Support
General
About HelpTheOppressed.com
Learn more about HelpTheOppressed.com
What is HelpTheOppressed.com?
HelpTheOppressed.com is a crowdfunding platform for socially-conscious projects from around the world. We support individuals, not-for-profits, social enterprises and community groups to run awesome crowdfunding campaigns, all 100% free.
Is HelpTheOppressed.com a Social Enterprise?
HelpTheOppressed.com is a Social Benefit Company. That means that we operate for the benefit of our community. Directors of HelpTheOppressed.com are obliged to consider not just the financial impacts of their decisions but also the social, environmental and community impacts. If you want to learn more about Social Benefit Companies, check out the blog post we wrote about them here.Â
What types of campaigns do you accept?
We have three tests on the type of campaigns we accept:
- You must be fundraising for a social, community or political cause
- You must be fundraising for a project with a defined outcome
- A reasonable person must be able to understand where the money is going
We don’t care about your legal structure: you can be a registered charity, a private for-profit company, an individual just starting up or anything in between – we don’t believe your legal structure dictates your ability to make social change.
Note that while we do accept social cause campaigns from religious organisations, we don’t accept campaigns that are explicitly about promoting any particular religion.
I’m not sure if my campaign would fit on HelpTheOppressed.com. What do I do?
If you’re not sure if your idea fits in to this category, get in touch with us via our Contact Form
Who are the HelpTheOppressed.com Partners?
We’re very lucky to have a number of corporate partners and investors:
Founding Partner
- The Telstra Foundation: The fantastic support from our Founding Partner, The Telstra Foundation, means that we’re able to support more Australian social projects get off the ground. They, like us, believe in innovation in the social sector and are supporting us to deliver more personalised support to more Australian community organisations to help them run amazing crowdfunding campaigns.
Investors
- Blackbird Ventures:Â Blackbird invest in Australians with big ideas who want to be the best in the world.
- Bevan Clark:Â Co-founder of retailmenot.com, trendsmap.com and cushycms.com. Investor in a bunch of other startups.
Who do I talk about getting involved with HelpTheOppressed.com?
We’re always working to establish partnerships with a wide range of corporate, philanthropic and not-for-profit partners.
If you have a complaint about any campaigns on HelpTheOppressed.com, including but not limited to if you believe your copyright has been violated, if you believe the campaign is fraudulent or if you believe you have been defamed by content on the campaign, you can email us at info@helptheoppressed.com to lodge a complaint.Â
We review all complaints and aim to take any appropriate actions within 28 days.
Basics of Crowdfunding
Learn more about the concept of crowdfunding.
The most common campaigns on HelpTheOppressed.com are:
- Non-profits, charities and social enterprises looking for funding for a social cause project, product or program
- Individuals looking for funding for a sick friend, family member, or colleague
- Individuals and organisations looking to fund animal vet bills
- Individuals or teams doing a challenge and raising funds for a charity or non-profit
To be eligible to run a crowdfunding campaign on HelpTheOppressed.com, you’ll need to satisfy three criteria:
- You must be fundraising for a social, community or political cause
- You must be fundraising for a project with a defined outcome
- A reasonable person must be able to understand where the money is going
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We don’t care about your legal structure: you can be a registered charity, a private for-profit company, an individual just starting up or anything in between – we don’t believe your legal structure dictates your ability to make social change.
For political cause campaigns, particularly for political candidates and community protests, we only accept campaigns that align with our other social cause areas. If you don’t believe in addressing climate change or supporting refugees, or you’re protesting against marriage equality, we’re unlikely to approve your campaign.
Due to regulatory issues, our lawyers won’t allow us to run campaigns involving raffles, guns and firearms or the direct offer of financial products including debt, equity or profit shares.
Crowdfunding is a way for you to raise funds online for a project, person or cause from a large number of people. There are many forms of crowdfunding, but at HelpTheOppressed.com, we only support crowdfunding for social causes.
To run a crowdfunding campaign, you create a crowdfunding page and promote it to as many people as you can. Hopefully, your friends will share it with their friends and both of them can donate directly to your page. We’ll then collect and transfer the funds to you and handle all the technical side, like receipting. Next, you do the project that you fundraised for and update your supporters to show them what you’ve spent the money on.
The most common campaigns on HelpTheOppressed.com are:
- Non-profits, charities and social enterprises looking for funding for a social cause project, product or program
- Individuals looking for funding for a sick friend, family member, or colleague
- Individuals and organisations looking to fund animal vet bills
- Individuals or teams doing a challenge and raising funds for a charity or non-profit
How much can you raise using crowdfunding?
