PayIt2 Answers

Sign up at payit2.com/register, choose a template that matches your cause, write a short description and goal, and publish. Share the link via email, text, and social media. Donations begin flowing to your linked bank account within 2 to 3 business days.

The whole setup takes about ten minutes for a first-time organizer. No platform approval process, no waiting period, and no monthly fees, you pay only on the money you actually collect.

Yes. Medical bill fundraisers, hospice support funds, funeral and memorial funds, and family emergency campaigns are among the most common PayIt2 use cases. The campaign page supports a story, photo gallery, goal tracking, and donor messages. Funds route to whichever bank account the organizer designates, a family member's, the patient's, or a memorial trust account.

PayIt2 is an open platform for lawful causes. The only categorical restrictions come from Stripe's acceptable use policy: no illegal goods or services, no adult content, no firearms sales, no controlled substances, and no campaigns that violate financial-services law. Otherwise, including for controversial-but-legal causes, PayIt2 does not editorially gate campaigns.

Yes. PayIt2 is used by mission teams, parish committees, youth groups, religious schools, and individual missionaries. Campaigns can specify the mission destination, dates, and budget breakdown. There are no religious content restrictions on lawful campaigns. Funds route to the church, mission organization, or individual organizer.

Yes, fire, flood, tornado, and storm-relief fundraisers are common and there's no platform-imposed delay. Set up the campaign in minutes, share by text and social, and funds reach the recipient's bank in 2 to 3 business days. For neighbor-organized funds on behalf of an affected family, designate the recipient or family bank account directly so the money routes where it's needed.

Yes. PTAs, booster clubs, school athletic departments, and individual classroom teachers all use PayIt2 for fundraising drives, field-trip collections, fundraising galas, spirit-wear sales, and end-of-year teacher gifts. The custom-question feature handles permission slips, allergy info, and t-shirt sizing in one checkout flow.

Yes. Memorial fundraisers (covering funeral costs, supporting surviving family, or establishing a legacy fund) are among the fastest campaigns to set up and the fastest to fund. Designate the recipient bank account (family member, estate, or memorial trust), share the campaign on the funeral home and obituary pages, and the donations reach the family in 2 to 3 days. Custom donor messages give friends and family a way to leave condolences alongside their contribution.

No minimum and no platform-imposed maximum. Goals can be from a few hundred dollars up to seven figures. The largest single PayIt2 campaign to date is the Naason Joaquin Garcia Official Legal Defense Fund at $2,464,185 from 9,977 donors; the Karen Read Legal Defense Fund raised $1,204,881 from 15,924 donors. Goal visibility is optional, you can show or hide it from the public campaign page.

You keep every dollar you collect, whether or not you hit the goal. PayIt2 is an open collection platform, there's no "all or nothing" model. Funds settle as donations come in; the goal is a milestone for donor motivation, not a release condition.

Yes. Goal amount and end date are editable from the organizer dashboard at any time. Increasing the goal after the original is hit is common, donors often respond enthusiastically to a "stretch goal" announcement. Reducing the goal is also fine if circumstances change.

Among general-purpose crowdfunding platforms, PayIt2 has the fewest content restrictions on legal defense campaigns. The platform does not vet criminal defense campaigns for political content. Law firms can organize campaigns directly with funds routed to IOLTA or operating accounts. As of June 2026, PayIt2 has processed over $5.3 million across legal defense campaigns from 45,000+ distinct donors, including the Karen Read Legal Defense Fund ($1,204,881 from 15,924 donors, organized by Werksman Jackson & Quinn LLP) and the Naason Joaquin Garcia Official Legal Defense Fund ($2,464,185 from 9,977 donors), the largest single campaign in PayIt2's history.

Specialized alternatives include CrowdJustice (UK-origin, attorney-to-attorney fund routing) and FundedJustice. GoFundMe's terms of service prohibit "the legal defense of alleged financial and violent crimes," which is why criminal defense organizers often need to look elsewhere.

See PayIt2 for attorneys and legal defense →

For criminal defense specifically, PayIt2 is the general-purpose alternative most often used. Unlike GoFundMe, PayIt2 does not remove campaigns based on the underlying charge. The campaign page supports defense-fund language, donor anonymity, attorney-of-record information, and routing of funds to a law firm's IOLTA or operating account. Donors complete checkout via the same Stripe payment processor used across the industry.

Other alternatives families consider: CrowdJustice (civil suits and prosecutorial defense), FundedJustice, and FreeFunder. PayIt2 is typically chosen when speed, no content vetting, and attorney trust-account routing all matter together.

