The background: Y’all was planning their first fundraising event when they realized they needed a ticketing and event platform to sell tickets.

Y'all is a new (founded in 2022) Indiana nonprofit dedicated to creating inclusive and supportive environments for queer individuals and, yes, they’re as welcoming, friendly and supportive as their name. If you want to get to know Y’all a little better, we’ve written all about them and how they figured out how to start a nonprofit in the United States.

Okay, let’s talk about how Zeffy helped Y’all with their first fundraising event—and has continued to help them ever since.

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The challenge: Finding a free fundraising platform for nonprofits.

Y’all had all the logistics planned out for their first event—they needed bowls, soup and people to come—but, once we had the conceptual idea down, they quickly realized people needed a way to actually buy tickets.

Y’all knew all about Eventbrite and other ticketing and event platforms, but was surprised to learn that they didn’t have a platform for nonprofits.

A lot of platforms had discounts for nonprofits, but none were free and they really wanted the money people were giving to have the most impact possible—all their donations, for now, come from individuals, and whatever amount they give is a big deal for them and for Y’all.

In their search, they found Zeffy. Bryggs puts it best:

In our search, we found Zeffy. We explored the site a bit and it said it was free. We poured over your website… Is Zeffy actually free?
- Bryggs

Already a bit behind on their timelines, Daniel and Bryggs hopped on a demo and confirmed that it was free. (They asked twice just to make sure.)

The other thing that was really big for us, most fundraising platforms require you to have a 501C3 status and we didn’t even know if we wanted one at that point. Even though we were incorporated as a nonprofit in Indiana, most platforms required the federal papers—Zeffy only requires you to be recognized as a nonprofit at any level. And that made a big difference for us.
- Daniel

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The solution: Fundraising on Zeffy means keeping 100% of every donation.

Zeffy is a nice, blank white thing that you can fill out.
- Bryggs

These days, Y’all uses Zeffy for everything. Everything feature and tool we have, they use. (Ya’ll is planning an eStore—yes Zeffy can help with your eCommerce site.) Y’all uses Zeffy to help manage their donors and volunteers. They use our Tap-to-Pay feature and don’t shy away from talking to their donors about Zeffy’s voluntary contribution model.

And, what does Y’all like best about Zeffy’s 100% free fundraising platform for nonprofits? Well, Bryggs says it best:

At the “Fill All My Bowls” event, I was in charge of checking people in. I got really familiar with [Zeffy’s platform] and it wasn’t hard. I even trained someone while we were selling tickets. The platform was so simple, he figured it out intuitively on the spot.
- Bryggs

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The results: What Zeffy means to Y'all.

We asked Y’all how their fundraising has been going:

Daniel: We’ve been really impressed. We were really impressed with the real-time feedback and changes. Zeffy launched Tap-to-Pay the same day we needed a terminal. It was weird and amazing. We were one of the first organizations to use it.

Bryggs: I was shocked. I know, or at least I’ve been told by other platforms, that things can take a long time to update. It was really cool jumping on call and having our feedback be heard and addressed.

Daniel: Having Zeffy as a partner, making changes that make an impact, listening to the people who use it. I mean, that’s unheard of. So, it’s going well.

And, we'd just like to mention mention the over $800 Y'all has saved in fees already. So, all-in-all a pretty good first year!