These three terms overlap, which is why they get confused. The simplest way to separate them: fundraising is the broad activity of raising money, crowdfunding is one method of fundraising that collects small amounts from many people online, and a donation is a single gift given without expecting anything in return. You can use all three words to describe the same campaign and still be correct.
Here is how they fit together.
Fundraising: the umbrella term
Fundraising is any effort to raise money for a cause, project, or organisation. It includes everything from a charity dinner and a corporate grant to a street collection and an online campaign. Crowdfunding sits inside fundraising as one modern method.
Crowdfunding: a method of fundraising
Crowdfunding raises money by collecting many small contributions online, usually through a campaign page shared widely. Its strength is reach and speed: a good campaign travels across social media to people far beyond your own circle. It can be donation-based, reward-based, equity-based, or debt-based. (See types of crowdfunding explained.)
Donation: a type of contribution
A donation is a gift given freely, with nothing expected in return. Most charitable crowdfunding is donation-based, but not all crowdfunding is. A reward or equity campaign collects contributions that are not donations, because the backer receives something back.
Which one applies to you?
If you are raising money in any form, you are fundraising. If you are doing it online by gathering many small contributions, you are crowdfunding. If those contributions are gifts with nothing given in return, they are donations. For a cause or emergency, a donation-based crowdfunding campaign is usually the right fit.
For donation and reward campaigns in Bangladesh, a platform like Uddom gives you a verified page, local payments, and fund tracking, whichever word you use to describe it.
Frequently asked questions
Is crowdfunding a type of fundraising? Yes. Crowdfunding is one method of fundraising, specifically raising many small contributions online. Fundraising is the broader activity.
Are all crowdfunding contributions donations? No. Donation-based crowdfunding involves gifts, but reward, equity, and debt crowdfunding give the backer something in return, so those contributions are not donations.
By Md. Sowad Al-Mughni, Uddom. Last updated: March 2026.