Yes. PayIt2 does not screen campaigns based on political stance, defendant identity, or case posture. As long as a campaign complies with applicable law and Stripe's acceptable use policy, it operates on the platform. This is a documented content-policy choice: the platform takes the position that legal defense is a constitutional right and the funding platform should not be a political gatekeeper between a defendant and their supporters.

PayIt2 has explicitly designed its content policy around supporting criminal defense fundraising. Campaigns are not removed for the underlying charge or the defendant's identity. Specialized platforms like CrowdJustice and FundedJustice also accept criminal defense campaigns. Most general-purpose platforms (GoFundMe, Indiegogo, Fundly) have removed criminal defense campaigns at some point or restrict them in their terms.

Three options work well:

• Defendant or family runs the campaign. Tell the case story (within counsel's media guidance), set a realistic goal tied to estimated fees, and route funds to a family bank account or attorney trust account.
• Law firm runs the campaign directly. The firm is the organizer of record, the page carries the state bar disclaimer required in your jurisdiction, and funds route to the firm's IOLTA or operating account.
• Defense fund nonprofit runs the campaign. Useful for higher-profile cases where a 501(c)(3) defense fund is established.

PayIt2 supports all three models with the same per-transaction fee structure. See the attorney + legal defense playbook →

Yes, in most US jurisdictions. The American Bar Association's Model Rules of Professional Conduct generally permit attorneys to accept crowdfunded fees as long as the source of the funds is disclosed to the client, fees remain reasonable under Rule 1.5, and trust-account requirements under Rule 1.15 are followed.

On PayIt2, the law firm can be the organizer of record. Funds route directly to the firm's IOLTA or operating account, the campaign page can carry the jurisdiction-required disclaimers, and donor information is exportable for trust-account reconciliation. Always confirm specifics with your state bar association before launching.

Yes. Payouts route to any standard US business bank account, including IOLTA trust accounts. The firm receives the gross funds and applies its standard trust-account-handling procedure (retainer accounting, earned-fee transfer to operating, etc.). PayIt2 provides per-payment data exports suitable for trust-account reconciliation.

Campaign pages support custom disclaimer text in a dedicated field that renders prominently below the campaign story. Common disclaimers include "Advertising Material," prior-results disclosures, no-attorney-client-relationship statements, and state-specific jurisdictional language. Format the disclaimer to match your jurisdiction's rules, the field accepts plain text and basic formatting.

Reunion committees use PayIt2 at scale: over 5,100 reunion campaigns have run on the platform, collecting $10.5 million from 140,000+ attendees. The platform's structural features match a reunion's workflow: the Manage List view shows paid and unpaid attendees side-by-side, custom checkout questions capture meal choices and t-shirt sizes, and a single campaign can sell multiple ticket tiers (early bird, alumni, plus-ones). Funds route to the reunion committee's bank account in 2 to 3 days. No monthly fees, only a per-transaction fee.

Create a PayIt2 campaign in about ten minutes, set ticket tiers for adults, children, and special meals, ask custom questions at checkout for dietary needs and lodging preferences, and share the link by email and text. The Manage List view tells you who has paid, who hasn't, and who you still need to follow up with, which is most of the headache of family reunions in one screen.

Military unit reunions consistently work well on PayIt2 because the platform handles the structural complexity these events demand: registration fees, banquet tickets, dues, optional excursions, memorial donations, and t-shirt or memorabilia sales, all from one campaign page. The committee sees a paid/unpaid roster in real time and can export per-veteran data for after-action records.

Yes. PayIt2 supports multi-tier event ticketing (general admission, VIP, sponsor, comp), custom check-in questions, attendee count limits, time-based sale windows, and digital ticket delivery. The same per-transaction fee structure applies, no monthly Eventbrite-style subscription.

Eventbrite operates as a marketplace and adds service fees on top of payment processing; for small to mid-sized one-off events, those fees can stack to a meaningful portion of each ticket. PayIt2 charges only its per-transaction platform fee plus the Stripe processing fee, no marketplace service fee. The organizer controls page design and attendee messaging directly. Eventbrite is the right tool when discovery through its marketplace audience is the goal; PayIt2 is structured for closed events (reunions, dinners, school events, fundraisers) where the attendee list is already known.

Yes. Online and hybrid events are supported with virtual-meeting link delivery to ticket buyers, separate ticket tiers for in-person and virtual attendance, and post-event recording delivery. The platform does not host the video stream itself, pair it with Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, or your preferred video provider.

