4fund.com

4fund.com, European fundraising platform with no fees

4fund.com is a crowdfunding and fundraising platform operated by Zrzutka.pl Sp. z o.o., a company based in Wrocław (Poland). Its proposition revolves around the absence of fees: account creation, deposits and withdrawals incur no charges, and the platform is funded through voluntary donations from its own users. The company presents itself as a licensed payment services provider in the European Economic Area.

Types of fundraising and how it works

The platform allows you to create three types of fundraiser: one-time, recurring and for organisations. The organiser defines the purpose, the amount needed and publishes the campaign; donors can contribute with Google Pay, Apple Pay, Visa, MasterCard, iDeal, Bancontact, Sofort, Skrill and other methods. According to the platform's information, the money arrives in the account in seconds and withdrawals are made to MasterCard or Visa cards in minutes, or via traditional bank transfer. Biometric identity verification allows you to activate your account in just a few minutes.

Beyond donations: offers and auctions

In addition to monetary donations, 4fund.com includes a catalogue of offers where users can put unused items or services such as handcrafts, music or podcasts up for sale. 100% of the proceeds from those sales go to the chosen cause. The platform also allows participation in auctions and centralises offers and auctions in one place.

Organiser profile and use cases

Individuals, companies, foundations or institutions can create a fundraiser. Among the common uses the platform mentions are neighbourhood collections, funds for a group trip or a gift, and the need to check who has already contributed. The campaign catalogue includes examples of international aid, social action, animals, birthday presents and other categories, with published cases of fundraisers in countries such as Hungary, Spain, Romania, Portugal, Croatia, Austria, Slovakia, Lithuania, Greece and Latvia.

Security, license and volume of activity

The parent company obtained a license from the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF) on 14 October 2019 and operates as an authorised payment services provider in the EEA countries, registered in the register of payment services providers under number IP48/2019. The platform states that it uses encrypted connections with a 256-bit certificate and anomaly monitoring. According to published data, it has processed around 15,000,000 donations for a total of more than €275,000,000.

Background and team

The project was born in Poland as zrzutka.pl, a leading platform in the country, and in a decade it has gone from being a startup to bringing together hundreds of thousands of users and supporting close to 1,000,000 fundraisers. The company has more than 50 employees. Its CTO and vice-president, Krzysztof Ilnicki, has stated that the goal is to offer an agile and affordable way to raise funds across the European Union.

Company details

The operating entity is Zrzutka.pl Sp. z o.o., with its registered office at al. Karkonoska 59, 53-015 Wrocław, Poland. Its VAT number is 8992796896 and its KRS number is 0000634168. The share capital amounts to PLN 550,000.