Fundraising legally and responsibly

Although rare, in the face of such fundraisers, we are forced to block them and ultimately - most often - to return the funds to the supporters. In particularly blatant cases, we may also notify law enforcement authorities of a suspected crime or misdemeanor. For this reason, it is good to know when the law does not allow fundraising via our website.

Fundraisers with a false description

Although it should seem as an obvious offence, in practice, we have encountered several cases where the organiser of a fundraiser on our website attempted to organise a fundraiser with a goal in its description that did not correspond to the actual purpose of the funds collected. We take all such cases very seriously, bearing in mind both the high risk of penalties for such actions and the fact that, as one of the leading crowdfunding platforms, we have to provide a high level of certainty to our users that the funds they donate to others, often strangers, will be used for the purpose stated in the fundraiser’s description.

We use extensive measures to verify that the actual goal of the fundraiser complies with its description. Similarly, we carefully examine all reports of irregularities that we receive from our users and based on these, we also make sure to clarify any doubts. Although the majority of fundraisers successfully go through the verification process, we have come across fundraisers which, under the guise of real or even fictitious, usually charitable goals, were only intended to enrich the dishonest organiser. Organisers also have sent us forged or falsified documents that they believed would mislead us and result in a positive verification of their fundraisers.

We inform the law enforcement of each detected case of such actions. The authorities - just like us - treat these situations very seriously. If we detect such behaviour, it also results in the immediate blocking of the fundraiser and the suspension of the account of the organiser. All funds remaining on the blocked fundraiser’s account are returned to the supporters.

Fundraiser for the payment of a fine

The Polish law forbids crowdfunding to cover a fine or bail imposed in criminal proceedings. In the cases of such fundraisers, liability is imposed not only on the organiser but also on any supporter that donates to such a cause while not being a member of the immediate family of the fundraiser’s beneficiary. Thus, almost all of supporters who donate to a fundraiser aimed at paying someone else's fine would also be exposed to liability for the offence.

At this point, however, it is worth making an important distinction. It will only be an offence - for the reasons described above - to raise or pay money to pay a fine, bail or other pecuniary receivable adjudged for a crime or a misdemeanour. A penalty fine imposed by a traffic ticket will also fall into this qualification. However, fundraisers (and payments to them) organised to cover another type of liability imposed by an authorised public administration body will not be qualified as an offence. Thus, there is no prohibition to collect, for example, for the payment of an overdue tax or social security contribution, if a legal fine has not yet been imposed in connection with this fact. Neither are fundraisers for the payment of forfeitures imposed in administrative proceedings prohibited nor are general collections aimed at helping people who, for various reasons, finds themself in a difficult financial situation.

Fundraisers for capital investment

In this case, we are always very cautious about drawing premature conclusions. After all, supporting people who have good, often unusual business ideas, but do not have the necessary resources to bring them to life is the essence of crowdfunding. As a matter of principle, we are accepting such fundraisers and actively support them. We are proud of the many fundraisers through which their organisers have raised the money they need and are successfully running businesses that enrich our market.

Nevertheless, there are circumstances in which even good ideas can be hindered by legislation. This is especially true when a business involves activities that require permits or licenses. On our platform, the most common events were fundraisers organised to operate activities similar to those of an investment fund or brokerage house.

The fundraisers we had to block were based on the assumption that their organiser would invest the raised funds in securities, such as stocks, bonds, or even cryptocurrencies. In principle, this in itself does not constitute an unlawful action. However, the essence of the infringement in some of the fundraisers was that, through our portal, such an organiser intended to offer supporters a specific, sometimes predetermined, sometimes expressed as a percentage of the expected profits, rate of return on such an investment.

A very important difference needs to be clarified here. There is no obstacle to using 4fund.com to raise funds for launching one's own business and to offer the supporters- as investors - a certain share in the profits if the business turns out to be profitable. However, it will be forbidden - unless an appropriate licence is obtained - to offer supporters a certain profit in a venture in which the organiser will invest the funds in securities or other rights. It is also worth mentioning that it is not prohibited to organise a fundraiser where the organiser collects funds which he would like to invest, e.g. on the stock exchange, but organised in such a way that the funds are transferred to the organiser as a donation and not in exchange for a specific profit share.

