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How your money moves

FoodFund Inc. operates as a for-profit donation facilitator, charging a transparent 4% platform fee on every transaction. The remaining 96% flows directly to verified 501(c)(3) food programs. Creators earn a tiered revenue share (1–2%) paid from FoodFund’s fee — never from donor contributions.

Where every $100 goes
To food programs $96.00
Platform & creator support (4%) $4.00
The 4% platform fee covers payment processing, platform operations, and creator revenue share. Creator share (1–2%) is paid from within this fee — it does not reduce the 96% that goes to food programs. This structure is shown transparently on every donation confirmation screen.
Our partner organizations

Every food program that receives donations through FoodFund is a registered 501(c)(3) organization with a publicly verifiable EIN. You can look up any of them at irs.gov or guidestar.org.

View all partner organizations →

How does $1 fund 2 meals?

The short answer: food banks don’t buy food at retail prices. They operate at roughly $0.50 per meal — a fraction of what the same food would cost in a grocery store — because of three structural advantages.

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Bulk purchasing
Food banks buy direct from manufacturers, distributors, and farms at volumes no retailer can match. A pallet of canned goods costs a fraction of its per-unit shelf price.
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Rescued food
Grocery chains, restaurants, and food manufacturers donate surplus product that is near sell-by date, cosmetically imperfect, or overproduced. The food bank pays little or nothing for the food itself — just handling and distribution.
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USDA commodity programs
Food banks receive large volumes of government-purchased commodities at heavily subsidized or zero cost, further reducing the per-meal operational figure.
The $0.50 figure is the full operational cost per meal distributed — including rescued and donated food. It is not “$0.50 buys a meal’s worth of groceries.” It is “$0.50 covers the total cost of getting food from source to someone who needs it.” Your $1 covers two of those journeys.
Food banks distribute meals at roughly $0.50 in total operational cost — far below retail — because of bulk purchasing, food rescue programs, and USDA commodity distribution. Source: Feeding America →

How creator referral attribution works

When a creator shares their unique FoodFund link, we track that referral and credit the correct creator for every donation that follows. Here is exactly how it works — no black boxes.

🔗 The referral link

Every creator has a unique link in the format foodfund.com/@jessica or foodfund.com?partner=jessica. When a visitor arrives via that link, FoodFund records the referring creator. Any donation made during that visit — on any page of the site — credits Jessica.

📅 The 30-day cookie

When you click a creator’s referral link, a first-party cookie is stored in your browser for 30 days. If you close the tab, come back the next week, and donate — that creator still receives attribution. The cookie expires automatically after 30 days. We use no third-party tracking and no cross-site data collection.

⚖️ Attribution priority — who wins?

If you visit one creator’s page and then navigate to another creator’s page, the creator whose page you are actively viewing wins attribution. Browsing Marcus’s page and donating there means Marcus gets credit, even if you originally arrived via Jessica’s link. The priority order is:

  1. Creator page you are currently viewing — always takes priority
  2. Referral from this browsing session — if you have not navigated to any specific creator page
  3. 30-day referral cookie — for returning visitors with no active session referral
💰 What “credit” means

Credit means the donation counts toward that creator’s monthly donation volume, which determines their revenue share tier (1–2% of FoodFund’s 4% fee). This share comes entirely from FoodFund’s margin. Your donation of 96 cents to food programs is never reduced by creator attribution. Creators can verify their attributions in real time on their dashboard.

🛡️ Your privacy

The referral cookie stores only the creator’s handle — no personal information, no browsing history, no device fingerprinting. You can dismiss the referral bar shown at the top of the page at any time, and you can clear the cookie in your browser settings. FoodFund does not sell or share referral data with third parties.

Creators: you can verify your referral link is working correctly by clicking it — you will see your name appear in the green bar at the top of every page. Donations made through that session will appear in your dashboard within minutes of processing.