The Sad Story of Fundable.com

Once touted as the next big thing, Fundable has crashed and burned on so many levels.  Fundable is a service that gives individuals and orgs the ability to collect online pledges.  Setup is free.  Sounds good right?  Oh, did i forget to mention the 10% fee taken from whatever is raised.  10%!!

Now, I've railed against transaction fee vendors before but these guys take the cake.  10% is wrong.  Simply put, it is a commission fee and in the nonprofit fundraising world, commission fees are simply unacceptable.

If we look beyond the fees, however, we learn about so many horror stories about the service, especially as it pertains to people getting the money that they raised.

Here is an abbreviated list of documented shadiness:

http://blog.taniith.com/2008/09/fundable/

http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/fundablecom-c241244.html

http://www.maryrobinettekowal.com/journal/my-very-bad-experience-with-fundable-com/

http://www.mylot.com/w/discussions/1936462.aspx

http://boingboing.net/2009/08/22/fundable-rips-off-hu.html

Here's a brief timeline of fundable:

May 2005 - Seth Godin Claims fundable.com "the next big thing

December 2006 - fundable.com is launched

September 2009 - Web site is replaced by a single page stating that their founder was fired and the site was "permanently closed.

October 2009 - Web site is back up and looks ready for more unsuspecting customers.

October 2009 - 800 number returns a "this number has been disconnected" message

The takeaways: 

1. Nonprofit orgs should steer clear of fundable.  There are so many better options out there.  The best ones don't involve commission fees and percentages. 
2. If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.  I'm sure that there will be a next big thing for online fundraising.  Just be careful and stick with your tried and true vendors till your are sure that you can put your donors' money at risk with "the next big thing."

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