Fundraisers that require a status of Crowdfunding Service Provider

4fund.com operates under a Payment Service Provider licence. This allows us to process your payments very quickly and provide you with access to the raised funds whenever you need it. However, our capabilities differ from those of Crowdfunding Service Providers. Therefore, on 4fund.com, you can not sell shares in your company or organise a fundraiser in which the donations would account for a loan to your business. However, that doesn't mean you can't seek support for your business here. You can freely create a fundraiser in which you describe your business idea and ask for support. You can receive simple donations from supporters or offer them products or services as rewards in return. If your idea is to launch a new product, you can also organise a pre-sale through 4fund.com and thus raise funds for the startup.  

Other fundraises violating our terms of service

4fund.com allows all citizens of the European Union to organise and donate to fundraisers. Therefore, we had to standardise our rules in such a way that every user of the portal could donate and fundraise on similar terms. Although the provisions of the applicable law vary somewhat from one EU member state to another, we have excluded an option to organise fundraisers for purposes that are subject to certain restrictions in most countries. It is therefore not allowed to raise funds on 4fund.com to: 

• promote, condone or support crime, hate, violence, fascism, totalitarianism, terrorism or discrimination;
• finance the purchase of weapons;
• fund prostitution, pornography or gambling.

In addition, if we find out that your fundraiser violates someone's copyright in any way, we may delete it.

In summary - what goals are forbidden on 4fund.com?

It is forbidden to create fundraisers such as:

• Fundraisers for capital investment - It is one thing to raise money to finance one's own business, and another to invest the supporter’s funds in securities or shares in other companies. There is no obstacle to using 4fund.com to raise funds for launching one's own business. However, it will be forbidden - unless an appropriate license is obtained - to offer users a certain profit in a venture in which the organiser will invest the funds in securities or other rights.

• Fundraisers that would require us to have a status of Crowdfunding Service Provider - on 4fund.com, you can not sell shares in your company or organise a fundraiser in which the donations would account for a loan to your business.

• Fundraises violating our terms of service - It is not allowed to raise funds on 4fund.com to: promote, condone or support crime, hate, violence, fascism, totalitarianism, terrorism or discrimination, finance the purchase of weapons or fund prostitution, pornography or gambling. In addition, if at any point in the fundraiser you’d like to use any creative workthat doesn’t belong to you, be sure to respect the author's copyright.

What types of fundraising can be done on 4fund.com?

Looking to organise a fundraiser for a good cause? 4fund.com is a great tool for you! Check out the successful fundraisers that have helped raise money for various causes. We owe much of our popularity to the fact that our website can be used completely free of charge (we subsist on user’s support).

What can you collect for? For anything legal! If you want to see all the fundraisers, take a look at our catalogue. However, you will not find fundraisers for which the Organiser has disabled the search.

Below you will find a selection of our sample fundraisers from various categories:

1. To support a friend or family member: 

4fund.com is a solution that allows a group of friends to simply buy one big gift together (instead of many, often unnecessary, small gifts). Birthday gift fundraisers usually collect between €200 and €700 and often include, for example, flight tickets and a dream holiday for the birthday boy or girl. Our websites have made thousands of birthday dreams possible!

2. Fundraisers to make dreams come true:

Thanks to our websites, thousands of people have made their dreams come true! Fundraisers for participation fees in running races and ultramarathons, buying the equipment of your dreams (e.g. for photography) and making other dreams come true are raising funds on 4fund.com every day! Do you have a dream? Start making it come true with 4fund.com!

3. To fund a creative project:

Our websites have also seen many successful crowdfunding-type fundraisers, where the community has helped to implement a specific project. One example is the fundraiser for the creation of the portal http://tatromaniak.pl/ (held on our zrzutka.pl website). If an interesting project is on your mind, but there is not enough money - use 4fund.com. 

4. To raise money for a charitable cause: 

Charity campaigns show that we can and want to help! The collection for a van for Mr Wlodek (held on our zrzutka.pl website) raised 2758% of the target, which is more than €17,000 instead of the expected €650. If you need help or if someone close to you needs help, 4fund.com can be a very helpful tool to get what you need!

The categories listed above are just examples. 

Using 4fund.com is completely free, and we rely mainly on donations to maintain our platform. On 4fund.com, anyone can collect for any purpose (private - e.g. birthday, public - e.g. project, charity). Creating a fundraiser is very easy and takes just a couple of minutes.