Fundraising in Zoom Events

Zoom Events allows you to turn your Zoom Event into a fundraiser. This allows attendees to directly make in-platform donations to verified nonprofit organizations during your meeting or webinar event. A live donor feed will be shown as well.

This article covers:

General questions
Zoom Events charitable fundraisers: Host questions
Zoom Events charitable fundraisers: donor questions & donations to charitable organizations
Credit card charges

General questions

What is Pledge?

Pledgeling Technologies is Zoom Events’ technology partner to power charitable donations through Zoom Events. It is the leading charitable giving and crowdfunding platform for mission-driven brands, nonprofits, and individuals. Pledge was a top 5 finalist in the 2020 Whale Watch Zoom App Marketplace Competition and powers the Donations by Pledge app on the Zoom App Marketplace. For questions, contact zoomdonations@pledgeling.com.

What is the Pledgeling Foundation?

Pledgeling Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and donor-advised fund that simplifies charitable giving. It processes donations from 90+ countries and regrants them to 2MM+ organizations, including all U.S.-registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations in IRS good standing, as well as hundreds of thousands of vetted and verified international charities operating in 100 countries around the world. Pledgeling Foundation is nonpartisan and headquartered in Los Angeles, California (Federal Tax ID: 46-2440594).

Where can I add or see fundraisers on Zoom Events?

Charitable fundraisers can be created, modified, or accessed through the Zoom Events platform at this time.

Zoom Events charitable fundraisers: Host questions

How do I add a fundraiser to my Zoom Events event?

You can add a fundraiser to your event to help raise funds for a nonprofit 501(c)(3) when you create a Zoom Events event.

Can I raise funds for anyone or am I limited to nonprofits?

Donations are currently limited to 2MM+ nonprofit and charitable organizations, including all US 501(c)(3) ‘public charities’ in good standing with the IRS, as well as qualified charitable organizations in 90 countries around the world. Pledge expects to roll out crowdfunding capabilities enabling donations to individuals in the coming months. Stay tuned!

When will my attendees be able to donate to nonprofits?

Attendees will be able to donate to a fundraiser before, during, or after the event as follows:

Before: Attendees can donate on the event page or from the ticket dashboard
During: Attendees can donate on the event page or by going to the dedicated website URL displayed on the Host’s screen if a Host chooses to display live donations with the Pledge virtual donation overlay
After: Attendees can donate on the event page or from the ticket dashboard

How do I display live donations during my Zoom Events event?

Once a fundraiser is created on your Zoom Events event, you will receive a link to instructions to set up the Pledge virtual donation overlay.

Can I display live donations if I’m hosting a Zoom Events event on my iPad or mobile device?

Currently, the Pledge virtual donation overlay can be activated on desktop computers only.

Can my Zoom Events fundraiser contribute to more than one nonprofit?

Event Hosts can select up to 10 nonprofit or charitable organizations at a time to receive donations from their event. However, Hosts can change the beneficiary organization as many times as they want. For instance, if you've set up a birthday party on Zoom Events, after you've raised $250 for your favorite nonprofit, you can switch the beneficiary organization so that new donations go to another charitable organization.

Will the nonprofit be notified that donations came from my Zoom Events charitable fundraiser?

Pledge does not share details about your Zoom Events event, such as the name of the Host or the event, with nonprofit donation recipients at this time. Pledge only shares donor names (if they choose not to remain anonymous), donation dates, and donation amounts with nonprofits. Authorized representatives from the nonprofits can log into their organization's account and view that donor data.

How do I remove charitable donations from my Zoom Events event?

On the Zoom Events’ event creation or edit page, go to the Event Options section and uncheck the Fundraising option to remove the fundraiser from your event page.

People will no longer be able to make donations, but any funds already processed will be forwarded to the organization that you designated.

If you change your mind or want to donate to a different organization, you can edit your event by clicking on the Manage tab to modify your previously created event.

Can I set custom donation amounts on the Zoom Events donation form?

The pre-set dollar amounts on the donation buttons ($25, $50, $100, and $250) are not customizable. If the donors want to donate anything outside of those amounts, they can type in whatever amount they wish to donate in the custom $ USD box. The minimum donation is $5.

How will I know when someone donates to my Zoom Events event?

Zoom Events Hosts who have created a fundraiser will be able to view a list of donations in the Host Dashboard.

If a fundraising goal has been set, the total donation amount raised to date will appear on the donation form visible to everyone if at least one donation has been made. If a fundraising goal has not been set, the total donation amount raised to date will appear if there has been at least $25 donated.

Note: Hosts will receive an email to notify them when 80% of their event's fundraising goal has been met.

How do I track the donations raised for my fundraisers?

