“If I don’t do it now, somebody else is going to do it and I’m not going to be able to forgive myself.”

That’s what 19-year-old entrepreneur Nate Drouin told his parents when he decided not to go to college and instead live the entrepreneurial dream.

He had the idea for several years: make it easy for anyone to fundraise online – from large nonprofits running million dollar campaigns to the local Little League team looking to raise funds for new jerseys. With private funding in December, Drouin hired developers to execute on that idea. The result: a feature rich, super simple fundraising platform, Fundraise.com, which launches today.

Drouin graduated from Brewster Academy in New Hampshire, moving to Boston this past summer to work for a tech company in Woburn where he helped do Salesforce.com integrations with well-known Fortune 500 companies. But his interest and passion for technology and building companies didn’t start there.

“At Brewster, there were really no classes that taught tech,” Drouin explained. “I was really close to people in the tech department, and what they taught me was basically how to teach myself. I learned powerful things on Google at a young age, and was fascinated with teaching myself.”

Aside from learning PHP (a programming language), content management systems and ecommerce software, Drouin had two other ventures of his own in high school: an international web development and ecommerce site and a jet-ski rental business with his brother. “I just became passionate about starting new businesses — and I ran with it,” said Drouin. “But Fundraise.com is by far the biggest thing I’ve done.”

So how does 19-year-old Drouin and his new venture plan on giving more established donation platforms like FirstGiving and Network for Good make a run for their money? To start with, Fundraise.com is the only site that allows anybody to create a fundraising page for any cause. Instead of empowering just incorporated non profits (the ones you receive a tax deduction from for donating to), Fundraise.com also caters to the long tail of the fundraising market — like the teacher raising money for classroom supplies or the local family who’s house burned down and is looking for donations.

While Drouin’s passion for the space began with wanting to help these “little guys” out, that doesn’t mean he isn’t getting a lot of interest from some of the nation’s largest non-profits. In fact, Fundraise.com’s simple and intuitive platform will be behind the scenes at this week’s Haymakers for Hope, a Jimmy Fund event.

Drouin and Fundraise.com are also using their agility as a startup and their tech-savvy to further separate Fundraise.com from the pack (Drouin has 2 other full time employees and three developers on contract). An example: their iPhone app, which according to Drouin is the only one in the app store right now that allows you to take donations on the go.

“The biggest pain with online fundraising is taking [an organization’s] online fundraising efforts and tying it together with the work they do offline,” explained Drouin. “And that’s why we created our iPhone app for people to collect donations from their phone. It connects the two.”

Transparent pricing is another differentiating aspect of Fundraise.com. Speaking to how sites like FirstGiving mask fees for things like sending an email to donors and often require setup and monthly fees, Drouin wanted to make sure Fundraise.com was truly free. Check out their “15 Features for Fundraising Success” page, which touts all the platforms free features, from multi-level fundraising campaigns to social sharing. As for the cut Fundraise.com takes to keep the platform running: a mere 7.5 cents on every dollar raised (equivalent to the cut FirstGiving takes, but without all the setup costs and monthly fees).

As for Drouin’s 2011 goal for Fundraise.com: to empower 1,000 organizations to take donations and meet their fundraising goals. Next time you’re looking to take donations or start a fundraiser, keep this Boston startup top of mind.

Check out the video below to learn more:

Welcome to Fundraise.com from Nate Drouin on Vimeo.