Your group receives before payment processing
$16,000
−$4,000 vs. intended donations, before processing
Your group pays
At least $4,000; other fees not estimated
Donors pay extra
$0
Vertical Raise fundraising costs
Vertical Raise combines online fundraising technology with hands-on campaign support from a fundraising representative. Groups can run direct-donation campaigns and other fundraiser types, while Vertical Raise helps with setup, participant outreach, tracking, and campaign execution.
At a glance
Category
Full-service fundraising companies
Why groups choose it
- A fundraising coach helps set up and launch the campaign
- Participant pages and built-in sharing tools simplify donor outreach
- Multiple fundraiser formats are available beyond direct donations
Tradeoffs to consider
- Vertical Raise does not publish one standard fee for every fundraiser
- Published school agreements show substantially different organization-retention percentages
- Higher percentage-based fees need to generate enough additional fundraising or save enough organizer work to justify their cost
See how Vertical Raise affects your fundraiser
Change the fundraiser assumptions or pricing setup to see how each amount changes.
Fundraiser assumptions
Using these assumptions
- Fundraiser amount
- $20,000 fundraiser
- Number of donations
- 179 donations
- Average donation
- $111.73 average donation
Pricing configuration
Vertical Raise says pricing varies by fundraiser type, service level, and prize program. Choose the service fee in your agreement or use a published district example.
Your group retains $16,000 before processing from $20,000 in intended online donations.
What to know about Vertical Raise
A coach helps launch the campaign
Vertical Raise assigns a fundraising coach who helps create the campaign, onboard participants, and guide the fundraiser. That can reduce the setup and campaign management handled entirely by school volunteers or coaches.
Pricing depends on the agreement
Vertical Raise says it does not use one flat fundraiser fee. Pricing can change based on the fundraiser type, service level, and prize program.
Public examples use different percentages
Spokane Public Schools lists a 20% online-donation program fee plus payment-processing fees. A 2025–26 Pinellas County Schools vendor list says organizations receive 85% of online donations.
Several fundraiser formats are available
Vertical Raise offers direct donations, digital discount cards, product fundraisers, a-thons, fun runs, and other fundraising formats. Pricing and included service can differ by format.
Funds Manager Pro adds oversight
Funds Manager Pro gives district administrators and athletic directors centralized reporting, fundraising visibility, payout monitoring, analytics, and forecasting across multiple groups.
Service value stays outside the arithmetic
The calculator applies the selected fee to the same gross fundraiser used for every provider. It does not estimate additional donations or assign a dollar value to campaign support or organizer time.
How the published default is modeled
Published Spokane terms
This estimate uses a 20% service fee documented in Spokane Public Schools' fundraising guidance. Vertical Raise says its pricing is customized, so your agreement may use a different percentage.
Payment-processing fees are additional under the Spokane terms but are not included here because a universal public processing rate could not be verified.
Campaign assistance
Vertical Raise provides more than payment processing. Its direct-donation campaigns include assistance from a fundraising coach, participant fundraising pages, sharing tools, campaign tracking, and payout management.
Compare the fee with the support
Vertical Raise is not simply a payment processor. Its model combines fundraising technology with campaign assistance from a representative.
When your group can run the campaign
If your group mainly needs a place to collect online donations and already has volunteers who can organize promotion and outreach, compare the total Vertical Raise cost with lower-cost donation platforms.
When your group needs more help
If your coach, booster club, or parent group needs substantial help launching the fundraiser, involving participants, and managing outreach, the additional support may have meaningful value.
Ask whether the additional service produces enough donations or saves enough organizer time to justify the difference in cost.
Pricing details and sources
Uses Spokane Public Schools guidance listing a 20% online-donation program fee plus additional payment-processing fees. It is a public district example, not universal Vertical Raise pricing.
- Pricing modeled
- 20% of online donations + additional payment processing
- Pricing status
- Agreement-specific · public district example
- Last verified
- 2026-08-31
- Source
- View published Spokane terms
Common questions
No. Vertical Raise says its pricing varies by fundraiser type, service level, and prize program. The calculator uses 20% by default because that percentage appears in published Spokane Public Schools guidance.
The 2025–26 Pinellas County Schools approved fundraiser vendor list says organizations receive 85% of online donations through Vertical Raise. That implies a 15% provider share for that published arrangement.
No. Spokane Public Schools says card and ACH fees are additional, but a universal current Vertical Raise processing rate could not be verified. The calculator therefore labels the result as before payment processing.
Direct-donation campaigns include help from a fundraising coach, participant fundraising pages, email, text and social sharing tools, campaign tracking, online collection, and payout management.
Vertical Raise provides campaign assistance from a representative, but groups should confirm the event scope in their agreement. This page does not assume staffed event-day execution comparable to the highest-support Boosterthon programs.
Funds Manager Pro is Vertical Raise’s centralized reporting and oversight product for district administrators and athletic directors. It includes fundraiser visibility, analytics, payout monitoring, and forecasting.
Use your agreement when you have one. The published Spokane and Pinellas examples make comparison possible before a group has its own terms, but neither example is universal pricing.
Want to compare other options?
See how the same fundraiser works across different fundraising platforms and service models.