To see a general overview of the total donations you have raised from your fundraiser events:

Sign in to Zoom Events.
In the top-right corner, click Manage.
In the navigation menu, click Event Summary.
A general overview of the total donations from your fundraiser events will appear.

To see donation details that are specific to an event:

Sign in to Zoom Events.
In the navigation menu, click Events.
Click the Past Events tab and find the event which details you want to see.
Click the ellipsis .
Select View Event Summary.
(Optional) To see who donated to your fundraiser and their contribution amount, click View Details.

Zoom Events Charitable Fundraisers: Donor Questions & Donations to Charitable Organizations

What fees are taken out of my donation?

None. Zoom Events will cover credit-card processing fees so that 100% of donations made through Zoom Events will be distributed to verified nonprofits.

Note: Donation forms have an optional tip that is used to cover Pledgeling Technologies' costs in providing this free service to Zoom Events Hosts and participants. The tip is optional to all donors and can be adjusted, including to $0.00. If participants do not provide a tip, Pledgeling Technologies does not receive any funds. The tip is displayed to donors prior to approving the payment. Tips are in addition to the donation amount, so they do not affect the amount reaching the charitable organization. Because tips flow immediately to a for-profit service provider, under IRS rules they are not tax-deductible to the donor.

How do I know my donation was received by the nonprofit?

Donations to US organizations: You can contact the charitable organization directly and confirm that they have received payment from Pledgeling Foundation. If you hosted an event that had donations in more than one calendar month, those will usually be spread across more than one payment to the nonprofit.
If you need further confirmation, contact the Pledge support page with your Zoom Events event ID and Pledge can provide the information for you. Pledge can find when they paid your donation to the recipient organization and confirm that the organization has cashed the check. Pledge can provide check images if necessary.
Donations received by Pledgeling Foundation during a calendar month are batched together and regranted within the first fifteen days of the following month.
For donations outside the US: Pledge works through international disbursement partners and due to minimum fees, does not send donations for regranting to a specific organization until there is a minimum of $500 in donations for that charitable organization. This can delay delivery of the funds.

Where is my tax receipt?

It should be in your email. Pledge's system emails a tax receipt within minutes of successfully processing a donation, so if you don't receive it, search your email for the word "Pledge" and be sure to include your junk or spam folder.

If it's not there, it's possible that you mistyped your email address on the donation form. Submit a support ticket at help.pledgeling.org with the name you donated under, the email address you would have used on the donation form, the organization you donated to, and the approximate date and amount you donated. If you can provide the exact amount and date, along with the last four digits of your credit card number, that helps a lot. Pledge doesn't necessarily need all this but it can help cut down on back-and-forth emails if Pledge can't find your record right away.

What nonprofit organizations can Pledge send donations to?

Pledge can regrant donations to:

Any US 501(c)(3) ‘public charity’ nonprofit in good standing with the IRS. Pledge's database has virtually all active US nonprofits in it (one exception is that nonprofits that were just recently approved by the IRS might not be listed yet).
Hundreds of thousands of charitable organizations operating in 100 countries, including every charitable organization in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand.

Have an organization in mind, but not sure if it qualifies? For US nonprofits, visit guidestar.org or search the IRS site directly.

If you'd like to request that Pledge adds an organization, please see this page for additional information.

Are my donations tax-deductible?

Yes, donations to Pledgeling Foundation are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law and your personal tax situation. Pledgeling Foundation is an IRS-approved 501(c)(3) entity so donations to it are treated the same as to any other nonprofit.

Pledge emails a receipt immediately after you make a donation, and it will provide the information you need to substantiate a deduction. Search your email, including your junk or spam folder, for "Pledge".

I want to donate to a nonprofit, but it’s not listed. Now what?

US nonprofit organizations

Pledge has virtually all US 501(c)(3) nonprofits in their system. If one does not appear in search results, the most common reasons are:

It's brand new and the IRS hasn't updated their database that Pledge monitors.
It has a different official name than the one in everyday use. For instance, a daycare center operated by a church may be under the church EIN.
It's fiscally sponsored by another organization that actually receives and processes the donations.
The name Pledge has stored has (or doesn't have) an abbreviation, hyphenation, or other punctuation that made the search miss it. Unfortunately, you have to try different variations or use a less specific search.
Its 501(c)(3) status has lapsed; for instance, if it didn't file tax returns despite IRS warnings.
It's not a 501(c)(3) but some less common type of nonprofit organization, such as political ones. Pledge can only regrant donations to 501(c)(3) ‘public charity’ nonprofits.

You can search for US nonprofits, both 501(c)(3) and other types on the IRS website.

If you’d like to see a US 501(c)(3) organization included, complete a form to suggest a nonprofit. Include as much information as possible about what you searched for and the organization you are trying to find (name, EIN if known, address, website).

