GiveRadar vs Pledge: an honest comparison
Pledge and GiveRadar answer different questions. Pledge is a free fundraising and donation platform that helps you collect or route a gift. GiveRadar is a free intelligence layer that shows you how a charity is run before anyone gives. They complement each other far more than they compete.
Primary sources
All Pledge figures are from its own published pages, last reviewed July 2026; volatile figures carry their date where stated. GiveRadar figures are live counts from this platform.
This page is written and maintained by GiveRadar. We make no claim to neutrality: we built GiveRadar and we believe in it, and we have tried to represent Pledge fairly. Pledge is a genuinely competitive free fundraising platform, and we recommend it without reservation for collecting and routing donations. The two answer different questions and combine well. If you spot an inaccuracy, email info@giveradar.com and we will correct it.
Matt Timmermans
Founder of GiveRadar
GiveRadar
PledgeWhat are GiveRadar and Pledge each for?
One is donation rails, the other is a research desk. Pledge helps you move a gift; GiveRadar helps you judge the charity first. Name which job you are doing and the choice is clear.
Check how a charity discloses
"Is this charity registered, transparent, and well-governed?"
This needs official records at scale: registration, financials, officers, and a disclosure score from government registries, free and open to anyone. GiveRadar answers it for 7.9 million+ nonprofits, and moves no money.
Answered by GiveRadar
Collect or route a donation
"How do I collect a donation, or build giving into my product?"
This needs donation infrastructure: fundraiser pages, donation forms, text-to-donate, embedded giving APIs, and compliance verification that a charity can receive funds. Pledge is built for this, and GiveRadar processes no donations at all.
Answered by PledgeWho each one is
GiveRadar
GiveRadar is a free charity intelligence platform covering 7.9 million+ nonprofits across 100+ countries, built from 50+ official government registries and tax authorities, plus vetted directories where no registry data exists.
Every charity gets a 0-100 integrity assessment of disclosure and governance signals: registration status, financial transparency, governance records, contact availability, and data recency. It measures what a charity discloses, not the impact of its work, and it cannot be bought.
Profiles add red flags, officer compensation where disclosed, GiveRadar Analysis peer context, and watchlists with change alerts. Developers get a REST API and MCP server with free tiers, and every data point shows its provenance.
Pledge
Pledge (pledge.to) is a fundraising and donation platform that operated as Pledgeling from the mid-2010s and rebranded to Pledge in March 2021, led by CEO James Citron. It markets itself as the "#1 Free Fundraising and Donation Platform": self-service fundraiser pages, donation forms, text-to-donate, QR codes, and crypto donations, with no setup or monthly fees and a published fee schedule.
Alongside the platform, Pledge sells embedded giving APIs (a Donate API at a published 5% of donations plus processor fees, a Fundraiser API on a tip model, widgets, webhooks, and a sandbox) and a separate sales-gated Charity Database claiming 2 million compliant, verified charities updated daily by an in-house trust and safety team.
As of July 2026 Pledge reports $200M+ raised, 2M+ nonprofits, and reach in 130 countries, and markets a 4.9 G2 rating as the "Highest-Rated Fundraising Platform on G2". Pledge verifies charities as eligible to receive funds; it does not rate or score them.
Pledge collects the gift, GiveRadar checks the charity
GiveRadar and Pledge answer different questions. Pledge answers "how do I collect or route a donation": free fundraiser pages for nonprofits and individuals, plus embedded giving APIs for companies that want donations inside their own product, with published fees and reach it reports at 130 countries (as of July 2026).
GiveRadar answers "how is this charity run before I give": a 0-100 integrity assessment built from official registry and tax data, with financials, officer records, and red flags. Pledge's charity verification is binary, verified or not, which is the right shape for payment compliance but says nothing about disclosure quality; GiveRadar scores disclosure but moves no money.
How big is Pledge?
Pledge is a genuinely competitive free fundraising platform with reach across the giving world. These are its own published headline figures.
Source: pledge.to, as of July 2026 (its homepage says 100+ countries; the About page says 130). GiveRadar processes no donations, so it competes on none of these: its scale is coverage, 7.9 million+ nonprofits in 100+ countries, free to everyone.
GiveRadar vs Pledge: the full comparison table
These tools sit at different layers of giving; the table lines them up across the dimensions where each is meaningful. Pledge figures last reviewed July 2026.
