I’m proud to present Swiftgive.com. Swiftgive provides free, mobile-friendly money transfer. By scanning a QR code you can easily give some money.

If you’re trying to raise money, just create a fund on the site. After creating a fund, you can direct people to your fund’s webpage (which would look something like this) or buy specially coded marketing products directly from the site. All marketing products have your fund’s give code on them (basically fancy QR codes). Give codes are readable by most barcode reading apps.

Here’s an example–feel free to scan it and give us a few bucks ;-)

donate to swiftgive

My friend and Oilfield Intelligence co-founder, Ken, came up with the idea when he was rushing to the airport late one evening. He took a bus from the parking lot to the terminal and the bus driver provided excellent service, helping him with bags and even cracking jokes the entire drive. When Ken went to tip the driver, he realized he didn’t have any small bills (nobody carries cash anymore!). He had a cell phone and a debit card, but no cash. So, he did what any industrious programmer would do: he created a prototype of what tipping should look like. I joined him to help flesh out the concept and we’re now ready to pull back the curtain.

We’ve talked to musicians, valets, and friends in various fields, and the response has been positive. Anyone looking to accept money–be it tips or fundraising–can sign up and use the site for free. You can even help promote someone else’s fund.

In an alpha launch we helped transfer over $1,000, so we think the idea is helpful. We definitely hope that it is.

There are other services out there that offer mobile payments, but Swiftgive approaches the problem a little differently. Swiftgive believes that mobile tipping and fundraising should be easy and inexpensive.

Swiftgive makes it easy to get professional quality marketing products to show off your fund. Receivers don’t need a smartphone to accept money–just an email address and debit card. Also, Swiftgive uses debit cards only. Other services generally rely on credit cards–they use payment processors and pass the fees onto you. Credit card fees (usually around 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction) can eat away a substantial amount of your earnings, especially for small payments. This is the same reason any self-respecting business owner will grimace when you try to buy a pack of gum with your Visa. We’re more interested in getting money to people than to credit card processing companies.

Go forth and raise some money or tip that bus driver for great service–even if you don’t have any cash.