Non-US charitable organizations

Listings of non-US organizations are provided by Pledge's partners and they have no direct control over those listings. Pledge can request that our partners add an organization to their listings, but they incur research, vetting, and processing costs that they pass on to Pledge. As a result, where Pledge's partners are able to perform the service, Pledge charges a minimum of $500 to add a non-US charitable organization, and the amount can be much larger depending on the country.

What data is shared with nonprofits?

Pledgeling Foundation provides the following to the recipient organization by default:

Donor name (can be removed at your option)
Donor email (can be removed at your option)
Donation amount
Donation date
Partner name (Zoom)

This is the same information they would receive if you donated directly to them online.

As a donor, you have the option of hiding your name & email address. If you don't want Pledge to pass along your name & email, there is a checkbox to make an anonymous donation. In that case, Pledge only passes along the date and amount.

If you made a donation through Zoom Events, you have the option of sharing your contact information with the nonprofit organization you donated to. This option occurs on the Thank You screen following your donation submission. The different settings control what the charitable organization sees as follows:

Anonymous Donation: Nonprofit organization sees no name or email address.
Non-Anonymous Donation, but Share Contact Info NOT checked: NPO sees name, but not your email
Non-Anonymous Donation, Share Contact info checked - NPO sees name and email

See Pledge's privacy policy for more details. Note that if your donation is initiated through a partner where you have an account, such as Zoom Events, you should reference their privacy policy as well.

How do I review, change, or delete my personal information?

See Pledge's current privacy policy to know what information Pledge collects, when Pledge collects it, and how Pledge uses it.

This Pledgeing article summarizes some of that policy but does not replace it. In case there are any differences between the following and Pledge's privacy policy, Pledge's privacy policy is the controlling document:

Personal Information: This allows someone to identify or contact you, including your name, address, telephone number, email address, as well as any other non-public information about you that is associated with or linked to any of the foregoing information.
You can review and/or change certain of your Personal Information by accessing your account if you have one. You may also review, update, correct, or delete the Personal Information in your account by detailing your request using the New Support Ticket form on the support site (but if some or all of your Personal Information is deleted, then your account may become deactivated). Use this same procedure to request that we close your Account.
We can't delete all personal information. Even if you request that we delete your Personal Information, certain data is necessary in order for us to provide our services and maintain the integrity of our records, and it can not be deleted in its entirety. For instance, we may need to retain certain Personal Information to comply with laws, prevent fraud, resolve disputes, troubleshoot problems, assist with any investigations, enforce our Terms of Use, and take other actions otherwise permitted by law or for our legitimate business purposes. If for these or other reasons we can not delete all of your Personal Information, we will convert it to Anonymous Information where possible. "Anonymous Information" means information that is not associated with or linked to your Personal Information. Anonymous Information does not enable identification of or contact with individual persons.
Information shared with third parties: If we have already disclosed some of your Personal Information to third parties, we cannot access that Personal Information any longer and cannot force the deletion or modification of any such information by the parties to whom we have made those disclosures, including charitable organizations.
EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): If you are from the European Economic Area, you have the right under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679) (GDPR), the right to request from us access to and rectification or erasure of your personal data, the right of data portability, the right of restriction of processing of your personal data, the right to object to processing of your personal data, and the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. If you reside outside of the European Economic Area, you may have similar rights under your local laws. To request access to or rectification, portability, or erasure of your personal data, or to delete your account with us, please make your request using the "New Support Ticket" form at help.pledgeling.com (Pledgeling Technologies) or help.pledgeling.org (Pledgeling Foundation), or write us at: Pledge, Attn: Data Controller, 3rd Floor, 1638 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice, CA 90291.
Right to restriction of processing and right to object to processing: Whether you live in the European Union and you wish to exercise your right to restriction of processing or your right to object to processing or do not live in the European Union but you believe you have a right to restriction of processing or a right to object to processing under your local laws, please make your request using the "New Support Ticket" form at help.pledgeling.com (Pledgeling Technologies) or help.pledgeling.org (Pledgeling Foundation), or write us at: Pledge, Attn: Data Controller, 3rd Floor, 1638 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice, CA 90291.

Can I donate from outside of the US?

Donate from any place at any time, but please keep in mind that unless otherwise noted, all donations are processed in US dollars (so if you are in Australia or Canada, that $ sign means "US$").

Donations to Pledgeling Foundation are tax-deductible for US taxpayers. If you are outside the US, check with your local tax authorities regarding deductibility or other tax benefits.

Pledge currently can only provide tax receipts targeted to US donors. So if you are in Australia, donating to an Australian charity, Pledge's receipt may or may not be sufficient for your taxing authority.