How much you raise depends on how much effort you put into preparing for your campaign and promoting it to your supporters. The biggest campaign so far has raised $345,000/£203,000/€235,000 but most successful campaigns raise on average $7,000. You can get a rough idea of how much you might be able to raise by reading the Setting your target section of our Crowdfunding Guide.
- Raffles / Lottery:Â These are actually regulated, so you would need to check with your local authority whether or not you would need a permit
- Offering Direct Financial Value and Equity:Â This is something that is not permitted on our platform.
- Sponsorship / Benefit – If you have a corporate sponsor and they display their logo, then you may have to charge VAT on donations, as it becomes a paid promotionÂ
- Having confirmation from the charity you are fundraising for:Â It is best practice to converse with the charity/organisation to let them know what you are planning on doing and get their consent. It’s also a good idea to have a confirmation in writing.
The best piece of advice would be to check the guidance available in your area to see what is permitted and what isn’t. Unfortunately we can’t provide specific guidance to everyone as the guidance may differ based on your location and the type of campaign you are running.
For Campaigners
Eligibility
Find out who is eligible to run a HelpTheOppressed.com campaign.
We have three tests on the type of campaigns we accept:
- Is it for a social purpose that fits into one of our eight categories (Social Enterprise, Refugees and Asylum Seekers, Health and Disability, Community, Environment, International Development, Animal Welfare or Social Welfare)? We use a common-sense definition of “social purpose”Â
- Is it a ‘project’ or ‘event’ that has a finite outcome?Â
- Is it run by a real person or organisation, who is over 13 years old and has a bank account in one of our supported countries?
We do not think that your legal structure has any bearing on your ability to do good in the world, so we accept campaigns from individuals, social enterprises, not-for-profits, for-profit commercial organisations and community groups, as long as they meet the criteria above.Â
Note that while we do accept social cause campaigns from religious organisations, we don’t accept campaigns that are explicitly about promoting any particular religion.
What types of campaigns don’t we accept?
- Campaigns whose main purpose is to promote any particular religion or atheism. This includes mission trips, mission schools and building funds for religious buildings that don’t have historical significance
- Personal campaigns for yourself or for non-social purposes. If you’re fundraising for your holiday, car, personal situation, we generally won’t accept your campaign. However if you’re fundraising for a friend, family member or colleague in need, then we’re happy for those campaigns to run on HelpTheOppressed.com
- Family custody disputes
- For political cause campaigns, particularly for political candidates and community protests, we only accept campaigns that align with our other social cause areas. If you don’t believe in addressing climate change or supporting refugees, or you’re protesting against marriage equality, we’re unlikely to approve your campaign.
- Due to regulatory issues, our lawyers won’t allow us to run campaigns involving raffles, guns and firearms or the direct offer of financial products including debt, equity or profit shares.
HelpTheOppressed.com supports campaigns in the following 32 countries. Campaigns run in the domestic currency of that country, but can accept donations from anywhere in the world.Â
- Australia
- Austria
- Belgium
- Canada
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Hong Kong
- Ireland
- Italy
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- Norway
- Poland
- Portugal
- Singapore
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- South Africa (PayPal only)
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- United Kingdom
- United States
Note that you will need a bank account and a residential or business address in the country you choose. If you are not in one of these supported countries, you can still run a campaign, but you will need to run it via a partner organisation or individual who is resident in one of the supported countries.Â
Campaign Basics
Discover the different types of campaigns, and how to get yours started!
HelpTheOppressed.com supports campaigns in the following 32 countries. Campaigns run in the domestic currency of that country, but can accept donations from anywhere in the world.Â
- Australia
- Austria
- Belgium
- Canada
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Hong Kong
- Ireland
- Italy
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- Norway
- Poland
- Portugal
- Singapore
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- South Africa (PayPal only)
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- United Kingdom
- United States
Note that you will need a bank account and a residential or business address in the country you choose. If you are not in one of these supported countries, you can still run a campaign, but you will need to run it via a partner organisation or individual who is resident in one of the supported countries.Â
How quickly can I get my campaign approved and running?
All campaigns on HelpTheOppressed.com are reviewed by the team. That means that after you’ve finished drafting your campaign, you’ll need to submit the campaign to us for approval. We usually take less than 24 hours to approve the campaign. If you’re in a rush, you can email info@helptheoppressed.com and ask for us to expedite your campaign approval.
What checks are involved?