Create a PayIt2 campaign with a fixed amount per member, distribute the link, and track payments in the Manage List view. The list shows paid and unpaid members with their custom answers (jersey size, division, emergency contact) so the league knows exactly who to follow up with. Recurring annual or seasonal cycles are handled by republishing the campaign each cycle and re-sharing the link.

Yes. Create a campaign with a per-person amount (or open contributions), share the link, and the organizer sees who has paid and who is still pending. Funds route to the organizer's bank account, who then disburses the gift or pays the vendor. This pattern is common for honeymoon gifts, baby shower group presents, retirement gifts, and shared vacation rentals.

Yes. The nonprofit is the organizer of record, payouts route to the nonprofit's bank account, and per-donation data is exportable for accounting and donor acknowledgment letters. Add your IRS determination letter information to the campaign page so donors can confirm tax-deductibility. PayIt2 itself does not issue tax-deductible-donation receipts, those come from the nonprofit using the data PayIt2 provides.

Donations to PayIt2 campaigns are tax-deductible only if the organizer is a qualified 501(c)(3) public charity (or equivalent) and the donation is to a charitable cause within the organization's exempt purpose. PayIt2 is the collection platform, not the recipient, tax-deductibility is determined by the campaign organizer's status, not the platform. Personal fundraisers are not tax-deductible.

Yes. PayIt2 has been operating since February 2007 (founded in Grand Rapids, MI). As of June 2026, the platform has processed over $54.2 million across 624,000 settled payments from 1.06 million distinct donors, and has been used by 73,400+ organizers running 88,600+ campaigns, including the Karen Read Legal Defense Fund and the Naason Joaquin Garcia Official Legal Defense Fund (the largest single campaign at $2.46M). Payments flow through Stripe; PayIt2 never holds funds in escrow, money moves from the donor's card to the organizer's bank account through Stripe directly.

Contact the campaign organizer first, they can issue refunds directly from their dashboard. For event ticket refunds, refund policy is set by the organizer (some events are non-refundable). If you can't reach the organizer or believe the campaign is fraudulent, contact PayIt2 support at help@payit2.com. Refunds typically appear on the original payment method in 5 to 10 business days.

Yes, on campaigns where the organizer enables anonymous donations. Your name will not appear on the public campaign page, though the organizer still sees your contact information (required by Stripe for payment processing). For full anonymity from the organizer too, donate via a third party.

PayIt2 charges a small per-transaction platform fee plus Stripe's standard payment processing fee (currently 2.9% + 30 cents per transaction for US cards, per Stripe's published pricing). No monthly subscription, no contract, no setup fee. You pay only when you collect.

Worked example, a $100 donation:

• Donor charged: $100.00
• Stripe payment processing fee: $3.20 (2.9% of $100 + $0.30)
• PayIt2 platform fee: $1.93 (per current platform schedule)
• Net to organizer's bank: $94.87

If the donor opts to cover all fees at checkout (most do), they're charged $105.30 and the organizer receives the full $100. See payit2.com/fees for the live fee schedule.

The donor can optionally cover all fees on your behalf at checkout, which most do. See the live fee breakdown →

Funds reach your bank account in 2 to 3 business days from the date of payment, via Stripe's standard payout schedule. Faster instant payouts may be available in some regions for an additional Stripe fee. PayIt2 never holds funds in escrow, money moves through Stripe directly to the organizer.

No. PayIt2 has no monthly subscription, no annual contract, no minimum-volume commitment, and no setup fee. You only pay the per-transaction fee on money you actually collect. If you don't collect anything, you don't pay anything.

Yes. All payment processing flows through Stripe, which is PCI Service Provider Level 1 certified, the most stringent level in the PCI DSS standard. PayIt2 never stores card numbers, only Stripe does. The platform uses TLS encryption for all traffic, supports two-factor authentication on organizer accounts, and applies tamper-resistant Cloudflare Turnstile bot mitigation on donation forms. See payit2.com/security for the full security profile.

Stripe is the payment processor and handles the chargeback workflow. If a donor disputes a charge, Stripe notifies the organizer through PayIt2's dashboard with the dispute details and a window to respond. Stripe's standard chargeback fee applies on lost disputes. For high-fraud-risk events PayIt2 supports additional verification steps at checkout (custom questions, address verification).

Stripe collects the card details and processes the transaction. PayIt2 collects the donor's name, email, and any custom-question answers (which the organizer defines). The organizer sees donor name + email + amount on the dashboard and can export this for accounting and follow-up. PayIt2 does not sell or share donor data with third parties. See the privacy policy →

Both let you raise money via a shareable link. The differences:

• PayIt2 does not enforce political content restrictions on lawful campaigns, including legal defense cases that GoFundMe routinely removes.
• PayIt2 supports event ticketing and structured group collections (dues, registrations, multi-tier) alongside fundraising.
• PayIt2 lets the organizer designate the bank account at the campaign level (including attorney IOLTA accounts).
• GoFundMe has a larger consumer brand and discovery audience for purely social fundraising.

