Understand: Advocate Fundraising for US 501(c) Organizations

Fundraise for a US 501(c) organization even if you're not directly affiliated with them.

If you want to support a registered nonprofit organization in the United States but you’re not an employee or registered volunteer, RallyUp allows you to set up an Advocate fundraiser. Advocates are individuals or businesses who aren’t directly affiliated with an organization but still want to raise funds on their behalf. For example, someone running a birthday fundraiser on social media for their favorite charity is an Advocate fundraiser.

How It Works

  1. Create your RallyUp account.
  2. Set up and publish your fundraising Campaign. RallyUp will collect the funds as they’re donated.
  3. 30 days after your Campaign ends, RallyUp will send all funds to the organization using the address registered in the IRS database.  

Before You Begin

Create Your Account

If the organization you want to support is based in the US and is a registered 501(c), you can set up your RallyUp account right away:

  1. Go to rallyup.com and select Get started.
  2. Create the account using your own name and password. You’ll give us the name of the organization later:

  1. Select the state where you live, then select Other for the “I’m with a...” field and Charity or nonprofit for the “fundraising for...” field:

This lets us know that you’re creating a personal account to fundraise on an organization’s behalf.

  1. Select Start fundraising.

Create Your Campaign and Select the Organization

You’ll provide the name of the organization you’re fundraising for when you create your first fundraising Campaign. This allows you to create different Campaigns for different organizations. Note that you can only assign one organization to each Campaign, but you can run more than one Campaign at a time if you want to support multiple organizations at once.

  1. Go to Campaigns in the left menu and select NEW CAMPAIGN. This will take you to Campaign Setup.
  2. Select the fundraising Activity or Activities you want to run.  
  3. Complete all questions below your Activity selection, then select Next.
  4. On the Organization step, use the search bar to find the organization you’re fundraising for:

Note that this list only includes registered US 501(c) charity organizations. If you can’t find the organization you’re looking for, delete the Campaign you just created and reach out to the organization you want to fundraise for. The organization will need to follow the instructions in this article before you can start fundraising: How-to: Allow Supporters to Fundraise for Your Non-US Organization. If you give them the email address you used to make your RallyUp account, you can use the same account to set up your Advocate fundraiser.  

  1. Complete all other setup steps. When you’re done and ready to start fundraising, go live.

Good to Know

  • The name of the charity will be displayed on your fundraising page and can’t be removed. This lets donors know exactly where their money is going and gives your fundraiser credibility.
  • RallyUp distributes the funds directly to the charity organization to prevent fraud. This gives donors confidence that their donation will reach the intended charity.

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