Event.Gives

Event.Gives brings ticket sales, attendee management, donations, and auction tools together for fundraising events. It is best suited to organizations running live, virtual, or hybrid campaigns that need mobile bidding and donation workflows alongside registration. Its breadth is compelling, but transaction and platform fees deserve close attention.

Overview

Founded in 2015, Event.Gives supports live and silent auctions, virtual and hybrid events, golf tournaments, embedded donation forms, and peer-to-peer fundraising. Its reported scale—more than 3,000 events per year and $150 million donated through the platform—points to a focus on fundraising rather than general-purpose event planning.

Event.Gives combines ticketing and attendee tools with auction management, raffles, text-to-donate, recurring donations, live streaming, real-time reporting, mobile checkout, and instant payout. That range can reduce the need to piece together separate tools for an event, though the fees mean the free entry price should not be mistaken for cost-free fundraising.

Key features

Mobile bidding, live and silent auction support, and online auctions make the platform relevant to organizations whose events depend on competitive bidding. Mobile checkout accepts Apple Pay, Google Pay, and credit cards, while ticket and donation funds transfer to the organization through its Stripe account. The optional choice for attendees to cover fees can shift some costs, but it does not remove the need to decide how fees will be handled.

Event.Gives also offers an AI item-description generator that tailors auction descriptions to DISC personality profiles. The named integrations—Double the Donation, Raiser's Edge NXT, Stripe, Zoom, and Twilio—cover donation matching, fundraising records, payments, video, and messaging. Organizations already using those services may find the connections useful; the platform's value is less certain if their workflows rely on other systems.

The company says it is SOC II Type 2 and PCI DSS Level 1 compliant and meets WCAG 2.1 AA. It also says it does not collect or store payment-card details, which are provided directly to third-party processors such as Stripe. Support is available seven days a week, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m.–5 p.m. at a live desk on weekends.

Pricing

The Free plan costs nothing and includes event success coaching, registration, check-in, mobile bidding, ticketing, and donations. It is a substantial starting package for groups that want core event fundraising tools without a subscription. However, the pricing calculator lists a 3.5% credit card transaction fee plus $0.30 per transaction and a 4.5% platform fee; those charges can add up as fundraising volume grows.

Basic costs $99 a month, billed per month. It adds analytics, up to 250,000 tracked visits, normal support, a mobile app, thank-you letters, Double The Donation, flexible fees, split payments, and a fundraising thermometer. This is the clearest step up for organizations that need these tools but do not require the larger event and peer-to-peer package. The tracked-visits cap is worth considering for high-traffic campaigns.

Professional costs $2,495 a year, billed per year. It includes all Essential Features, five live-streaming events, one peer-to-peer event, bulk attendee upload, table and seat management, check payout, peer/team/family management pages, custom milestones and badges, and peer-to-peer leaderboards. The annual commitment makes most sense for groups with recurring or more involved fundraising events that will use those capabilities; the one-event peer-to-peer allowance may constrain organizations running multiple such campaigns.

Enterprise costs $3,495 a year, billed per year. It includes all Professional features plus discounted support, an email marketing campaign, white-label design, and a lower processing fee. This tier is aimed at organizations that need branded experiences or expect the processing-fee reduction and added campaign features to justify the higher annual cost. Across plans, the published calculator's transaction and platform fees are important to factor into the total cost.

Platforms

Event.Gives is available on the web. Its mobile bidding and checkout features support phone-based participation, but the listed platform availability is web rather than native Android or iOS apps.

Who it's for

Event.Gives fits nonprofits and other fundraising organizations that want ticketing, auctions, donations, and attendee workflows in one service, especially those staging hybrid or online events. Golf tournaments and peer-to-peer fundraisers are also within its stated event formats. A group focused on simple, low-volume auction sales may find the broader package—and percentage-based platform fee—harder to justify.

Pros and cons

• Pros: A broad set of fundraising formats and tools, from auctions and ticketing to recurring donations and peer-to-peer events, can support varied campaign needs.
• Pros: Mobile bidding, wallet-based checkout, and Stripe payouts support a phone-centered attendee and payment flow.
• Pros: Seven-day support and integrations with named fundraising, payment, video, and messaging services suit organizations coordinating event operations.
• Cons: The 4.5% platform fee plus 3.5% and $0.30 credit card transaction charge can materially affect net proceeds.
• Cons: Professional includes only one peer-to-peer event, and its five streaming events may not cover organizations running frequent virtual events.
• Cons: Enterprise and Professional require annual payment, so they are less flexible for organizations with seasonal or occasional fundraising needs.

Alternatives

Choose Auctria if a free auction plan with a stated $10,000 annual income cap, 250 bidders per event, and a 1% credit card fee better fits a smaller fundraiser; it supports Android, iOS, and web. BiddingOwl is another free option for traditional silent or live auctions, with Android, iOS, and web support.

RallyUp may suit a fundraiser seeking a free plan with no platform fee, donor tipping, and core fundraising components; its platforms are Android and web. 32auctions is a web-based alternative for a small online auction: its free plan allows up to 20 items, one image per item, and unlimited bidders.

BetterWorld offers a free plan with a 0% platform fee, with standard payment processing fees still applying; its Flex plan adds a 2.2–5% platform fee. GalaBid offers a free plan with optional participant tips and more than 100 features, or a one-time-priced Pro option without tips. iBid is a free web option with 3.5% payment processing fees plus $1, which bidders can cover. Greater Giving is worth considering when an organization wants an event package with custom pricing.

Browse Charity Auction Software or Nonprofit Payment Processing Software for more options in those categories.

Verdict

Event.Gives is a strong fit for fundraising organizations that need auctions, ticketing, donations, and attendee tools across in-person and virtual event formats. Its free plan makes it possible to start without a subscription, while its breadth and integrations can support more involved campaigns. Choose it when those combined workflows justify the platform fee and card-processing charges; look elsewhere if keeping per-donation costs low or running a simple auction is the priority.