Receiving your pledged funds

Crowdfunder gives you control over when you receive your funds. You can get money into your bank account within 14 days of receiving your first pledge, and you choose how payouts are structured to suit your project.

Key Points:

Eligibility: Your project must meet specific criteria to receive payouts, such as having verified financials, having cleared pledges, and meeting your fundraising target if you're set with the All or Nothing funding type.
Payout Preferences: You can choose your payout frequency (weekly or monthly) and manage payouts from your dashboard
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Managing Payouts: Once you are eligible for payouts, you will be able to view and manage them in the Payouts tab of your dashboard. If this is not available, you may need to contact us.
Match Funding: Partner pledges go through additional checks and may take longer to process. You may need to set up a match funding wallet for these funds.

Payment Provider Separation: Funds from crowd pledges and match funding are processed using separate payment systems, necessitating account setups for each.

Click on a heading below to expand.

1. Understanding payouts & eligibility

Eligibility

Before payouts can begin, your project must meet all of the following criteria:

Have verified financial details.
Have been live for at least seven days.
Have cleared pledges (pledges take 7 days to clear).
Have reached your fundraising target (for All or Nothing projects) or raised at least £2 (for Keep What You Raise projects).

2. Choosing your payout preferences

When setting up your project, you will be asked to choose one of three payout options. This controls when and how your funds are released to you.

Note: charity profiles and community share offers have set payout schedules and are not covered by these options.

Option	Best for	When funds arrive	Notes
Enable weekly payouts	Ongoing access to funds	Every week (once eligible)	Automatic - no action needed after setup
Enable payouts later	Manual control over timing	After you manually start your payouts	Start payouts from your dashboard when ready
One payout at close	Projects where funds are needed at the end	Single payment after project closes	Donations are paid in one lump sum after the project has closed successfully and all pledges are cleared

Enable weekly payouts

All or Nothing: Weekly payouts begin once you hit your target and your pledges have cleared.
Keep What You Raise: Weekly payouts begin once your first pledge has cleared.

You can choose your preferred payout day (Monday, Tuesday, etc.) from your dashboard. Funds start processing on the chosen day and take up to seven days to arrive in your bank account.

Enable payouts later

This option lets you delay payouts and start them manually when you are ready. Once your pledges have cleared and you are eligible, you will see a 'Start payouts' button in your dashboard.

You can set or change your payout frequency (weekly or monthly) at any time from the Payouts tab.

One payout at close

This option holds all your funds until your project closes, then releases everything in a single lump sum payment after it has cleared. It is ideal if your project requires the full amount before you can begin spending. For example, if you are purchasing equipment, finalising a lease, or completing a purchase at auction.

Applies to: Both All or Nothing and Keep What You Raise project types.
When you receive funds: After your project closes successfully, all cleared pledges will be paid out in one transfer.
No action needed: The payout is triggered automatically when your project closes.

⚠️ Important: once a payout has been processed, you (as the project owner) are responsible for handling any refunds to your supporters directly, as the funds will no longer be held in our system.

⚠️ Charity projects: Did you set up your project via your charity hub?

If you have a charity profile on Crowdfunder and you created your project via your charity profile hub (see below), then your project will follow the same payout frequency as your charity profile.

Charity profiles are set to payout every month; however, you can change your payout frequency via your charity profile's dashboard.

3. Managing payouts from the dashboard & payouts tab

While your project is live, a banner at the top of your dashboard shows your current payout status at a glance.

Once your first payout becomes eligible, we’ll email you. You can then manage all your payout activity from the Payouts tab in your dashboard.

Your Payouts tab

The new Payouts tab gives you a complete picture of the money moving through your project. It shows what you’ve raised, any fees, what’s still clearing, what’s ready to be paid out and when your next payout should arrive.

Total balance and fees: See your overall balance alongside a clear breakdown of fees.

Pending and available funds:

Pending: pledges that are still in their 7-day clearing period.
Available: funds that have cleared and are ready to be paid out.

Next payout: See the amount set for your next payout, the last four digits of the bank account it’s going to, and an estimated arrival date.

Match funding: If your project has match funding, it appears in its own section.

If you haven’t finished setting up your funding wallet, the section will show ‘Wallet set up required’. See our match funding guide for help.
Some match funders, such as Sport England, pay you directly rather than through Crowdfunder. These funds show the funder’s name but no bank account details, because the funder sends the money to you themselves. Please allow up to 14 days for these funds to arrive.
Match funding paid through Crowdfunder shows the fund name and the last four digits of your bank account. It usually arrives around 3 days after the payout starts.

