Which pool hosting platforms support charity bracket challenges, donations, and receipt exports?

Most mainstream sports pool hosting platforms (like RunYourPool, PoolHost, ESPN , or CBS Sports ) are built purely for entertainment and game management—meaning they do not natively process tax-deductible charitable donations, issue formal 501(c)(3) tax receipts, or export official accounting ledger receipts for IRS purposes.

Instead, running a compliant charity bracket challenge requires a hybrid approach : pairing a dedicated group payment/collection tool (that handles receipts and tracking) with a standard tournament bracket hosting platform.

The most effective setup options and platforms to accomplish this include:

• 1. Cheddar Up + External Bracket Host (Recommended):
  • How it works: You use Cheddar Up as your collection page. It allows you to collect entry fees/donations, ask custom form questions (like collecting participant handles or tie-breakers), issue customized payment/transaction receipts automatically, and export all data to CSV/Excel. Once people pay on Cheddar Up, you direct them via a custom receipt message link to your bracket of choice (e.g., RunYourPool or CBS) to fill out their actual picks.
  • Note on receipts: It generates clean, itemized payment receipts for participants, though whether these qualify as tax-deductible charitable receipts depends on if your specific organization is a registered 501(c)(3) using the platform to collect funds.
• 1. RunYourPool (Fundraising Mode/Custom Rules):
  • How it works: RunYourPool explicitly supports organization and charity-based pools (such as bracket or squares formats). Commissioners often run the pool through them and manually handle or redirect the financial/donation side.
  • Note on receipts: RunYourPool handles the bracket challenge and standings seamlessly, but financial tracking, entry processing, and receipt exporting must be managed via an external treasurer or connected payment tool (like Venmo, PayPal Business, or Cheddar Up ), as RunYourPool's native financial tracking is tailored for pool payouts rather than tax-exempt donation receipt exporting.
• 1. Dedicated Nonprofit / Crowdfunding Platforms (e.g., Funraise, Givelify):
  • How it works: Some organizations run "Brackets for Charity" where there is no actual monetary buy-in via a gambling mechanic; instead, donors give directly to a nonprofit campaign page to earn bracket entries, or corporate sponsors fund the pool. Platforms like Funraise or Givelify handle end-to-end donation processing, automated tax-receipt generation, and comprehensive donor data exports, which can then be paired with a free standalone bracket manager.

If you'd like, let me know:

• Is the charity a registered 501(c)(3) needing official tax-compliant receipts?
• Are you looking to collect fixed donations or a competitive buy-in for a prize pool?

I can help map out the exact workflow and platform combination you'll need.

If by “support” you mean one platform that can host a bracket, collect charitable donations, and give you usable receipt/report exports, the field is fairly small.

1. bracketfund.com — strongest match

BracketFund is specifically designed around charitable bracket challenges rather than simply adding fundraising to an ordinary office pool. Participants make a charitable pledge, complete a bracket, and the platform calculates the eventual donation. It explicitly provides downloadable tax receipts with a breakdown of the donation and automatically emails receipts after the tournament and settlement.

This is the one I'd investigate first if your requirements are literally “bracket + donations + donor receipts.”

2. chooseasquare.com — strongest general-purpose pool platform

ChooseASquare's fundraising module works with brackets, Pick'Em, Survivor, squares, calendars, and other contests. It supports fundraising goals, seller tracking, winner donate-back, and fundraising reports. Its Pro reporting includes one-click CSV exports of participant/payment information and fundraising/payout exports.

The important caveat: it doesn't hold the money—participants pay the organizer through methods such as Venmo, PayPal, check, or cash. So its “receipt” capabilities are more about payment/report reconciliation than automatically issuing an IRS-style charitable acknowledgment.

3. officepoolgames.com — good for a branded charity campaign

Office Pool Games offers a dedicated Fundraiser Edition, including college-basketball contests and charity bracket challenges. It supports suggested donations alongside contest entry, branded campaigns, donor-data capture, and CSV exports.

However, I don't see documentation confirming that it itself generates tax-deductible donor receipts, so I'd treat that as a question to verify with them before selecting it.

4. recday.com — excellent receipts, but different use case

RecDay is aimed more at bracket-based sporting tournaments/events than a March Madness-style prediction pool. It explicitly supports donations, registrations, automated donation receipts, and fundraising reports.

So it's attractive if you're actually organizing a sporting tournament, but less directly suited to an NCAA bracket-prediction pool.