Credit Card Charges

How do I cancel my recurring (monthly) donation?

Find your receipt: Your most recent emailed receipt will include a manage your subscription link in the paragraph that begins with, "This is a monthly donation …" Click the link and you'll be directed to a Subscription page. On the Subscription page, find the Cancel recurring donation button. Click the Cancel recurring donation button.

If you are not getting emailed receipts for recurring donations, first check your spam or junk mail folder – search for anything with the word "Pledge".

If you still can't find the receipts, open a support ticket using the New Support Ticket button. Because the reason you're not getting receipts is probably because of a problem with the email address Pledge has on file for you, verify that you enter it correctly and include the date, amount of the charge, and the last four digits of the card being charged so that Pledge can quickly find your recurring donation.

Can my charitable donation be refunded?

Unfortunately, due to laws and regulations governing charitable contributions and Pledge's inability to recover funds already sent to recipient nonprofits, many donations are "irrevocable gifts" and are non-refundable.

Email Pledge if you have:

Directed a donation to the wrong nonprofit
Paid a donation twice
Donated the wrong amount (such as 10x or 100x what you intended)

In those cases, if the funds have not been regranted to the recipient nonprofit yet – basically, if it's still the same calendar month as the erroneous donation – Pledge may be able to fix the problem.

If Pledge has already forwarded the funds to your designated charitable organization, you will have to get in touch with the designated charitable organization directly.

I don’t recognize this charge on my credit or debit card!

If you don't recognize a charge, search your email, including your spam or junk mail folder, for "Pledge” on or right after the date of the charge. Contact Pledge before disputing the charge with your credit / debit card company.

Pledgeling Foundation is a nonprofit donor-advised fund that receives donations from a number of sources and re-grants those funds to the donor-designated organizations.

Pledge emails tax receipts almost immediately after a donation are processed. Unless there was a typo in your email address, you should have that as proof. Search your mail, including your spam or junk folder, for "Pledge" and see if that email appears.

Search for Zoom Events events that you were invited to around the date of the charge. Click the link to the event's web page, and the Activity tab may show donations, including yours.

Ask your spouse, partner, or family members if they made the charge – if they did, they probably provided Pledge with their email address, so they should search for an email from Pledge right around the date of the charge.

If you still don't recognize the charge, submit a "New Support Ticket" here to ask Pledge to find out more about your donation. Please include:

The date of the charge as it appears on your card statement
The exact amount of the charge
The last four digits of the credit / debit card number on which the charge appears
Your first and last name
Any email addresses you might use when making an online donation

Unfortunately, if you contact your credit card company, that creates a "dispute" that Pledge's card processor charges Pledge $15 for. Pledge has to deduct that $15 from the next monthly donation Pledge makes to the charitable organization associated with your donation, and that comes out of other people's donations. Contact Pledge before disputing a charge through your bank or credit card company.

How do I change the credit card on my recurring (monthly) donation?

Find your receipt: Your most recent emailed receipt will include a "manage your subscription" link in the paragraph that begins "This is a monthly donation …" Click the link and you'll go to a page titled "Subscription," seen in the screenshot below. That page has a large red button labeled "Cancel recurring donation" – click it and you're done!

If you are not getting emailed receipts for recurring donations, first check your spam or junk mail folder – search for anything with the word "Pledge".

If you still can't find the receipts, open a support ticket using the New Support Ticket button on this page. Since the reason you're not getting receipts is probably because of a problem with the email address Pledge has on file for you, please double-check that you entered it correctly, and include the date and amount of the charge, and the last four digits of the card being charged so that Pledge can quickly find your recurring donation.

How secure are my identity and card information?

Pledge itself does not capture, transmit, or store your credit card information. It is encrypted locally on your device and sent directly from there to Pledge's payment processor, Stripe, without passing through Pledge's systems. No credit card information, encrypted or not, ever passes through or is stored on a Pledge system or network.

Stripe is a PCI Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) Level 1 provider used by companies like Lyft, Shopify, Foursquare, Kickstarter, Pinterest, Slack, and many more. See more about security at Stripe for more information.

For other information, Pledge applies strict standards and protocols for encrypting, storing, or transmitting data. Pledge's infrastructure uses a SOC1 / SOC2 / SOC3 certified hosting service. Pledge regularly installs security updates and actively monitors their systems to detect suspicious activity.

Why did I get a refund from Pledge?

Reasons for refunds on both charitable donations include:

Pledge's payments processor flagged the contribution as suspicious. In order to avoid possible chargebacks later, after Pledge has already delivered the funds to the nonprofit, event organizer, or their designated beneficiary, Pledge acts cautiously and refunds the amount up front.
You disputed a charge with your payment card company.