Teamfi and Cheddar Up are two modern digital fundraising platforms that remove the platform fees of many traditional fundraising services and offer digital fundraising tools to help you raise money.

Teamfi and Cheddar Up both provide great options for any organization looking to fundraise, but each platform has specific features and pricing that are important to understand before choosing which company to fundraise with. 

Key Differences 

Teamfi offers tools to aid in fundraising campaigns typically held as a single session. While Teamfi does not limit how long a fundraising event lasts, their features such as a two-week automated text flow, a 31-day fundraising calendar, and a-thon software which is built around a singular pledge-based event are all geared towards single session fundraising. 

Cheddar Up does offer single session fundraising on its platform, but they also operate slightly differently as a platform. Cheddar Up offers recurring donation systems allowing for multiple sessions of donations from individual donors. They also use this tool similarly to offer assistance with dues and membership fees. 

These tools can be used similarly, but are fundamentally different and each may be helpful depending on your organization's needs.

Cheddar Up also offers various services that Teamfi does not including ticketing and volunteer registration. Cheddar Up offers software tools that allow you to collect tickets and manage event participation and attendance. 

Although the tools offered by Teamfi and Cheddar Up have many differences, because of the flexibility of both platforms they can share many of the same users.

Let’s take a look at a few reasons why an organization might choose to go with Teamfi or Cheddar Up.

Choose Teamfi if…

• You are looking for a lower processing fee. Teamfi has no platform or subscription fees. The only charge faced for using Teamfi’s platform is standard credit card processing fees of 2.9% + $0.30 per donation. This is lower than both Cheddar Up’s free plan (3.95% + $0.95) as well as their subscription fee rate (3.59% + $0.59). It is important to note however that Cheddar Up offers a system that automatically passes transaction fees onto the individual donor. If an organization chooses to do this they will walk away with all of their fundraiser at the end, but processing fees faced per donation will still remain higher than Teamfi’s.
• You are looking for full access to features without the subscription fees. Teamfi has no subscription required in order to access the entire array of features offered on the platform. These features including non-profit verification badges, tax-deductible receipts, multiple fundraiser administrators, etc. are all freely offered on Teamfi. No subscription required. To use these features on Cheddar Up requires a subscription fee tiered at $15, $35, and an undisclosed amount a month when paid annually. 
• You are looking for digital fundraising products that provide flexibility and gamification. Both Teamfi and Cheddar Up provide crowdfunding tools that are easily shareable digital fundraising formats, but Teamfi offers other tools to help gamify your fundraiser, and encourage participation from both donors and participants. Check out Teamfi’s fundraising tools below:
  
  • Crowdfunding - A digital crowdfunding tool that allows your participants to upload contacts as well as manually share links to raise funds on their donation page. 
  • Calendar Fundraisers - Participants are given a calendar that assigns days to a dollar value. Donors are able to put their name on a given day of the month after donation. Fill your calendar and you will have raised $496. 
  • A-thon Fundraisers - A-thon fundraisers create a digital page for your in person a-thon event. Collect pledges and flat donations for your shoot-a-thon, swim-a-thon, dance-a-thon etc. and upload your results to your digital page. Teamfi’s a-thon tool will automatically calculate what you are owed by your pledges and send out automated collection messages to bring in what you have raised from your a-thon event. 

Choose Cheddar Up if… 

• You are looking for assistance with ticketing, selling, and sign-ups. Cheddar Up’s ticketing service allows you to charge and manage ticket sales when hosting in-person events. They also assist in managing transactions for merchandise sales, and provide sign-up software for volunteer registration and management. These helpful tools are useful for organizations looking to do more than just fundraising.
• You are looking for donor fee flexibility. Cheddar Up offers an option that allows you to fundraise entirely for free. With this option the organization faces no processing fee as this will be paid by the donor at checkout, however it is unclear how this may affect donation behavior. You will walk away with 100% of your donations, but you may see decreases in donor spending due to additional fees faced at checkout. 
• You are looking for a service that provides recurring donations. Cheddar Up offers payment pages for membership fees and dues. These services are great for organizations such as Greek Life or HOA’s that often use these payment structures. They also offer recurring fundraising opportunities. With their recurring fundraising structure you can create a fundraiser with the length of your choosing that will send out timed reminders asking for multiple donations over the course of your time span.

Overview - Compare Teamfi and Cheddar Up

What Teamfi is Best For…

Teamfi works best for Teams and organizations that want full access to fundraising tools without the subscription fees, flexible fundraising options that are under full control of the organization, and lower payment processing fees.

This may include:

• A football team looking to “barbell” their fundraising by running a lift-a-thon in the spring and a crowdfunding campaign in the fall.
• A theatre troupe that is looking to run a single session fundraiser to raise money for costumes and set pieces.
• A church group looking to run a calendar fundraiser to help cover costs for their annual retreat.
• A fraternity or sorority looking for software to help raise funds for their spring philanthropy project.

What Cheddar Up is Best For…

Cheddar Up works best for groups looking to use the extensive features and tools offered by their subscription services, organizations looking for recurring donations or due collection, and programs looking for donor fee flexibility.

Cheddar Up is best for:

• A music club looking to run a ticketed concert to raise funds for their travel.
• A food bank in need of software to aid with volunteer sign-up and registration.
• A PTA that is looking to have their fundraising fees covered by parents and community members who are donating.

The Bottom Line - Details Matter

Teamfi offers a streamlined donation process designed to help generate funds for your organization regardless of the situation. Teamfi offers assistance with single-session fundraising, but has seamless fundraiser rollover capabilities that allow you to create a new fundraiser containing the same participants and contacts with just one click. 

Cheddar Up offers great tools for services including ticketing and sales, but lacks variety and flexibility when it comes to their fundraising options. For organizations looking for tools such as ticketing, sales, and volunteer management Cheddar Up possesses flexible online tools with their subscription plans. If you are in need of flexible fundraising tools that offer you the full set of features without any subscriptions necessary, choose Teamfi.