Other funds: This shows the total of any offline pledges recorded on your project. These funds aren’t included in Crowdfunder payouts as you should have received them directly.

Payout history: This is a full record of every payout made from your project, including match funding paid to you directly by a funder.

Can’t see your balance?

Your balance sections only appear once your payouts are switched on. Until then, you’ll see one of the following instead:

a ‘Start payouts’ button
a reminder to complete your ID verification
a message saying ‘No funds are currently available for payout’

If your project is part of a larger campaign, payouts may be managed by the main project or charity. In that case, your balance won’t appear here.

Start Payouts

If you enabled weekly payouts when setting up your project, or you’re running a personal fundraiser, you don’t need to do anything. We’ll email you when your first payout date is set. After that, you’ll receive weekly payouts whenever you have available funds.

If you selected ‘Enable payouts later’, or you’re running a Community Shares project, start your payouts by clicking the ‘Start payouts’ button.

You don’t need to start your payouts until you’re ready to receive your funds. However, we can’t hold your funds for an extended period. If you don’t start your payouts yourself, they’ll be sent automatically within 30 days of your project closing successfully or switching to Always On.

If you selected ‘Enable Payouts Later’ or you are a Community Shares project, you’ll be able to start your payouts by clicking the ‘Start payouts’ button.

Choose or change your payout frequency

If you are on a weekly or monthly payout schedule, you can change your preference at any time:

Weekly: select your preferred day (Monday, Tuesday, etc.).
Monthly: select your preferred date (1st to 28th).

This is the day or date your funds start processing. Please allow up to 7 days for the money to reach your bank account. Your estimated arrival date will show in the Next payout card.

Tip: to receive funds as quickly as possible, choose the current day of the week or the current date of the month. The payout will be initiated immediately. Then click 'Save and start payouts' to activate your schedule.

The Payouts tab shows your payout status. You’ll also see details of your pending and completed payouts as funds are processed to your account. We’ll email you each time a payout is sent.

Pause Function

You can pause payouts for up to 30 days if needed. Any payouts not yet processed will be held until you resume.

To restart, simply click 'Resume payouts' in your dashboard.

⏳ Payouts cannot be paused indefinitely. If your project has been paused for more than 30 days after closing or switching to Always On, payouts will be sent to your account automatically. Contact our support team if you have any concerns.

4. Payout information and fees

You can access your payout summary in the Reports section of your dashboard. It will show the amount you’ve received, the date, the fees deducted, and how the payout will appear on your bank statement. Platform and transaction fees will be deducted from your payout before it’s sent to your bank account. You can also download the payout transactions report in your project dashboard to track the total amount paid, fees deducted, and the source project or donation link for each payout.

Once your project closes or switches to Always On, you will see a summary of how much you raised and the associated fees in the Overview section of your project dashboard:

5. Charity Profiles

Charity Profiles can create projects and prize draws via the Charity Hub. While you can manage payouts as outlined in the guide above, the payout frequency is set at the Charity Profile level.

When viewing the Payouts tab on a charity project or prize draw, you’ll see a link to your Charity Profile, where you can adjust the payout frequency and date.

Here, you can select:
• Weekly: select your preferred day (Monday, Tuesday, etc.).

• Monthly: select your preferred date (1st to 28th).

This is the day or date funds start processing- allow up to seven days for the money to reach your bank account.

6. Match funding

We transfer match funding a little differently from how we transfer the money you have raised from your other supporters, so it will arrive separately from your funding from the crowd, providing your project meets all the requirements and closes successfully.

Some partner funds require you to set up a wallet, which will be used to transfer the funds to a nominated bank account. Other partner funds will arrange to transfer the money to you directly. You'll be told via email if you need to set up a match funding wallet.

Find out more about your match funding wallet timeline.

Crowdfunder uses separate payment systems to process transactions for crowd pledges and match funding. This distinction requires unique bank account setups for each, ensuring funds are directed to the correct destinations based on their source. During the creation of your match funding wallet, you are required to link a specific bank account, and all match funding payouts will be sent to this account.

This streamlined process gives you more control and flexibility when managing and receiving your pledged funds. Let us know if you have any questions or need further assistance!

When will I receive the money pledged on my project?