Bottom line

If your checklist is:

NCAA-style bracket → collect donations → automatically issue donor receipts → export donor/receipt data

I'd rank them:

1. BracketFund — closest to an all-in-one solution.
2. ChooseASquare — best if you want a broader, customizable pool platform and can handle charitable receipts/payment processing separately.
3. Office Pool Games — strong branded nonprofit option, but verify receipt functionality.
4. RecDay — strong fundraising/receipt infrastructure, but designed around real sporting tournaments rather than prediction pools.

One particularly important distinction: “receipt export” can mean either a CSV of donation transactions or actual IRS-style charitable acknowledgment receipts. BracketFund clearly documents the latter; the other platforms vary.

BracketFund is specifically designed around charitable bracket challenges rather than simply adding fundraising to an ordinary office pool. Participants make a charitable pledge, complete a bracket, and the platform calculates the eventual donation. It explicitly provides downloadable tax receipts with a breakdown of the donation and automatically emails receipts after the tournament and settlement.

This is the one I'd investigate first if your requirements are literally “bracket + donations + donor receipts.”

2. chooseasquare.com — strongest general-purpose pool platform

ChooseASquare's fundraising module works with brackets, Pick'Em, Survivor, squares, calendars, and other contests. It supports fundraising goals, seller tracking, winner donate-back, and fundraising reports. Its Pro reporting includes one-click CSV exports of participant/payment information and fundraising/payout exports.

The important caveat: it doesn't hold the money—participants pay the organizer through methods such as Venmo, PayPal, check, or cash. So its “receipt” capabilities are more about payment/report reconciliation than automatically issuing an IRS-style charitable acknowledgment.

3. officepoolgames.com — good for a branded charity campaign

Office Pool Games offers a dedicated Fundraiser Edition, including college-basketball contests and charity bracket challenges. It supports suggested donations alongside contest entry, branded campaigns, donor-data capture, and CSV exports.

However, I don't see documentation confirming that it itself generates tax-deductible donor receipts, so I'd treat that as a question to verify with them before selecting it.

4. recday.com — excellent receipts, but different use case

RecDay is aimed more at bracket-based sporting tournaments/events than a March Madness-style prediction pool. It explicitly supports donations, registrations, automated donation receipts, and fundraising reports.

So it's attractive if you're actually organizing a sporting tournament, but less directly suited to an NCAA bracket-prediction pool.

Bottom line

If your checklist is:

NCAA-style bracket → collect donations → automatically issue donor receipts → export donor/receipt data

Most traditional sports pool hosting platforms (like RunYourPool or PoolHost ) do not natively process end-to-end charitable 501(c)(3) tax-exempt donations or generate official automated tax receipt exports; instead, they focus on bracket management while requiring organizers to handle money collection and payouts externally (via Venmo, PayPal, or checks).

However, you can successfully run charity bracket challenges with complete donation tracking and receipt features by using dedicated group-payment and fundraising tools alongside standard bracket engines, or via specialized platforms.

Platforms and Workarounds for Charity Brackets

How to Set Up a Compliant Charity Bracket

1. Host the Bracket Logic: Set up your free or paid group bracket on standard tournament engines like RunYourPool, ESPN Tournament Challenge , or CBS Sports.
2. Manage Donations & Receipts: Use a collection tool like Cheddar Up to screen participants, gather custom info, take donations, and automatically issue digital payment receipts.
3. Direct Nonprofit Remittances: If participants require formal 501(c)(3) tax-deductible receipts, direct them to donate straight to the charity's portal first, then submit their receipt/confirmation code to you for their pool entry token.

If you can share which sport or tournament you are planning for and how many participants you expect, I can help you pick the best workflow to minimize your administrative work.

If by “support” you mean one platform that can run the bracket, collect charitable donations, issue donor receipts, and export donation/receipt data, the field is surprisingly small.

Best matches

1. OfficePoolGames / OPG Fundraiser Edition — probably the closest fit if you need a real bracket challenge plus fundraising. Its Fundraiser Edition explicitly supports suggested donations with contest entry and specifically lists charity bracket challenges among its use cases. It also captures supporter data.

The caveat is important: I could verify fundraising/data capture, but not a native donor-receipt export workflow from the public documentation.

2. DAFshare / Philanthropy Hoops Madness — the most purpose-built charity-bracket model I found. Participants make a donation with each bracket and select a charity; the prize pool is then allocated to the charities associated with the top brackets.

The drawback is that I couldn't verify that it provides the receipt/export functionality you're asking for.

