The questions athletes — and supporters — ask first.

Sport Fund is a sports investment platform where athletes share their journey and receive financial support from the people who believe in them — family, friends, coaches, and community members. Think of it as your personal fund page where your community can contribute to your equipment, travel, coaching, and entry fees, follow your progress, and see the impact of their support. It's not charity. It's community investing in an athlete's future.

Any athlete working toward a sporting goal. That includes amateur and semi-pro competitors, youth athletes, athletes training abroad, and anyone pursuing coaching, training camps, or competition. If you're investing in your sport and have a community that wants to support you, Sport Fund is built for you. Supporters — whether family, friends, or anyone inspired by an athlete's journey — can also sign up to contribute and follow athletes.

Great question. GoFundMe is designed for one-time campaigns — raise money, close the page, move on. Sport Fund is built for the full sporting journey. Your fund page stays with you throughout your training and seasons. You post updates, build a community of supporters, and receive both one-time and recurring contributions. It's more like a relationship between you and your supporters than a single fundraising push. Plus, we're built specifically for athletes, so every feature is designed around the sporting experience.

Yes — completely free for athletes. Always. There are no setup fees, no monthly costs, and no hidden charges. You'll never pay a cent to use Sport Fund. A small, transparent fee is added on the supporter's side to keep the platform running (around 5% for bank transfers, 7% for cards). But as an athlete, you receive 100% of every contribution.

It takes about two minutes. Sign up with your email, write a short description of your sporting journey and goals, add a photo if you'd like, and connect your bank account through Stripe for payouts. Once you're verified, your fund page is live and you can start sharing it with your community right away. No approval process, no waiting.

Contributions are processed immediately through Stripe and typically arrive in your bank account within 1-3 business days. There's no minimum threshold — every contribution is sent to you on Stripe's standard payout schedule. You can check your payout status anytime from your athlete dashboard.

Currently, Sport Fund is available to athletes with bank accounts in the United States or Europe. If you're in one of those regions, you can sign up and start receiving contributions right away. We're working with Stripe to expand to more countries — and we'll announce new regions as soon as they're available. If you're elsewhere, you can join our waitlist to be the first to know.

Stripe handles identity verification to keep everyone safe. You'll typically need your full name, address, date of birth, and bank account details. In some cases, Stripe may ask for a photo ID. The whole process is quick, secure, and only happens once. After that, contributions flow directly to your account.

Absolutely. You can update your connected bank account or payout details anytime through Stripe's secure dashboard. Changes take effect for future payouts, so there's no disruption to contributions you've already received.

Yes, and we highly recommend it — supporters who receive updates are more likely to contribute again. From your dashboard, you can compose and send emails directly to your supporters. You can send to everyone, or just to specific groups (like active contributors vs. followers). Share competition results, milestones, training camp stories, photos — anything that lets your supporters feel connected to your journey. We also send gentle, friendly engagement reminders to supporters on your behalf to help keep the momentum going.

You have complete control. For every post or update, you choose one of three visibility levels: Public (anyone can see it, even without an account), Followers Only (people who follow your fund page), or Supporters Only (people who have contributed to your fund). This lets you share general updates widely while keeping more personal stories and milestones for the people who are most invested in your journey. You can change the visibility of any post at any time.

Your athlete dashboard gives you a clear picture of everything. You'll see who's following your page, who's contributed, your full contribution history with amounts and dates, and engagement metrics like who's reading your updates and opening your emails. You can also view charts showing your funding progress over time, recurring contribution trends, and community growth. And if you ever need to export your data, that's just one click away.

Visit any athlete's fund page and click the contribute button. You can pay with a credit or debit card, ACH bank transfer (U.S.), or SEPA direct debit (Europe). Choose a one-time contribution or set up monthly recurring support — whatever works best for you. A quick tip: bank transfers (ACH/SEPA) have lower processing fees than cards, which means more of your contribution goes directly to the athlete.

Yes — security is built into everything we do. All payments are processed by Stripe, which maintains bank-level security and is fully PCI-DSS compliant. Your payment information is never stored on our servers — it's securely tokenized by Stripe. All data is transmitted with industry-standard encryption (SSL/TLS), and we comply with international privacy regulations including GDPR. In short: your information is protected at every step.

Of course. You can cancel or adjust your recurring contribution at any time — no questions asked. You can manage this from your email receipts or by reaching out to our support team. Cancellations take effect immediately, and you won't be charged again.

No. Sport Fund is a personal fundraising platform, not a registered nonprofit. Contributions are considered personal gifts. We always recommend consulting your tax advisor if you have specific questions about your situation.

Athletes pay nothing — ever. For supporters, a small transparent fee is added to each contribution to cover payment processing and keep the platform running. Here's the breakdown: Bank transfers (ACH/SEPA) come to about 5% total, which includes Stripe's processing fee and our platform fee. Credit and debit cards come to about 7% total, reflecting the higher processing costs charged by card networks. There are no monthly fees, no hidden charges, and all fees are clearly shown before you complete your contribution. We designed it this way so that 100% of the contribution amount goes to the athlete.

Contributions are generally considered final, since funds are sent directly to the athlete. However, if there was an error or unauthorized activity, please contact us within 7 days at support@thesportfund.com and we'll review your case promptly. We take these situations seriously and will work with you and Stripe to resolve any issues.

Sport Fund never holds your money. All contributions are processed by Stripe and sent directly to the athlete's verified bank account. We designed it this way on purpose — your money goes where it's supposed to go, with no middleman holding it along the way.

This usually happens when Stripe needs a bit more verification — it's a standard security measure to protect everyone involved. If this happens to you, you'll receive an email from Stripe with clear instructions on what's needed. In most cases, it's resolved quickly. If you need help, reach out to us at support@thesportfund.com and we'll guide you through it.

Don't worry — processing typically takes 1-3 business days, depending on the payment method and the athlete's bank. If it's been more than 5 business days, contact us at support@thesportfund.com with your transaction details and we'll investigate right away with Stripe. We won't rest until it's resolved.

We're here for you. Email us at support@thesportfund.com or use the contact form on our website. Our team typically responds within 24 hours on business days. Whether you have a technical question, need help with your fund page, or just want to share feedback — we'd love to hear from you.

We're just getting started. We're actively working on expanding to more countries through our partnership with Stripe, so athletes around the world can receive support in their local currency. We're also building new tools to help athletes tell their stories more effectively, deeper insights for supporters to see their impact, and features that make the connection between athletes and their communities even stronger. Have an idea or feature request? We'd love to hear it — email us at support@thesportfund.com.