, GCF reduces the cost of processing funds to recipient nonprofits.

For more information about Givio Charitable Foundation, please see our terms of use or visit Givio Charitable.

How does Givio help nonprofits?

Givio and Givio Charitable Foundation provide many services that help the nonprofits achieve their goals, for less, such as:

Free fundraising tools*
Secure payment processing through stripe as well as mobile app payment processing with Apple Pay, Google Pay and Venmo
Standardized donation pages that can be used for fundraising
Immediate tax-receipting, saving nonprofits time and effort of issuing tax receipts
Monthly, batched donation distributions for easy processing
ACH payments upon request
Donor data files that can be uploaded into CRM
The ability to accept anonymous donations

By making the donation process fast, smooth and reliable, more people are able to successfully make more donations, whenever they are inspired to give. Most nonprofits operate on a shoestring budget. So we have created the technology to streamline the giving process for them. Giving campaigns no longer have to be planned well in advance, required a lot of patience or cost a lot of money.

And with Givio campaigns, nonprofits receive their funds faster than with other popular or social media fundraising campaign platforms. We disburse funds every month. Other platforms make nonprofits wait up to 3 months or longer to receive funds.

If you represent a nonprofit and you have suggestions for ways we can improve Givio services, please let us know. We are in this together.

*transaction fees apply for all donations made on the giving platform, including possible merchant or ACH fees. See the “Does it cost anything?” section for detailed information on transaction fees.

Which nonprofits can I give to?

Every IRS registered 501c3 nonprofit in the U.S. Plus schools, Native American Nations and a whole lot of churches and religious institutions are in the Givio database. And Givio continues to work to expand the giving options for our givers.

If your organization is a 509a2, it can be added to our database. Just submit this form: add my nonprofit

When I give, does the nonprofit automatically get my data?

No. You decide. If you want to receive updates on the cause you care about, you may want to give them your name and email so they can keep in touch. But if you would rather maintain your privacy, you can do that too.

Not only should donors be able to control access to their personal data, but we believe that respect for the donor is the first step in building trust and better donor relationships.

I can't find my nonprofit, now what?

Sometimes finding the correct nonprofit is harder that it should be. Givio depends on multiple data sources to provide you with the most complete list of nonprofits eligible to receive tax-deductible donations. This includes IRS approved data.

Unfortunately, not every cause a donor supports is actually a nonprofit that is eligible to receive tax-deductible donations. For example, political organizations can be nonprofits, but donors cannot make tax-deductible donations to them. Also, not every tax-exempt organization has up-to-date information on record with the IRS. We do our best, and we will continue to strive to do even better.

If you can’t find your nonprofit, school or Native Nation using our search tool, try these steps:

Spell out the full name. Sometimes your nonprofit may popularly be referred to by an acronym or a shortened name. The name filed with the IRS is the first search result you will find. Sometimes if the IRS registered name is different enough from the acronym or shortened name, you may not see anything similar show in up your search results.
Check the name, check the spelling. Are you entering the name of a program, for example, but the actual organization name is different? Could the organization be sponsored by a government agency rather than a nonprofit?
Search by EIN number. If the EIN number doesn’t produce results, the nonprofit may not be in our database.

If you’re a giver, looking for your favorite nonprofit, fill out this Nonprofit not found form.

If you’re a nonprofit, fill out this Add my nonprofit form and we’ll make sure your nonprofits gets added to our database with a free Givio page.

I represent a nonprofit - how can I update our info in Givio?

Just fill out this short form and we will reach out to update your record. Coming soon, Givio will enable nonprofits to ‘claim’ a free account in Givio that will enable you to edit certain information (like photos and descriptions), and create campaigns.