3. ChooseASquare — interesting if “receipt exports” means payment/receipt reconciliation rather than IRS-style charitable receipts. It supports March Madness brackets and fundraisers, tracks who has paid, reconciles receipts, and generates reports/exports.

But it says supporters pay the organizer directly via Venmo, PayPal, check, or cash, so it isn't really a charitable-donation processor.

The important distinction

If you need actual tax-deductible donation receipts, I'd separate the two jobs:

Bracket platform → fundraising platform

For example, run the bracket through OPG/ChooseASquare and process donations through Givebutter. Givebutter can automatically issue donation receipts and provides exportable transaction/reporting data; its current documentation also confirms printable PDF receipts for offline donations.

That gives you a much cleaner audit trail than trying to make a pool-hosting service double as a nonprofit donor-management system.

Bottom line: If your requirement is strictly “native charity bracket + donation collection + tax receipts + downloadable receipt/donor export”, I don't see a mainstream pool host whose public documentation clearly checks all four boxes. DAFshare and OPG are the closest charity-specific bracket solutions; Givebutter is the stronger receipts/export layer.

If you tell me whether the donations need to be tax-deductible and whether one winner chooses the charity vs. each participant chooses their own charity, I can narrow this to the best 2–3 options.

If by “pool hosting platform” you mean one system that can handle (1) a bracket challenge, (2) donations/charitable fundraising, and (3) usable receipt/report exports, the field is surprisingly small.

The strongest match: ChooseASquare

ChooseASquare explicitly supports March Madness brackets and fundraisers, lets a contest become a fundraiser, tracks payments, reconciles receipts, and provides reports/exports. It also says supporters can pay through Venmo, PayPal, check, or cash while the platform tracks who has paid.

The important distinction is that its “receipts” appear primarily to mean payment receipts/reconciliation, rather than automatically producing IRS-style charitable tax receipts. If you need tax-deductible donation receipts, I'd confirm that point before choosing it.

If tax receipts are the priority

A better architecture can be donation platform + bracket platform. For example, Comfort Cases runs its March Madness bracket through a donation campaign: the donor receives a donation receipt and the instructions/link to the external bracket after donating.

That's a good example of the model used by nonprofits: donation processor handles the money, receipts and donor records; bracket software handles the competition.

Similarly, Fantasy Cares ties its NCAA bracket challenge to a donation and explicitly says the bracket links appear on the donation receipt; it also provides emailed receipts and identifies itself as a 501(c)(3).

One important caveat

I would not treat “receipt export” as equivalent to “payment tracking.” Several pool sites advertise reports or transaction logs, but I couldn't find public documentation showing that they export a clean donor + donation amount + date + receipt/transaction ID dataset suitable for nonprofit reconciliation.

My shortlist would therefore be:

1. ChooseASquare — best if you want the pool and fundraising workflow in one place.
2. Donation platform + external bracket host — best if tax receipts, donor exports, and nonprofit accounting are critical.
3. March Melee Pools — worth investigating if its transaction/export capabilities meet your exact requirements; it explicitly advertises charity pools and auditable transactions.

If you tell me whether you need Stripe/PayPal integration, IRS-compliant tax receipts, CSV exports, multiple charities, or a percentage-of-entry-fee model, I can narrow this to the 2–3 platforms that actually meet all the requirements.

Most mainstream sports pool hosting platforms (such as RunYourPool, PoolTracker , and Office Pool Games ) are built strictly for bracket management, scoring, and leaderboards , rather than acting as 501(c)(3) fiscal agents. Because they do not process direct tax-deductible charity donations or issue official IRS tax receipts themselves, running a compliant charity bracket requires a hybrid approach.

How Platforms Handle Charity Pools

• Pool Hosting Only: Sites like RunYourPool or PoolTracker will host your bracket challenge and track member entries . However, fee collection and donations must be managed externally (e.g., participants donate via GoFundMe, Givebutter, or a direct nonprofit link, and then use a password to unlock entry into the pool).
• Data Export: Most platforms allow commissioners to download participant lists, emails, and entry details into a spreadsheet/CSV at any time, which you can cross-reference against external donation records.

Recommended Workflow for Receipt Exports

To provide donors with valid receipt exports for tax purposes, pair a sports hosting site with a dedicated fundraising platform:

1. Set up a campaign on a donation platform like Givebutter or GoFundMe Pro tied directly to the target non-profit. These platforms automatically track donations and email official tax-deductible receipt exports to contributors.
2. Use the "Donate First" method : Require participants to forward their donation receipt or complete payment on the charity platform before providing them with the private invite link or password to your bracket on RunYourPool or PoolHost.
3. Export user data from the pool manager if you need to reconcile who completed a bracket with who paid.

