Forward to your board
Take this to your next board meeting.
Forward this, so the board is voting on one fundraiser, not on software.
Inside: what changes, what it costs the parent and what the PTO gets, the demo link, and a printable version for whoever brings paper.
What the board is asked to approve
Run your next fundraiser on GroupSmarter's free plan, then decide. Free is free forever, with no setup fee. If the board does not like it, stop using it. You can export everything, receipts included.
What changes
- Families pay in your PTO's own store, and every sale posts to your books by itself. Nothing to export, nothing to retype.
- One calendar holds every event, every meeting, and who agreed to bring what, and the whole board sees the same one.
- Paige, the assistant built into GroupSmarter, writes the first draft of every post, email and announcement. You edit it, then send it from your own email or group.
- Receipts come in from a phone the day the money is spent. You approve them, and they land in your books, ready to match against the bank statement.
What stays the board's own work
- Sending it out. Paige drafts the announcement, and you send it to families from your own email or group.
- The district's fundraising request form. You still fill it out and send it.
- Handing out what families bought.
- Flyer design. Keep using Canva, or whatever you use now.
- Setting up payouts. One officer starts it. Have your ID, your EIN, and a bank account ready.
- Not yet in GroupSmarter: bank feeds and 990-EZ e-filing.
What it costs the parent, and what the PTO gets
On a $12 item. Your PTO receives the full $12 on every row.
Zeffy
Zeffy charges your PTO nothing. At checkout it asks the parent for a contribution to Zeffy on top of the order, suggested as a percentage of the amount. On a real $12 school fundraiser checkout on August 4, 2026, the suggestion was 17%, so the parent was asked for $14.04. The parent can set it to $0. That contribution goes to Zeffy, not to your PTO: Zeffy's own pricing page says it relies entirely on those contributions, and that about two of three people leave one. Your board never sees that screen. The parent does.
GroupSmarter
Either way, your PTO receives the full $12. The difference is what the parent is asked for, and who it goes to. On GroupSmarter the parent sees one platform fee, named as a fee: $1.04 on Free or $0.92 on Complete on a $12 order, shown before they pay. Nothing else is asked, and the fee schedule is printed here and on the pricing page, where your board can see it.
The platform fee is 4.5% + $0.50 on Free and 3.5% + $0.50 on Complete, added to the buyer's total at checkout and shown to them before they pay. Your organization receives the full item, ticket, or donation amount on both plans. Zeffy's suggested contribution is set by Zeffy and varies by amount. The 17% shown here is what appeared on a real $12 school fundraiser checkout on August 4, 2026. Zeffy's current policy is linked in the sources.
| The parent pays | Parent | PTO gets |
|---|---|---|
| Zeffy, suggested contribution accepted | $14.04 | $12.00 |
| GroupSmarter Free | $13.04 | $12.00 |
| GroupSmarter Complete | $12.92 | $12.00 |
| Zeffy, contribution set to $0 | $12.00 | $12.00 |
Cheddar Up
Cheddar Up collects payments, and its paid plans add a group website and templates. The free plan is $0; Pro is $15 a month billed annually, $180 a year; Team is $35 a month, $420 a year. The card fee is 3.95% + $0.95 on the free plan and 3.59% + $0.59 on the paid plans. By default the parent pays that fee; the organizer can choose to absorb it instead. The books live somewhere else.
GroupSmarter
Either way, your PTO receives the full $12. On Cheddar Up's free plan the parent pays $1.42 in fees; on GroupSmarter, $1.04 on Free or $0.92 on Complete. And on GroupSmarter the page, the store, the calendar and the books are one account, so the sale is already in the books.
| The parent pays | Parent | PTO gets |
|---|---|---|
| Cheddar Up Free, fee passed to the parent | $13.42 | $12.00 |
| GroupSmarter Free | $13.04 | $12.00 |
| Cheddar Up Pro, $180 a year, fee passed to the parent | $13.02 | $12.00 |
| GroupSmarter Complete, $199 a year | $12.92 | $12.00 |
Current as of September 2026 · Sources
- Zeffy's pricing page, zeffy.com/pricing, checked September 30, 2026: Zeffy "relies entirely on optional tips from your donors", and "on average, 2 out of 3 donors leave us a tip."
- The 17% contribution: a real $12 school fundraiser checkout on Zeffy, August 4, 2026.
- Cheddar Up pricing, cheddarup.com/pricing, checked September 30, 2026.
- GroupSmarter: the rates on our pricing page, worked on a $12 item.
Free and Complete
Free is free forever, and your organization keeps 100% of what it raises on either plan.
Free
$0 forever
- Unlimited officer seats
- Unlimited members
- Events, budgets, minutes, roster, documents, campaigns, and your store
- Reconciliation and reporting for the current fiscal year
- Paige, your assistant, included
- Buyer pays 4.5% + $0.50 on each purchase. Your organization receives 100%
- Export everything, receipts included
Complete
$199 per year, billed annually
- Everything in Free
- Every fiscal year in one place, not just this one
- Bring your history with you: import past years
- The officer transition pack, ready at every handoff
- The reports your school or district asks for
- Trend reports across years
- Buyer pays 3.5% + $0.50 on each purchase. Your organization receives 100%
Your fiscal year is the year your board uses for its books.
See it before you ask your board
Riverbend Elementary PTO is a demo. Poke around.
A whole school year already on the page: a popcorn sale partway to goal, two events, a news post, four products. Checkout stops before a charge, and it says so.
See the demohttps://www.groupsmarter.com/community/test-pto/