During the campaign approval process, we check if:
- Your campaign fits our social cause criteria;
- You’ve set an achievable target;
- Your image is not “guilt imagery” (no starving children, horrific shock images)
- Your campaign content is of a high enough standard to give you a reasonable chance of successfully raising your target; and
- Your campaign isn’t illegal
Depending on our checks, your campaign will either be:
- Approved and moved to “pre-launch” mode where it will not be publicly listed, but will be able to take donations. You’ll need to log in and launch your campaign for it to be fully live;
- Reverted to drafting mode, with recommendations on what you’ll need to change;
- Reverted to drafting mode, with additional verification requirements, for some high-risk campaign categories; or
- Rejected as not appropriate for HelpTheOppressed.com
You can continue editing your campaign after you’ve submitted for approval, and even after you’ve launched.
All campaigns on HelpTheOppressed.com are ‘Keep what you get’ campaigns. That means that the campaign receives all funds donated to it by the deadline, regardless of whether or not they have reached their funding target.Â
Image from Days for Girls Nepal 2017
For clarity, some crowdfunding platforms will give campaigners nothing if they miss their target – that’s called “All or Nothing” crowdfunding. At HelpTheOppressed.com, we don’t penalise you for not hitting your target. This is because we know that in the social sector, many people either find some other way of doing your project or scale down the project. In doing this, campaigners often aim to at least help some of the intended beneficiaries.Â
All campaigns on HelpTheOppressed.com are ‘Keep what you get’ campaigns. That means that the campaign receives all funds donated to it by the deadline, regardless of whether or not they have reached their funding target.Â
Image from Days for Girls Nepal 2017
For clarity, some crowdfunding platforms will give campaigners nothing if they miss their target – that’s called “All or Nothing” crowdfunding. At HelpTheOppressed.com, we don’t penalise you for not hitting your target. This is because we know that in the social sector, many people either find some other way of doing your project or scale down the project. In doing this, campaigners often aim to at least help some of the intended beneficiaries.Â
Editing your campaign
Adding pictures, video, customizing the look and feel
How quickly can I get my campaign approved and running?
All campaigns on HelpTheOppressed.com are reviewed by the team. That means that after you’ve finished drafting your campaign, you’ll need to submit the campaign to us for approval. We usually take less than 24 hours to approve the campaign. If you’re in a rush, you can email info@helptheoppressed.com and ask for us to expedite your campaign approval.
What checks are involved?
During the campaign approval process, we check if:
- Your campaign fits our social cause criteria;
- You’ve set an achievable target;
- Your image is not “guilt imagery” (no starving children, horrific shock images)
- Your campaign content is of a high enough standard to give you a reasonable chance of successfully raising your target; and
- Your campaign isn’t illegal
Depending on our checks, your campaign will either be:
- Approved and moved to “pre-launch” mode where it will not be publicly listed, but will be able to take donations. You’ll need to log in and launch your campaign for it to be fully live;
- Reverted to drafting mode, with recommendations on what you’ll need to change;
- Reverted to drafting mode, with additional verification requirements, for some high-risk campaign categories; or
- Rejected as not appropriate for HelpTheOppressed.com
You can continue editing your campaign after you’ve submitted for approval, and even after you’ve launched.
Forgotten your password? Don’t panic, we’ve got you covered.
The first thing to try is to  reset your password here.
Managing your campaign
Find out how you can manage your campaign even better!
Perks and Impact Levels
Promoting your Campaign
If you really want to make sure your campaign meets it’s targets , don’t worry! We’ve got you covered.
Here’s a few resources to get you started. The more time you give yourself to plan and have a read through these, the higher your chances of success will be!
Crowdfunding Video Guide
- Our Crowdfunding 101 Video Series with more information on each of the stages of a crowdfunding campaign teaches you about the importance of networks
- Case studies of some of our most successful campaigns to date
Payments
A guide to receiving your funds
No. Donors have the option to pay by PayPal, subject to their location. However you can use our direct credit card payment system to accept credit card payments from anywhere in the world. We use our payment provider  Stripe.com to process your payments directly to your bank account. Just follow the prompts when you set up your campaign.
If you do want to use PayPal to accept payments, you can get an account for free over at  PayPal. Oh, and if you want to offer your donors the most options possible, you can offer them the choice of using both.Â
Your campaign on HelpTheOppressed.com can accept donations from anyone around the world, as long as they have a Visa, Mastercard or American Express. We’ve taken donations from the over 120 countries.Â
When someone donates from overseas they’ll still be charged in the campaign currency, but their card provider or bank will convert their donation into their home currency. Most card providers and banks will charge the donor a foreign currency conversion fee for doing this. The amount of this fee varies by bank.Â
At this stage, donors can’t choose the currency that they donate in – it must be the currency of the campaign.Â
To run a campaign , you will need to have access to a bank account in one of our supported countries.Â
What is Stripe.com and why do I have to sign up for an account?
