Think about your best fundraising event. Chances are you weren't thinking about the software at all. Everything worked, and you spent the night with your guests instead of with a laptop.
That's the whole point of a good platform. It gets out of the way so the event and the mission take the room.
Getting there means picking the right one, and we know how much of a headache the number of options can be. If you're reading this, Pledge It and OneCause are probably the two choices on your desk, and they're genuinely different products aimed at genuinely different events.
This comparison covers where each one wins, what both actually cost, and other alternatives worth a look before you commit. Let’s make fundraising simple for your nonprofit.
Are These Platforms in the Same Category?
Yes, both are event fundraising platforms, making a comparison appropriate.
The main difference lies in their focus.
Pledge It is designed for complete event fundraising. OneCause is built around auctions and mobile bidding.
Here's a clean overview of each before the head-to-head.
What is Pledge It?
Pledge It has supported over 2,000 nonprofits. Registration, sponsorships, participant fundraising, auctions, and follow-up live inside a single campaign on one dashboard.
It is built around a specific reality: at most small and midsize nonprofits, one or two people own the entire event, from the first sponsor email to the last thank-you note, alongside their regular development work.
Key Features of Pledge It
- Events and ticketing, with registration, table seating, attendee tracking, and live donation displays
- Year-over-year data showing who gave last time and who hasn't come back
- Peer-to-peer fundraising, with personal and team pages, leaderboards, and email and social sharing
- Activity fundraisers for walks, runs, rides, and endurance challenges
- Sponsorships that you can sell, track, and fulfill, with automatic ticket allocation
- Silent auctions and raffles, including 50/50 draws
- Automated, branded tax receipts sent to every donor
- A merchandise shop to sell branded gear alongside your event
- A dedicated Customer Success Manager on annual plans
Best for: Small to midsize U.S. nonprofits running key events like walks, tournaments, or galas year after year. If you prefer to manage everything in one place, it is a strong contender.
What is OneCause?
OneCause launched in 2008 as BidPal and is best known for mobile bidding. It was acquired by Bonterra in October 2025 and now operates as Bonterra OneCause.
Bonterra, owned by private equity firm Apax Partners, has been buying and rolling up nonprofit tech companies like OneCause, DonorDrive, and Network for Good over the past several years.
Key Features
- Mobile bidding
- Silent, live, and online auctions
- Event ticketing, table management, registration, and checkout
- Raffles and fixed-price item sales
- Peer-to-peer fundraising
- Sponsorship sales and management
- Text messaging and event-day guest tools
Best for: Organizations whose fundraising leans on auction-heavy galas, where live and mobile bidding drive most of the revenue.
Worth knowing: OneCause sells its products as 3 separate plan families: Auction & Events, Online Fundraising & Text2Give, and Peer-to-Peer. A nonprofit that wants a gala, a spring walk, and year-round giving is buying more than one plan.
Pledge It vs. OneCause: Key Differences at a Glance
Feature-by-Feature Comparison of Pledge It and OneCause: Where Each Platform Wins
Nine areas that matter most for event fundraising. Both platforms are good at several of them, and each one wins outright somewhere.
1. Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Platform
Pledge It: Supporters get personal or team pages and can rally their networks through email and social channels. Flexible fundraising options let each participant set goals that match their event, so the P2P fundraiser fits the occasion.
A centralized community wall showcases participants' personal stories and activity in one place, turning individual pages into a connected community.
You can also build custom leaderboards that add multiple layers of friendly competition among teams or regions, driving participation and fundraising while staying simple for first-time users.
OneCause: Personal and team pages, leaderboards, sharing tools, ambassador fundraising for board members and top supporters, and DIY supporter-driven campaigns. It covers the essentials well.
Better fit: Pledge It because participant pages are created automatically at registration, and the P2P tools are included in the same subscription as everything else. Participant pages are created automatically at registration, and P2P tools are included in the same subscription as everything else.
2. Crowdfunding Platform For Nonprofits
A crowdfunding campaign is a simple giving page built around your story, not an event. There's no registration or participants, just one page where supporters give directly toward a specific goal.
Pledge It: Pledge It comes with a live fundraising thermometer, a real-time donation feed, sponsor-matched gifts, and custom impact stories, perfect for events like Giving Tuesday.
Among crowdfunding platforms for nonprofits, it makes launching a focused campaign fast.
OneCause: You can run online giving and fundraising pages throughout the year, in addition to events. This allows supporters to contribute outside of event nights. Like Pledge It, OneCause focuses on event fundraising rather than pure crowdfunding.
Better fit: This is a tie, and a good one at that. Both platforms ensure community giving is linked to your event. This connected approach works well for event-driven nonprofits.
3. Donation Forms and Online Giving
A donation form is what sits behind the "Donate" button on a nonprofit's website, an evergreen page where supporters can give any time, unrelated to any specific event or campaign.
