Zeffy Review 2026

Last updated: May 2026

What Is Zeffy?

Zeffy is the 100% free fundraising platform for nonprofits. Founded in 2017 in Quebec, Zeffy has built a remarkable business model: charge nonprofits nothing while sustaining the company through optional donor tips. Today Zeffy serves over 50,000 nonprofits and has processed hundreds of millions in donations.

The pitch is radical for the fundraising category. Most nonprofit platforms (Donorbox, Givebutter, Bloomerang, Classy) charge platform fees of 2-5% plus payment processing fees of 2.9% + $0.30. On a $100 donation, the nonprofit nets $90-$93 after all fees. Zeffy charges zero platform fees and zero payment processing fees. The donor chooses whether to tip Zeffy on top of their donation; about 80% of donors opt in.

The model works because tips average 15-17% of donation amount, which more than covers Zeffy's operating costs and payment processing. For nonprofits, the math is clean: every dollar of restricted donation flows to the nonprofit. For donors, the tip prompt is opt-in rather than hidden in fees.

How Zeffy Works

Register as a nonprofit. Zeffy verifies your 501(c)(3) status (US) or charitable registration (Canada). Once verified, build donation pages, event registration pages, ticketing pages, peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns, and recurring giving options.

Donors visit your pages and contribute. At checkout, they choose how much to tip Zeffy. The default tip is suggested (typically 15-20%); donors can adjust to $0 or higher. The nonprofit receives 100% of the donation amount minus the tip the donor chose.

Donation pages handle one-time gifts, recurring subscriptions, and pledges. Custom branding, suggested amounts, and impact statements (your $100 funds 50 meals) increase conversion. Receipt automation handles tax acknowledgments.

Event registration with ticketing supports paid events, free events with capacity limits, and hybrid gala-style auctions. Peer-to-peer fundraising lets supporters set up their own campaigns under your organization umbrella.

The donor management layer tracks giving history, tags, custom fields, and campaign attribution. Lightweight CRM compared to Bloomerang or DonorPerfect but sufficient for many smaller nonprofits.

Zeffy Pricing in 2026

Free for nonprofits. Zero platform fees, zero payment processing fees, zero monthly subscription.

Revenue comes from optional donor tips. The tip prompt appears at checkout; donors choose tip amount (default suggested, can be $0).

The free model works for typical nonprofit fundraising. For nonprofits running events with hard cost requirements (rental, catering), all the gross donation flows to the nonprofit; no platform overhead reduces the budget.

Where Zeffy Wins

• Truly free for nonprofits: no platform fees, no processing fees, no subscription.
• Polished donor experience: pages look professional, mobile-optimized, fast.
• Event and ticketing included: replaces separate event platform costs.
• Recurring giving: subscriptions handled with retry logic for failed cards.
• Receipts automated: tax-deductible receipts generated for each gift.

Where It Falls Short

• Tip prompts may feel awkward: some donors get frustrated by the tip ask.
• Limited CRM depth vs Bloomerang: dedicated CRMs offer deeper donor management.
• Reliance on tip rate: if tip rates fall, Zeffy's model gets pressured.
• US and Canada only: limited support for other countries.
• Customization more limited than enterprise tools: works well but less flexible than Classy or Funraise.

Zeffy vs Donorbox vs Givebutter vs Classy

Donorbox charges 1.5% platform fee plus processing. Cheap but not free.

Givebutter uses a tip model similar to Zeffy but with optional platform fees for organizations that prefer it.

Classy targets larger nonprofits with deeper features at 5%+ platform fees.

PayPal Giving Fund is free but lacks campaign management features.

Who Should Use Zeffy

Small to mid-size nonprofits: free pricing aligns with limited budgets.

Organizations running events and ticketing: combined fundraising and event platform.

Recurring giving programs: subscription-style donations handled well.

Skip it if: you need deep CRM with major gifts management (use Bloomerang), you operate outside US/Canada, or you have a major-gifts-driven model where the tip prompt could feel off-brand.

How Zeffy works

Zeffy is an all-in-one fundraising platform for nonprofits that charges the organization nothing at all: no platform fee, no transaction fee, and Zeffy absorbs the credit card processing fees, so 100% of every payment reaches the nonprofit. The modules cover donation forms (one-time and recurring), event ticketing with e-tickets and door scanning, raffles and lotteries, online auctions with bid notifications, tiered memberships with auto-generated cards, an online shop with inventory, peer-to-peer campaigns with leaderboards, and Tap to Pay on a phone for in-person giving. A donor CRM sits underneath all of it, with giving history, segmentation, email campaigns and newsletters.

The workflow is straightforward. You create a free account, build a form for whatever you are running, and share the link. Donors pay by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay, and funds land in the nonprofit's bank account within a few business days. Every transaction flows into the donor CRM automatically, so segmentation and email follow-up work off the same record with no import step.

The revenue model is the mechanic that matters. At checkout, the donor is shown an optional contribution to Zeffy, with a suggested amount they can raise, lower or remove entirely. Zeffy reports that about two in three donors leave a tip, and that this covers all processing costs across the platform. The nonprofit is paid the full original amount either way.

Where Zeffy wins

• The zero-fee claim is structural, not a promotional rate. Zeffy covers card processing itself, so there is no percentage skimmed off donations and no monthly platform charge to budget for.
• No feature gating. Auctions, peer-to-peer, memberships, Tap to Pay and the CRM are available immediately to every organization, where competitors typically reserve auctions and P2P for premium tiers.
• Genuinely broad module coverage in one product. Most nonprofits would otherwise stitch together a donation tool, an event ticketer, an auction platform and an email tool.
• Donor data lands in the built-in CRM automatically from every module, so segmentation and email run off real transaction history without exports.
• The scale is real, not a pilot. The vendor states 100,000+ nonprofits and $2B processed over seven years.

Where it falls short

• The tip prompt is the product's real cost, and it lands on your donors rather than on you. Zeffy's help centre states the contribution wording and suggested amounts cannot be customized, so you cannot tone it down if it clashes with your donor experience.
• North America only in practice. Zeffy positions itself as the only 100% free platform "in North America" and cites nonprofits "across North America", but the public pages never state supported countries, currencies or eligibility rules such as 501(c)(3) status or CRA registration. Organizations outside the US and Canada should confirm before committing.
• Eligibility and payout mechanics are undocumented publicly: no named payment processor, no precise payout SLA beyond "several business days", and no list of ineligible organization types.
• Large card donations with no tip attached reportedly trigger personal outreach from Zeffy, per their help centre, which suggests the free model has soft edges around high-value or unusual transactions.
• Vendor concentration risk. The whole model depends on roughly 60-67% of donors continuing to tip, and you have no lever to influence that rate.

Who should use Zeffy

Small and mid-sized North American nonprofits, especially volunteer-run ones such as PTAs, churches, animal rescues, sports clubs, fire departments and food banks, where a 3-8% platform-plus-processing bite is the difference between running a campaign and not running it. It is strongest for organizations that need several fundraising formats at once (an event, a raffle, an auction, a shop) and cannot justify separate subscriptions for each.

Weigh it more carefully if you run a major-gifts programme, where the un-customizable tip prompt would appear in front of high-value donors. Same if you operate outside the US and Canada, or if you need deep integration into an existing enterprise CRM, which the public site does not evidence.

Frequently Asked Questions