Stripe is one of the payment providers that we use on info@helptheoppressed.com. Stripe allows donors to pay by card, and campaigners to collect funds by card. Campaigners will need an account to collect and manage funds by credit card. Donors will not need to make a Stripe Account to make a donation.
Why does Stripe require direct debit access to my bank account?
Stripe requires access to accounts in order to process payments . In the rare event a donor doesn’t recognise the donation on their statement, they may dispute the donation and request a refund. We do contact the donor in order to explain where the donation has gone to. We will also notify you if a donor doesn’t recognise the transaction on their statement. If however, the donation does need to be refunded, Stripe will have to reverse the transaction.Â
I’m having a problem with receiving funds / my Stripe account. What do I do?
Check us first at info@helptheoppressed.com to confirm that it is an issue with the Stripe account. If it is an issue with the Stripe account, you can visit https://support.stripe.com .
I have more questions about Stripe. Where do I go?
Head over to  https://support.stripe.com . Stripe will try to assist you with any concerns you have their payment processing platform. You can also contact Stripe at www.stripe.com/contact
Unfortunately PayPal does require you to have a PayPal Business account at this time.Â
However, with Stripe it may be best to use the option to register as “An Individual” if that best suits your circumstances. In Stripe you should be able to tick the box that allows you to register as an Individual/Sole Trader. This should make some fields that require business information optional and allow you to proceed without filling them in. If you’re unsure of what box fits Stripe’s criteria, we’d advise contacting Stripe directly at www.stripe.com/contact
Receipts, Tax Deductibility and Gift Aid
How to make sure donors get the right receipts
Tax deductibility rules vary by country, but generally speaking, the rules governing tax deductibility are the same regardless of whether you’re giving to online via a crowdfunding campaign or offline. In most countries, donations to crowdfunding campaigns are only tax deductible if:
- they’re given to an organisation with the correct tax status; and
- they’re given with receiving nothing in return (that is, as a gift); and
- they’re given by a tax resident in the same country as the organisation, who would have otherwise paid tax in that tax year
Below, are the country specific rules. They should be taken as general advice and you should do further research to see if this guide aligns with your personal situation.
Australia
In Australia, donations to crowdfunding campaigns on HelpTheOppressed.com are only tax-deductible, if:
- they’re given to an organisation with deductible gift recipient (DGR) status – note that only a subset of charities/non-profits have this status;
- they’re given as a gift, without receiving any perks or rewards that have a market value; and
- they’re given by a tax resident of Australia
There are more clarifying rules over at the Australian Tax Office website.
For DGR-organisations running campaigns on HelpTheOppressed.com, we can issue receipts on your behalf.
Note that donations to campaigns run by individuals are generally not tax deductible.
United Kingdom
In the UK, charitable giving works differently and the charity receives the benefit, not the donor. When a donor gives to a charity or a registered community amateur sports clubs ( CASCs), the charity can claim an extra 25p for every £1 you give.
In order to do this, the charity must:
- Be  recognised as a charity or CASC for tax purposes;
- Be receiving a donations which complies with this list of the types of donations you can claim Gift Aid on;
The donor must:
- have paid at least as much in Income Tax or Capital Gains Tax in that tax year as they want to claim in Gift Aid
- make a Gift Aid declaration that gives the charity permission to claim it
To make this simple, HelpTheOppressed.com can collect Gift Aid Declarations on your behalf which you can then submit to HMRC to claim your Gift Aid.
Canada
In Canada, donors receive tax credits, not tax deductions. When they file their income tax return, they will need their receipts to be able to claim these credits. For an organisation to be eligible to offer the correct receipts to their donors, you must be a registered charity or registered Canadian amateur athletic association (RCAAA) .
To set this up , the charity will need:
- Their Charitable Registration Number
- Their Charity or Qualified Donee Address
- An Authorized Signature from the individual who has been authorized to sign donation receipts. This can be uploaded to our platform.
You can find more information on the website for the Government of Canada.
U.S.
For the U.S. , donations will only be tax deductible if the organisation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that is eligible in US to issue tax deductible receipts.
You can find more information on becoming a tax exempt organisation in the U.S. here .
To set this up on our platform, the organisation will need:
- Their EIN (Employer Identification Number)
- Their Non-Profit Organization Address
Donors will need to itemize their deductions as well as keep the right records. You can view this handy video the IRS have put together which explains this in more detail.
