Education · Student fundraising platform
My Rich Aunt: a zero-fee fundraising platform for college students
My Rich Aunt helps college students raise money for costs that financial aid does not cover, such as laptops, flights home and housing deposits. We built a platform for verified, needs-based student campaigns with a 0% platform fee, and students raised $3.1M in the first eighteen months, with the average campaign reaching its goal in 19 days. It was built in 6 weeks.
- Client
- My Rich Aunt
- Industry
- Education
- Built
- Web app
- Timeframe
- 6 weeks
What changed
- $3.1M raisedby students in the first eighteen months
- 19 days to goalfor the average campaign
- 11,000 campaignscreated by students
- 0% platform feewith costs covered by an optional donor contribution
- 73% outside familyof donors are not part of the student's immediate family
- 6 weekstotal build time
Results as reported for this build after launch.
The challenge
Students had no accessible online place to raise money for costs outside institutional financial aid, which made it hard to get support quickly when they needed it.
Financial aid usually covers tuition and often nothing more. A laptop that fails in second year, a flight home for a funeral, a housing deposit, a field trip the course requires: these are the costs that end degrees, and no institution has a way to handle them.
Students had turned to general crowdfunding sites, and it was not working. Those sites take a cut of small amounts that cannot spare it, and they place a student asking for four hundred dollars for textbooks beside viral campaigns raising six figures. The comparison is discouraging, and nobody finds the small campaigns.
The founder had seen a housemate drop out of university over a sum that a dozen people could have covered without noticing, had they known. Generosity was not the problem. There was no dignified way to ask, and no place where people who wanted to help students were already looking.
What we built
We built a fundraising platform for students that makes it simple to create a campaign, engage donors and track contributions, so students can get funded faster while staying transparent with supporters.
Campaigns are tied to specific, verified needs, donors can find students by category, institution or field of study, and funds are released against the stated purpose.
Needs-based campaigns
Campaigns are built around specific, verifiable needs, with a required breakdown of what the money is for, which is what makes small campaigns credible.
Student verification
Student status is verified through an institutional email address, with optional enrolment confirmation for higher-value campaigns.
Discovery by need, institution and field
Donors can browse campaigns by need category, institution and field of study to support the students they care about.
Institution pages
Each university has a page that gathers its students' campaigns, which is what alumni respond to.
Purpose-linked fund release
Funds are released against the stated purpose, with receipt upload required for larger amounts.
Donor options and updates
Donors can give anonymously, receive updates from the students they backed, and use recurring micro-support to back several students with a small monthly amount.
Screens and design system
The result
The 73% figure is the one that counts. If campaigns only reached family, the platform would be a payments tool. Reaching beyond that circle, mainly through institution pages and alumni, is what makes it a real fundraising platform.
The zero-fee model has held. Optional donor contributions are taken up often enough to cover operations, and several universities now link to their institution pages from their student support resources.