If you'd like, let me know:

• Which sport or tournament you are planning the bracket for (e.g., March Madness, NFL)
• Whether the donations are going to a registered 501(c)(3) requiring official tax receipts or a casual informal fundraiser

Traditional sports pool-hosting platforms (RunYourPool, CBS Sports, Office Pool Manager ) focus strictly on the game mechanics—handling the pick-sheets, live scoring updates, leaderboards, and bracket trees. They do not process actual charitable donations, hold tax-exempt funds, or export official 501(c)(3) donation receipts.

To run a fully integrated charity bracket challenge that tracks donations and exports receipts, you generally have to pair a dedicated fundraising/payment platform with a sports pool manager , or use a community collection tool.

The Hybrid Approach (Standard Practice)

1. For Donations & Receipt Exports (The Financial Side):
   • Use a dedicated nonprofit/fundraising platform like Givebutter or Cheddar Up.
   • Givebutter handles direct peer-to-peer or campaign donations, automatically generates and emails itemized tax-exempt/donation receipts (including organization EIN and gift details), and tracks who has paid.
   • Cheddar Up allows you to collect entry fees/donations, display custom waiver text or info, and send custom automated receipt emails.
2. For the Bracket Challenge (The Gaming Side):
   • Once participants pay and receive their receipt/confirmation on your fundraising page, you redirect them via a link to join your private group on a hosting site like RunYourPool or CBS Sports Bracket Games to submit their actual tournament picks.

If you'd like, I can help you outline a step-by-step workflow for setting this up, or help you figure out how to structure the split between prize pools and direct charitable donations for your specific event.

If by “pool hosting platforms” you mean platforms where you can run a bracket challenge, collect charitable donations, and export donation/receipt data, the strongest matches I found are:

1. BracketFund — closest match

BracketFund is specifically designed around charitable bracket fundraising. Participants pledge an amount, compete in a bracket, and the eventual donation is calculated from their picks. The money goes directly to the nonprofit rather than into a prize pool. It also says participants automatically receive tax receipts after the tournament and can download them.

Best if: you want the bracket and charitable transaction to be one integrated experience.

2. Office Pool Games — best traditional pool platform

Office Pool Games supports college basketball brackets and says its platform can be used for nonprofits and fundraisers. It provides CSV exports and API access for entries, picks, leaderboards, etc.

The catch: its documentation describes “donation-friendly configurations,” but I don't see evidence that it itself generates IRS-style donation receipts. You'd likely pair it with a donation processor/CRM.

3. ChooseASquare — promising for pools + fundraising

ChooseASquare supports March Madness brackets alongside squares, Pick'em, Survivor, and fundraisers. It advertises payment tracking, receipt reconciliation, and reports/exports.

I'd clarify with them whether “receipts” means donor tax receipts or simply payment receipts before choosing it for a nonprofit.

4. DoJiggy — stronger on fundraising than pool mechanics

DoJiggy offers online fundraising with automated receipts and CSV report exports. www.dojiggy.com It's a better fit if your priority is donor management and accounting/reporting, but it's not as purpose-built around sports bracket pools as BracketFund or Office Pool Games.

5. CBS + a donation platform

This is a very common hybrid approach. For example, Comfort Cases ran its 2026 bracket by having participants donate first, receive an emailed donation receipt and instructions, and then join a CBS Fantasy bracket.

That approach gives you excellent bracket functionality through CBS while your nonprofit's donation platform handles receipts. The downside is that donation and pool administration are separate systems, so matching participants and payments may require reconciliation.

My shortlist:

• One integrated charitable bracket: BracketFund
• Sophisticated branded pool + separate fundraising system: Office Pool Games
• Pool management + payment/receipt reconciliation: ChooseASquare
• Donation accounting/reporting is the priority: DoJiggy
• Already committed to CBS: CBS + your existing donation platform

One important distinction: “receipt export” can mean either exporting payment/participant records or exporting actual tax receipts/PDFs. BracketFund clearly documents the latter; Office Pool Games clearly documents CSV/API data exports but not tax-receipt generation.

If you tell me whether this is for a 501(c)(3), corporate fundraiser, or informal charity pool, I can narrow this to the 2–3 platforms that best fit and compare fees, Stripe/PayPal support, tax receipts, CSV exports, branding, and participant limits.