Alternatively visit their website to find out more.
Please note that for all regions, whilst the donation may be tax deductible, the processing fees and optional donation won’t be.
For Donors
Fees and the Optional Donation
Fees and the Optional Donation
FInd out more about making a donation through HelpTheOppressed.com.
Generally, tax deductibility of a donation depends on:
- What organisation is receiving the funds
- Where the donor is located
- Whether a perk or reward was received when a donation was made
HelpTheOppressed.com has in-built tax deductible receipting for our Australian , U.S. and Canadian charity campaigns, and built-in Gift Aid Declarations for our UK charity campaigns. If you are donating to campaigns in these countries, your receipt will indicate if your donation is tax deductible or Gift-Aid’able.Â
For campaigns in other countries –Â the organisation receiving the funds may choose to issue you a tax deductible receipt, but it’s up to them to decide if they wish to.
If your receipt doesn’t indicate that the donation is tax deductible, this means that the campaigner hasn’t chosen to offer tax deductible receipts. It would be best to contact the campaigner directly about the status of their organisation.
Campaigners have the option to choose what payment methods they offer on their campaign.Â
They have the option of offering donors:Â
- Credit and debit card payments via Stripe; and/or
- PayPal payments (they will need a PayPal Business account for this)
Not all campaigners choose to offer both, although we recommend it as best practice.Â
If a campaigner only offers PayPal, donors can still donate even if they don’t have a PayPal account, using PayPal’s credit/debit card form. We would advise offering credit/debit card payments in addition to PayPal as Stripe’s integration means that we are more easily able to assist with enquiries from donors and campaigners about payments.
We take the security of your financial data seriously.Â
When using HelpTheOppressed.com, all pages are served over a secure HTTPS connection. On each and every page of HelpTheOppressed.com, your browser should display a padlock symbol indicating a secure connection.Â
When using your credit or debit card to make a payment, your payment is processed by our PCI-compliant payment partners, Stripe and PayPal. We do not store any of your credit card details on our servers.
You can find the security measures taken by our payment processors Stripe and PayPal below:
Stripe:Â https://stripe.com/docs/security/stripe
PayPal:Â https://www.paypal.com/my/webapps/mpp/security/ho
No you don’t. We don’t want to put up any walls to you contributing to projects you love.Â
In order to keep adequate records for your donation and to provide you with any support you might need, we do store your email address and name in our database. This means that if you have a question about your donation, we can identify you and answer any questions you might have.Â
Also, this allows the campaigner manager to update you about your campaign – we send these updates directly to your email.Â
If you’d like us to remove your details, just email info@helptheoppressed.com and we’ll do that for you. Note that we won’t be able to provide any customer support about your donation and you won’t receive any campaign updates if you choose to do this.Â
When you donate to a campaign instead of making a straight cash donation, you may sometimes get to choose a perk or impact level. Â
What are Perks?
Perks are rewards that a campaigner may offer to donors in exchange for different donation levels. Perks vary depending on the campaign. For example, if you donate $1 to a campaign, you might get a thank you on social media. If you donate $25 dollars, you might also receive a printed t-shirt. If you donate $100, you might receive a trip to a restaurant. If you donate $5,000, you might be able to receive a unique experience such as a trip abroad or a meeting with a celebrity! Check on the campaigner’s page to see if you’re able to receive a perk with your donation, as well as what perks are on offer!
Some campaigns on HelpTheOppressed.com offer Impact Levels instead of Perks.
What are Impact Levels?
Campaigners often want you to understand how your donation makes a difference. Impact Levels are a great way of doing that. Impact Levels show you how far your donation is going to go in making a difference towards a cause you care about. So for example, let’s say you’re donating to a campaign to help farmers sustain themselves in a lower economically developed country. If you donate $2, you could be helping the farmer purchase their seeds for their crops. $30 might be used to help that farmer buy tools to carry out their work. $1,000 might help the farmer buy larger machinery to make the most out of their harvest. By selecting an impact level, you know just how far your donation will go.
When you donate on HelpTheOppressed.com, you can choose whether your name is visible publicly in the Supporters list of a campaign page.
However, sometimes as a donor, you change your mind about whether you want your donation to be visible or anonymous. Here’s how you change the status of your donation:
If you don’t already have a HelpTheOppressed.com account, head here, enter your email and set a new password. If you do have a HelpTheOppressed.com account, login here.
On your dashboard, you’ll see a list of donations you’ve made.
On the donation you want to change, click Manage, then ‘Make anonymous’ or ‘Make visible’.
Your donation’s status will be changed immediately.