Pledge It: Donation forms sit inside the campaign, with automated branded tax receipts and a donor-cover-the-fee option that lets supporters absorb platform and processing costs at checkout. They are also embeddable and PCI-compliant, and work with any CMS.
OneCause: Online donations are built into its campaigns and event pages, so supporters can give during an event or as part of a fundraising page. Giving stays tied to the campaign rather than living as an independent, always-on form.
Better fit: Pledge It, as its donation forms live on your website and work anytime, not just around an event. Because those forms run on the same platform as your events and campaigns, every gift reaches one dashboard. OneCause's giving pages work well too, but they stay tied to your events rather than standing on their own.
4. Events and Ticketing Software
Pledge It: Stands out with its event and ticketing fundraising features. You will have access to registration, customizable ticket packages, table seating, attendee tracking, and fast check-in. Plus, live donation displays help maintain excitement on the day of the event.
Since it's designed as fundraising event software from the start, all components operate within the same campaign. Your ticketing, sponsors, and fundraising all run in sync without requiring any data exports.
OneCause: Provides good event and ticketing software to cover the essentials, including custom ticket packages, table management, registration, QR-code check-in, and checkout.
Better fit: Pledge It offers a broader range of features. Registration, tables, sponsors, and post-event thank-yous and reporting all run in one campaign, which is exactly what a small or midsize team running an event needs.
5. Activity Fundraisers and Pledge-Based Events
Pledge It: Walks, runs, rides, and endurance challenges are core to what Pledge It does. They anchor the fall and spring fundraising seasons for many nonprofits.
Participants can create personal and team pages, collect per-mile or per-activity pledges, and rally donors as they train and hit milestones. This event-first approach powers smooth operations for signature events year after year, all from one centralized dashboard.
OneCause: Peer-to-peer fundraising can support walk, run, and ride-style campaigns, with personal pages and sharing tools for participants. However, these activity events are secondary to its main focus on auctions and events.
Better fit: For activity-driven campaigns, Pledge It is the ideal choice. Its pledge options, team tools, and season-over-season setup are specifically built for these types of events.
6. Sponsorships
Pledge It: Sponsorships are streamlined from start to finish.
You can sell packages directly on your campaign page. Once a sponsor commits, their tickets are automatically allocated, and their attendance is tracked without any manual effort.
Payment tracking and fulfillment live in the same platform, reducing the administrative burden on your team and ensuring nothing falls through the cracks.
OneCause: Sponsorships can be sold and managed online with recognition by level, logo grouping, and tracking for both paid and in-kind sponsors. It gives sponsors solid visibility across your event.
Better fit: Pledge It’s sponsorship management for fulfillment, OneCause for recognition. If the admin drain is chasing sponsor payments and allocating tickets, Pledge It's end-to-end flow saves more hours.
7. Item-Based Raffles and 50/50 Raffle Software
Raffles come in two forms: item-based raffles, where supporters buy tickets for a shot at a specific prize, and 50/50 raffles, where the winner takes half the pot, and your organization keeps the rest.
Pledge It: Setting up an item-based raffle or a 50/50 draw with Pledge It is quick, and the raffle runs alongside the rest of your campaign.
You can sell tickets online in advance and at the event. Since the raffle operates within the same platform, all funds raised go directly into the same dashboard, along with tickets, sponsors, and donations.
OneCause: Includes raffles in its event toolkit, allowing them to run smoothly alongside auction and event pages. It fits well with mobile bidding and fixed-price items on the night of the event.
Better fit: A tie. Both make raffles straightforward. Pledge It's edge is keeping one person from juggling a side tool mid-event; OneCause's is how cleanly raffles sit next to live bidding.
Note: Raffle regulations vary by state. Some require a license or registration, and a few restrict online ticket sales. Always check your state's rules before organizing a raffle.
Here’s a list of the top raffle apps for your next fundraiser
8. Auctions and Mobile Bidding
Pledge It: You can run silent and live auctions within your campaign, allowing supporters to bid directly from their phones. They’ll receive alerts if they get outbid and can pay instantly when the auction ends.
The silent auction software connects with tickets, sponsors, and donations in a single easy-to-use dashboard.
It works well for events where the auction is part of the overall program.
OneCause: This is the product's origin. BidPal covers silent, live, online, and hybrid formats with item management, maximum bids, outbid alerts, and auction scoreboards. Guests bid from their phones throughout the night, and event-night phone support is available.
Better fit: The OneCause fundraising platform is the better choice if your revenue mainly comes from live and mobile bidding.
However, Pledge It shines when you want to run an auction as part of a bigger annual event.
Explore the best silent auction platforms for nonprofits to raise more
9. Merch Shop
Pledge It: You can create a merch shop right alongside your event, selling branded items as part of the same campaign. This feature is found in the platform's add-ons, known as Power-Ups, which help generate extra revenue streams on top of your core fundraiser.
Everything lives in one dashboard. Merch sales and donations land in the same place, so your team can track it all together.
OneCause: Fixed-price item sales let guests buy set-price items during an event instead of bidding.