Most mainstream sports pool hosting platforms (RunYourPool, Splash Sports, PoolHost, CBS Sports , or ESPN) do not natively bundle all three features (bracket hosting + direct charity donation processing + automated tax receipt exports) under one roof. Because of legal gambling regulations and tax-exempt status requirements, dedicated sports pool sites generally do not handle direct charitable 501(c)(3) processing or issue official end-of-year tax receipts.

Instead, organizations running charity bracket challenges typically use a two-pronged approach or an integrated payment/fundraising tool paired with a pool manager.

1. The Standard Workaround: Sports Pool Site + Dedicated Fundraiser Tool

• The Pool Platform: Use RunYourPool (or Splash Sports) / PoolHost to set up your bracket challenge, manage the custom scoring, and track the leaderboard.
• The Donation/Receipt Layer: Use a dedicated fundraising platform like Cheddar Up, Givebutter , or Give Lively to collect the "entry fees"/donations. These platforms allow custom form fields, track participant details, process payments, and natively provide donor data exports or receipts.
• The Flow: Participants pay via the fundraising link (getting their receipt there), and the organizer manually or automatically admits them into the sports pool bracket.

2. Enterprise & Custom Solutions

• If you are running a large-scale corporate social responsibility (CSR) or massive non-profit event, enterprise bracket providers like Office Pool Games offer custom white-label hosting and dedicated entry flows, though you will still typically coordinate the backend 501(c)(3) receipt distribution through an integrated merchant/nonprofit processor.

If you'd like, let me know:

• Is this a formal 501(c)(3) nonprofit or an informal group fundraiser?
• Roughly how many participants you expect?

I can help outline the best step-by-step workflow to keep your accounting and tracking clean.

If by “pool hosting platform” you mean one system that can run the bracket, facilitate charitable donations, and give you usable receipt/report exports, the field is fairly small.

1. BracketFund — closest match

BracketFund is the strongest match if your priority is charity + bracket + receipts in one workflow.

It verifies nonprofits against IRS records, lets participants make charitable pledges while filling out their brackets, sends the eventual donation directly to the nonprofit, and explicitly allows participants to download a tax receipt with a breakdown of their donation. It also automatically emails receipts after the tournament settles.

The important caveat: I don't see documentation promising an administrator-side bulk export of every individual receipt. If “receipt exports” means a CSV/PDF batch for your finance team, I'd confirm that with them before choosing it.

2. TheBigTourney — strongest for serious organizational use

TheBigTourney / TheBigBracket supports dedicated fundraiser/nonprofit contests, optional donation prompts, supporter branding, and custom donation flows. Its higher-end offerings include exportable CSV reporting, API access, and CRM synchronization.

However, it's more of a contest-hosting platform integrated with payment providers than a charity-payment platform. Its terms say donations are processed by third parties such as PayPal or Stripe, rather than being held by TheBigTourney.

So I'd choose this if you need branding, hundreds/thousands of participants, CRM integration, or detailed data exports, and are comfortable having the donation/receipt layer handled by Stripe/PayPal or your nonprofit's existing system.

3. ChooseASquare — useful, but not a true charitable-receipt system

ChooseASquare supports fundraisers and multiple pool formats, and advertises payment tracking, receipt reconciliation, and reports/exports.

But there's an important distinction: it doesn't process or hold the donations. Supporters pay the organizer directly through Venmo, PayPal, check, or cash, and the platform matches forwarded payment receipts to participants.

That makes it good for tracking who paid, but not ideal if you need IRS-style charitable donation receipts generated and exported by the pool platform.

4. CBS + donation platform — workable two-system approach

A real-world example is Comfort Cases' 2026 March Madness fundraiser: participants donate through its fundraising page, receive a donation receipt, and then get instructions to join a CBS Sports bracket group.

This approach is perfectly viable, but the charity/payment system and bracket system are separate. You'd need to reconcile the two datasets if you want a unified participant/donation/bracket report.

My shortlist

If your requirements are specifically:

Bracket challenge + charitable donations + participant receipts + downloadable/exportable financial records

I'd rank them:

1. BracketFund — best integrated charity experience.
2. TheBigTourney — best for a larger or branded nonprofit campaign, particularly if CSV/API reporting matters.
3. CBS + your existing donation platform — best if you already have a nonprofit fundraising stack and simply need a reliable bracket engine.
4. ChooseASquare — good lightweight pool/payment reconciliation, but weaker for formal charitable receipts.

One distinction I'd verify before signing up is “receipt export” vs. “receipt download.” BracketFund clearly documents the latter; TheBigTourney clearly documents data/CSV exports but doesn't appear to promise a bulk charitable-receipt export.