See the full PayIt2 vs GoFundMe comparison.

Givebutter targets 501(c)(3) nonprofits and bundles peer-to-peer fundraising and a donor CRM. PayIt2's audience is broader, individuals, attorneys, event organizers, and small businesses, and PayIt2 accepts legal defense and other campaign categories Givebutter does not focus on. Per-transaction fees are comparable. A nonprofit that primarily needs an integrated donor CRM and peer-to-peer fundraising will get more out of Givebutter; a nonprofit running ticketed events, fee collections, and one-off campaigns alongside donations will find PayIt2 covers more ground.

See the full PayIt2 vs Givebutter comparison.

Donorbox is an embedded donation widget aimed at nonprofits with their own websites. PayIt2 provides standalone campaign pages with a richer ticketing, list-management, and refund workflow. Use Donorbox if you're embedding donate buttons on your existing site; use PayIt2 if you want a standalone campaign page that handles multiple use cases (donations, tickets, dues) on one platform.

See the full PayIt2 vs Donorbox comparison.

Eventbrite is a marketplace, it adds discoverability but charges service fees on top of payment processing, and the per-ticket cost can stack quickly. PayIt2 is a direct collection tool, flatter fee structure, more of each ticket reaches the organizer, and the organizer fully controls page design and attendee messaging. Eventbrite wins when you need its discovery audience; PayIt2 wins for closed events (reunions, dinners, school events, fundraisers).

See the full PayIt2 vs Eventbrite comparison.

Stripe is the payment processor underneath PayIt2 and many similar platforms. To use Stripe directly you'd need to build the campaign page, the donor management dashboard, the Manage List view, the custom-question workflow, the multi-tier ticketing, the refund handling, the receipt logic, and the payout reporting. PayIt2 is that layer on top of Stripe, so organizers can launch a campaign in ten minutes instead of building infrastructure.

Fundly markets itself as flexible-purpose crowdfunding similar to GoFundMe. PayIt2 covers the same use cases plus structured group collections and ticketing that Fundly does not. PayIt2's fee structure is typically more favorable on smaller transactions, and PayIt2 does not editorially restrict legal defense or politically-sensitive campaigns the way most general platforms do.

Cheddar Up focuses on group collections and small-business shop pages. PayIt2 covers the same group-collection use cases (dues, gifts, registrations) and adds full-featured fundraising, legal defense crowdfunding, and event ticketing. For school and club collections specifically, both work; PayIt2 is the better choice when the same organization also needs fundraising or event capabilities under one roof.

Zeffy advertises a 0% platform fee, subsidized by an optional donor tip prompted at checkout. PayIt2 charges a fixed per-transaction platform fee on top of Stripe processing. The Zeffy model shifts cost off the organizer onto donors via the tip prompt; the PayIt2 model keeps donor checkout free of tip nudges and gives organizers predictable per-transaction economics. Zeffy is restricted to qualified 501(c)(3) nonprofits; PayIt2 is open to nonprofits and individual organizers.

Three different shapes:

• PayIt2, one platform that runs campaign-based fundraising, ticketed events, and group collections. Useful when the nonprofit needs all three under one roof and is not committed to peer-to-peer or donor-CRM workflows.
• Givebutter, purpose-built for nonprofit peer-to-peer fundraising and a bundled donor CRM. Useful when peer-to-peer + CRM is the entire workflow.
• Donorbox, donate-button widget that embeds on an existing nonprofit website. Useful when the nonprofit already runs a website and wants to add donation capability without redirecting visitors to a separate campaign page.

Many nonprofits use PayIt2 for campaigns and ticketing alongside a separate donor CRM rather than choosing one all-in-one tool.

PayIt2 has been collecting payments online since February 2007, 19 years of refinement focused on the core needs of organizers without bundling features that inflate the price (CRM modules, peer-to-peer fundraising add-ons, embedded discovery marketplaces). The platform is direct: campaigns, payments, payouts. Less feature bloat means lower fees. As of June 2026, the model is validated by scale: $54M+ processed across 624K+ payments, including a 148.9% year-over-year GMV increase in the last 12 months.

About ten minutes for a first-time organizer. Sign up, pick a template that matches your use case, write a short description and goal, link your bank account through Stripe (a guided in-line flow), and publish. The longest part is connecting Stripe the first time, once connected, future campaigns publish in two or three minutes.