Better fit: Pledge It edges this one for event merch. A built-in merch shop plus Power-Ups gives you a straightforward way to sell branded gear and add revenue, all connected to the campaign you're already running.
10. Year-Over-Year Fundraising
Pledge It: This is a real differentiator. You can track last year's participants and donors, identify those who haven't returned, and re-invite them directly.
This approach helps avoid starting from scratch each time and is essential for growth in events such as walks or golf tournaments.
OneCause: It provides reporting and donor activity across events, so you can look back year-to-year. The focus is more on data for individual events than on re-engaging lapsed individuals.
Better fit: Pledge It clearly leads in this area. As fundraising software for nonprofits that repeat the same event, it turns last year's list into this year's head start.
That's also why it works so well as golf tournament software for fundraisers, backed by an NDSS partnership and relationships across 50-plus First Tee and 20-plus PGA chapters.
11. Event-Night Support and On-Site Staffing
Pledge It: Event-night support runs through the online support center, with a dedicated Customer Success Manager on annual plans for planning and strategy ahead of the event. There isn't an option for in-person, on-site staff the night of your event.
OneCause: It offers optional, award-winning staff on-site the night of your event, alongside Event Admin tools for volunteers, guest check-in, ticket sales at the door, and recording bids and paddle raises in real time.
Better fit: OneCause, if you want an experienced team physically in the room running check-in, bids, and paddle raises.
Pledge It and OneCause Pricing Compared
Pledge It lists its plans and fees on the website. The OneCause fundraising platform provides a custom quote after you contact sales. For a small team, that changes how fast you can even start comparing costs.
Note: Pricing shown reflects rates as of publication and may change. Confirm current pricing directly before deciding.
Pledge It Pricing
It is published right on the site, flat, and easy to plan around:
Note: Pledge It has options for donors to cover Stripe and platform fees so that most nonprofits take home over 98.5% of what they raise.
OneCause Pricing
OneCause pricing is obtained by contacting its sales team, and your cost depends on your organization's size and the features you need.
We collected information from their support and product pages, and here is the entry pricing:
- Pay-As-You-Go: For nonprofits raising under $50,000; starting at $200 upfront, plus a 5% fee on funds raised (capped)
- Professional Auction & Event: Starts at $2,995/year flat + processing fee
- Online Fundraising & Text2Give: Priced separately; Text2Give from $495/year + processing fee
- Other products and enterprise plans: Available on contact
Winner: Pledge It
OneCause prices Auction & Events, Online Fundraising & Text2Give, and Peer-to-Peer as three separate plan families.
A nonprofit running a gala in November, a walk in April, and year-round online giving is buying three. Pledge It's $1,200 covers all of it, plus raffles, merchandise, and sponsorships.
3 More OneCause Alternatives
These OneCause alternatives cover the main directions you might go, from donor CRMs to event and auction tools.
Each of these OneCause competitors is strong at something specific, so the trick is matching one to how you fundraise.
1. Bloomerang
A donor management CRM first, with fundraising tools layered on top. Built around donor retention, so it flags supporters who are about to lapse.
Standout feature: Retention analytics and a clean donor database.
Watch for: It's a CRM, not an event platform, so event and auction tools are lighter.
Pricing:
- Bloomerang Fundraising: From $40/month (billed annually)
- Bloomerang CRM: $125/month (billed annually)
- Bloomerang Volunteer: $119/month (billed annually)
- Bloomerang Giving: Custom pricing
2. Givebutter
An all-in-one platform that's free to start, covering donation forms, peer-to-peer, events, and basic CRM.
Standout feature: No subscription to begin, with a donor tipping model.
Watch for: If donor tips are turned off, a platform fee applies, and event or auction depth is basic.
Pricing:
- Tips enabled: Free, 0% platform fee
- Tips disabled: 3% platform fee, plus 2.9% + $0.30 on card processing
- Givebutter Plus: From $33.80/month ($29/month when billed annually)
3. GiveSmart
An event and auction platform close to OneCause in focus, with mobile bidding, ticketing, seating, and golfer grouping. Good fundraising auction software for gala-driven teams.
Standout feature: Strong event-day and auction management.
Watch for: Pricing sits at the higher end for small budgets.
Pricing
- Annual subscription: Quote-based
- Credit card processing fees: Visa/Mastercard/Discover: 3.5%; American Express: 3.95%
Check out the best GiveSmart alternatives that every org should try
Final Verdict: Pledge It vs. OneCause
The decision comes down to one question: What is your fundraising built around?
If auctions and live bidding are your main event, OneCause fits that mold well.
If your year runs on a signature walk, golf tournament, or gala, you want the whole thing in one place. That's where Pledge It shines.
For a small team, one dashboard and an experienced person in your corner make the work lighter. That's what makes Pledge It (the complete fundraising platform) stand out among OneCause alternatives.
It is a strong choice in fundraising software for nonprofits that grow the same event year after year.
