Group Gyft allows individuals, educational institutions, non-profits, and businesses to raise funds from a private list of invitees. The campaign pages created by Hosts are not searchable (a la GoFundMe, Kickstarter, and others) and can only be accessed by a unique campaign link. The Host of the Campaign determines who to invite. The intent is to provide a smooth, managed experience for Hosts to collect funds from a common-cause, common-interest group.
Yes. In order to host a Group Gyft campaign, you will need to establish a Group Gyft account or login with your existing Facebook account. You will also connect your profile to a Stripe account as part of the account creation / campaign creation process. Your account with Stripe will allow the money collected in your campaign to be deposited directly to your debit card or bank account. If you are starting from scratch, this entire process should only take a minute or two – literally!
One of the best things about Group Gyft's “private crowdfunding” model is that you will usually know the Host of the campaign. You access the campaign pages via a link in the email invitation sent to you by the Host. Your Host’s profile and contact information will be included in the Campaign, so you will be able to verify that you know the Host and feel comfortable with the ask.
Group Gyft is intended for use by adults in the United States. In order to host a campaign, a user must verify that they are 18 years or older and must have a verifiable debit card or bank account, as well as a mobile device number that can be validated. Note that hosts of campaigns are restricted to the United States and contributions are only acceptable from invitees in the United States with a credit or debit card in the United States.
Yes. We have integrated Stripe, a leading payment processing company, into our website. You simply select the “Contribute Now” option on a campaign page and enter the credit card or debit card you would like to use for your contribution. The secure, encrypted data entry form is handled by Stripe, our payment processor. Group Gyft never accesses or stores your payment information.
Stripe is a leading payment processing company. Group Gyft uses Stripe to get your campaign funds to you quickly and to keep your payment information secure. Thousands of companies around the world trust Stripe to process payments for their users. You will be guided through the steps to set up and connect a Stripe "Express" account to receive the net proceeds from your contributions.
In order for the Group Gyft platform to accomplish its mission of helping you aggregate funds from your contributors, you need to provide a method for Stripe to deliver the funds to you. Stripe will use the last four of your SSN and your debit card or bank account information to verify your identity. They also are experts in fraud detection and will help to identify and prevent fraudulent campaigs.
There are two fees associated with using Group Gyft (together, the "Transaction Fees"). First, Group Gyft has affiliated with Stripe to safely and securely manage the security and flow of funds for the Group Gyft site. For this service, Stripe charges an industry-standard Payment Processing Fee of 2.9% +$0.30 per transaction. The second fee is for the services provided by Group Gyft’, including hosting and managing your campaign, including the invitation and reminders. In addition, with the ability for invitees to contribute with a super simple workflow, the participation rate and timeliness of contributors should eclipse what a Host would realize in a manual ask-and-receive process. The standard Group Gyft Platform Fee is 4% of the contributions (less than many crowdfunding platforms). Reduced fees are available for frequent users and for large campaigns - please contact us for more information.
The Transaction Fees (the Payment Processing Fee charged by Stripe and the Group Gyft Platform Fee) are netted out of the gross contributions for a campaign. When the Host closes the campaign and requests the funds, Stripe will retain its fee, remit the Group Gyft fee to our platform, and remit the balance to the Host, who is the fiduciary for the campaign contributions.
