ChipIn is Gone! What now?

Posted on February 6, 2013 by jbsibley

Now that ChipIn is closing their doors there is a giant hole for small rescues and rescuers who want to raise funds online with no costs additional to PayPal fees. PayPal charges 2.2% + .30 per transaction to non-profits – very reasonable for credit card processing. Once you’re using a fundraising service, though, your total costs can climb quickly.

Here are three sites I’ve found today to help plug that hole.

The Original Fundraising Widget gives you a nice little ChipIn style fundraising widget for your website and also gives you a landing page (with those all-important share buttons!) where you can explain your project in more detail. The widgets are advertising supported but the ads are small and unobtrusive. There is no charge to use the service, PayPal transaction fees still apply.

Screen Shot 2013-02-06 at 3.25.44 PM

PayPal Labs makes a neat little fundraising widget for websites that is very configurable and easy to use. It is also free to use and PayPal transaction fees still apply.

Screen Shot 2013-02-06 at 3.26.56 PM

Another FREE service (other than the PayPal fees) is YouCaring.com, which hasn’t seen much use yet for animal rescuers but the site is expanding their fundraising categories to help fill the void left by ChipIn. This service doesn’t give you a blog widget but it does give you a very nice and full featured landing page with lots of sharing options.

So ChipIn may be gone, but don’t fret – there’s more out there, and some of it’s free! Got any suggestions for alternatives that are either free or super-low-cost? Leave ‘em in the comments!

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.
  • chrisgee

    thanks for this rundown, i’m about to setup a new donation request, i’m kind of glad to see chipin is off the table, it was ubiquitous but not actually a good app. but it had a killer name!

    • http://www.johnsibley.com/ John Sibley

      It wasn’t particularly good, was it? The whole flash-based thing is a real problem.

  • http://www.facebook.com/breathingwater Marie Farrell

    Do you know by any chance what happened to any funds left on Chipin accounts? A friend who is battling cancer had a good sum on there & did not know it had shut down all access. She can’t get a hold of anyone there now & she truly needs that money. It is rightfully hers. Any ideas from anyone?

    • http://twitter.com/jbsibley John Sibley

      ChipIn doesn’t hold any money. Any donations made are instantly transferred to the associated PayPal address – ChipIn simply tracks it and never holds the donation.

      • Vicki Kleczko

        That is incorrect. Chipin holds the money and the user has to transfer it over to paypal. Well I mean held the money, now chip is gone. My sister is fighting terminal breat cancer, raised money for treatment with chipin, now cant get access to her money. The former CEO of chipin, Carnet Williams (he is on facebook), told my sister by email that chipin is not liable for money left in chipin accounts. The company that chipin merged with refuses to answer emails, they have no listed contact numbers. She has started legal proceedings against these jerks to get her desperately needed money back. Stealing from sick cancer patients, shameless greed.