Whether a death is sudden or expected, it is always sad and often stressful pulling together details and finances in a short amount of time. Given that most people do not save for their funeral, those remaining are not only left with grief, but also a lot of expenses. You can solve this by setting up a funeral or memorial fund online. There are a number of different crowdfunding platforms available to do this. To learn more on the topic of crowdfunding, read: Crowdfunding For Funerals and Memorials.
We’ve researched, found ,and compared a variety of crowdfunding platforms. What we found is that no matter which way you slice it, you can budget 8% being deducted from the total amount raised or added onto campaign dontations to use one of these services (aside from Plumfund). It’s yourchoice whether you want the donors to brunt the cost and pay the 8% on top of their donation, or if you will bare the burden by having it deducted out of the total once the campaign closes – just be sure you pick the right platform for you.
Here is the round-up of all of the crowdfunding sites that we compared:
| Name | Platform Fee | CC Fee | Total Fee | Who Pays the Fee | How to Cash Out | When You Can Cash Out | Notes |
| Plumfund | 0% | 2.8% + $0.30 | 2.8% + $0.30 per credit/debit card donation | Comes out of each donation paid for by credit/debit card | Via your WePay or PayPal account | Anytime | |
| Funeral Fund | 5% | 2.9% + $.30/donation | 7.9% + $.30 per transaction | Donor | Via ACH direct deposit or check | ||
| Give Forward/YouCaring | 0% | 2.9% + $.50/donation | 7.9% + $.50 per transaction | Donor can opt to pay the fee, otherwise the recipient pays it | Via check | Unclear | *People who give to fundraisers on YouCaring have the option of providing a voluntary contribution to support our operations and help keep fundraising free. |
| Donation To | 5%* | varies | 5%* + CC Fee | Donor can opt to pay the fee, otherwise the recipient pays it | Via ACH direct deposit or check | Anytime | *For the Free plan. They also offer monthly plans which eliminate the platform fee while adding the the credit card processing fee to the total amount billed to the donor |
| GoFundMe | 5% | 2.9% + $.30/donation | 7.9% + $.30 per transaction | Comes out of total amount raised | Via ACH direct deposit or check | Anytime | |
| Fundly | 4.90% | 3% | 7.90% | Comes out of total amount raised | Via ACH direct deposit or check | Unclear |