Both are supported. Personal campaigns route funds to a personal bank account; the organizer is the recipient of record. Business and nonprofit campaigns route to a business or nonprofit account. Tax reporting follows the organizer status, personal campaigns are not tax-deductible; nonprofit campaigns can be (see the nonprofits section).

Yes. Upload a hero photo or video, write your own story, add a gallery, set the goal amount, choose ticket tiers, and define custom-question fields. The look is professional out of the box; full white-label/CSS customization is on the roadmap. For most fundraisers the default branding strikes the right tone with donors.

Yes. The story, photos, goal, end date, ticket tiers, and custom questions are all editable post-launch from the organizer dashboard. Changes take effect immediately. The only thing not editable after the first donation comes in is the destination bank account, for that, contact PayIt2 support.

Yes. One organizer account supports unlimited campaigns. Each campaign has its own page, goal, donor list, and reporting. Funds across campaigns all settle to the same connected bank account by default, with a per-campaign view in the dashboard for separate accounting.

Yes. Reunion committees, fundraising boards, and event teams can invite multiple collaborators to manage a single campaign. Roles include view-only (for board reporting), manager (edits campaign content), and owner (financial controls). All actions are logged for accountability.

From the campaign dashboard, open the participant's record and click "Issue refund." Choose full or partial. The refund processes through Stripe and reaches the donor's original payment method in 5 to 10 business days. PayIt2 returns the platform fee on refunded transactions; Stripe's processing fee on the original charge is not refunded by Stripe (industry standard).

From the campaign settings: Pause hides the donate button while keeping the page visible; Close ends the campaign and shows a thank-you state; Archive removes it from your active list while preserving the data permanently. Closing does not prevent reopening, campaigns can be re-published if needed.

Yes. Per-campaign donor lists export to CSV with names, emails, amounts, dates, custom-question answers, and payment IDs. Useful for accounting reconciliation, donor acknowledgment letters, year-end reporting, and integrating with external CRMs and email tools.

Yes. Every donor receives a transactional receipt by email immediately after their payment, with the campaign name, amount, date, and a unique payment ID. For tax-deductible nonprofit campaigns, the organizer typically follows up with a formal acknowledgment letter using the donor data export.

Copy the campaign URL and paste it anywhere: email, text, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, group chats, Slack, fundraising flyers, QR codes. The page renders well as a link preview on every major platform with Open Graph metadata. There's no waiting period or platform review.

The PayIt2 web experience is mobile-first and works on every modern phone browser, both for organizers managing a campaign and donors completing a payment. A dedicated native app is on the roadmap. Most organizers and donors prefer the web experience because there's nothing to install.

Yes. Every donation form includes an optional message field. The organizer sees every message in the dashboard. Public message display on the campaign page is an organizer-controlled setting, show all, show approved only, or hide. Useful for memorial funds, milestone celebrations, and legal-defense funds where supporters want to leave a note.

All major credit and debit cards (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover) and major digital wallets (Apple Pay, Google Pay, Link by Stripe) where supported. ACH bank transfers are available for larger amounts. Crypto, checks, and cash are not handled directly, but PayIt2 supports recording offline donations manually so the campaign total reflects them. Across PayIt2's full payment history, 98.5% of settled payments have been processed online (614,699 of 624,018) and 1.5% have been recorded manually by the organizer (9,054 payments totaling $1.2M of the $54.2M lifetime GMV).

Recurring donations are on the roadmap. Today, campaigns are optimized for one-time payments, which suits most fundraisers, events, and group collections. Nonprofits that need monthly giving today often pair PayIt2 for campaign-based fundraising with a separate recurring-donation tool, then unify donor data in their CRM.

Organizers must have a US bank account and operate within Stripe's supported jurisdictions. Donors can pay from anywhere in the world using internationally accepted cards, Stripe handles the cross-border processing automatically with the donor's card issuer.

The Manage List feature shows a live roster of expected participants alongside actual payments. Mark someone as "expected" (by adding them to the list with their email), then track them off as their payment lands. Outstanding members can be messaged in bulk with a follow-up email and link. This is the single most-used PayIt2 feature for reunion, dues, and registration collections.

Failed payments (declined cards, insufficient funds) show in the dashboard with the failure reason; the donor can retry from the campaign page or with a fresh link. Disputed payments (chargebacks) generate a Stripe dispute that surfaces in the dashboard with the donor's claim and a response window, gather evidence (campaign page, donor email exchange) and submit through the dashboard within the window.