| Dimension | GiveRadar | Pledge |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Free charity intelligence platform | Free fundraising and donation platform, plus embedded giving APIs |
| Coverage | 7.9 million+ nonprofits | 2M+ nonprofits; $200M+ raised (Pledge About page, as of July 2026) |
| Geography | 100+ countries | 130 countries per its About page (homepage says 100+), as of July 2026 |
| What the score means | Integrity assessment, 0-100: disclosure and governance signals from official data, not impact, cannot be bought | No per-charity score: verification is binary (eligible to receive funds, or not); the 4.9 G2 rating is of Pledge the company, not of listed charities |
| Price | Free for everyone, no pay-to-play | Platform free with published fees: 0% with optional donor tipping, else 5% plus 2.9% + $0.30 processing and a $5/month disbursement fee; Charity Database is sales-quoted |
| Data source | 50+ official government registries and tax authorities; provenance per data point | Charity Database cross-references IRS records, state registrations, and international registries, updated daily by an in-house team (per Pledge) |
| API | REST API and MCP server, free tiers, research data | Donate API (5% of donations plus processor fees) and Fundraiser API (tip model), sandbox, no contracts; AI/MCP integration for Claude Code and Cursor |
| Monitoring | Watchlists and change alerts on any charity | None published: Pledge is donation infrastructure, not a monitoring tool |
Scroll the table sideways on a phone to see every column.
When should you use Pledge vs GiveRadar?
Research and payment rails are different layers, and for a giving workflow they stack cleanly.
Use GiveRadar when
- You want to check how a charity is run before you give: integrity assessment, financials, officer compensation where disclosed, red flags.
- You need data traced to official government registries and tax authorities, with provenance on every field, free.
- You want to compare a charity against its peers, or monitor it over time with watchlists and change alerts.
- You are building an agent or app that needs due-diligence data rather than payment rails: REST API and MCP server, free tiers.
Use Pledge when
- You are a nonprofit or individual who wants a free fundraiser page, donation form, text-to-donate, QR codes, or crypto donations, with fees published up front.
- You are building donations into your own product: the Donate and Fundraiser APIs come with a sandbox, widgets, webhooks, and no contracts.
- You need charities verified as compliant and eligible to receive disbursements.
- You run donations inside Zoom or Shopify, where Pledge built dedicated giving tools.
Use both when
You are a company embedding giving: use GiveRadar's API to show donors an integrity assessment and disclosure context, and Pledge's APIs to verify eligibility and move the money. Research and payment rails are different layers, and they stack cleanly. As a donor or fundraiser, research the charity on GiveRadar first, then give through Pledge, the charity's own page, or any channel you prefer. GiveRadar has no stake in where the gift goes.
Is GiveRadar a good Pledge alternative?
If you are searching for a pledge.to alternative because you want to evaluate charities rather than collect donations, GiveRadar fits: a free integrity assessment on every listing, registry-sourced financials, officer records, and red flags across 7.9 million+ nonprofits in 100+ countries, with a self-service REST API and MCP server. That also applies if what you wanted from Pledge's Charity Database was research-grade nonprofit data without a sales cycle: GiveRadar's data is free, and every field shows where it came from.
But be honest about the job. GiveRadar is not a fundraising platform: it does not host donation pages, process cards or crypto, run text-to-donate, or disburse funds. If you are leaving Pledge but still need to collect donations, the real alternatives are other donation platforms, and Pledge's published 0% platform fee with donor tipping (as of July 2026) is a genuinely competitive offer you should weigh on its own merits. If you just need to check a charity before giving, that is where GiveRadar fits.
GiveRadar and Pledge: common questions
Is GiveRadar a Pledge alternative?
For charity research, yes. GiveRadar covers 7.9 million+ nonprofits with integrity assessments, registry-sourced financials, and red flags, all free, and its REST API and MCP server can replace the research half of a giving workflow. For fundraising and payments, no: GiveRadar does not host donation pages, process payments, or disburse funds, which is the core of what Pledge does.
Is Pledge or GiveRadar better?
They are different tools for different questions. Pledge is donation infrastructure: free fundraiser pages, embedded giving APIs, and compliance verification of recipients. GiveRadar is charity intelligence: a disclosure-based integrity assessment built on official government data. The honest steer: use GiveRadar to decide whether to give, and a platform like Pledge (or the charity's own page) to make the gift.
Does Pledge rate or score charities?
No. Pledge verifies charities as compliant and eligible to receive funds, a binary check maintained by its in-house trust and safety team that cross-references IRS records, state registrations, and international registries (per Pledge, as of 2026-07-11). Its 4.9 G2 rating is a review score for Pledge the company, not a rating of any listed charity. If you want a per-charity disclosure score, that is what GiveRadar's 0-100 integrity assessment provides.
How much does Pledge cost compared to GiveRadar?
Pledge publishes its fees (as of 2026-07-11): with optional donor tipping enabled, 0% platform fee and Pledge covers card processing on donations up to $1,000; without tipping, 5% platform fee plus 2.9% + $0.30 processing, with a $5/month disbursement fee; its Donate API takes a published 5% of donations plus processor fees, and Charity Database pricing is quoted through sales. GiveRadar is free for everyone with no pay-to-play; only high-volume API access has paid tiers. The prices are not really comparable because the products are not: Pledge's fees pay for moving money, GiveRadar charges nothing for research.
Other giving and data platforms compared
Check any charity's disclosure record, free
Search 7.9M+ nonprofits in 100+ countries. Research the charity here, then collect the gift on Pledge or any platform you like.