Catapult Design is in the midst of searching for the best (most affordable, accessible, streamlined, easily-integrated) online donations processor. Since we’ve collected a bunch of information on the subject, we thought we’d make it available to others searching for similar solutions. Our research can now be your research!
This blog post retains much of its original style – written as an email to the Cata Team – so read it as such and glean what you will. It is by no means a comprehensive list; it is just what we stumbled upon in our research stint. It was written several months ago – so exact numbers may have since slightly changed, as well as Catapult’s own opinion on what might work best for us. Looks like we may stick with PayPal and have our amazing web developer create code that connects our PayPal account (which will have a live link on our website) with our Salesforce account. We’ll see if this is possible!
If you have any advice – or additional information that you’d like to make known – by all means, comment below. This blog post can be an open source platform for the sharing of best systems and practices. Enjoy!
ONLINE DONATIONS RESEARCH
“Looking into the way that nonprofits process donations online, I’ve gotten more convinced that the complication of payment gateways and merchant accounts are far more complex than is necessary for a small nonprofit like Catapult, and that the costs are not significantly lower anyway. What Catapult needs is a simple system, optimized for nonprofit payment processing, with a reasonable fee, the right basic features (particularly recurring payments and the ability to automatically request that people tack on the transaction fee), and no headaches. In terms of live-event payment processing, the simplest and most effective strategy is going to be to just take credit cards and enter them into an interface. This is what more and more stores are even doing now anyway.
Network for Good has some great options, specifically their “DonateNow” service. The cost is $30/mo + 3% payment processing fee, which is pretty standard. The overarching reason is that they are 1) by far, the nonprofit field leader for online donation processing, 2) because of that, they have both trust with donors and a reputation to uphold and 3) the trends are for them to add more/better features and to decrease the price. Specific bonus features are the ability to customize payment forms to look just like your website, recurring payments, and the ability to request people to add on the 3% transaction fee, etc. The downside is the $200 one time setup + $30/mo. Learn more about how they work with nonprofits here.
The three next best options are the biggies of automatic payment processing: PayPal, Google Checkout, and Amazon Payments. None of these are particularly focused on nonprofits, but all of them have nonprofit capabilities + public trust.
PayPal has its own set of issues and capabilities. It can be confusing for newbies since it’s a little unclear whether or not you have to create a new account when you want to make a donation. (This can turn people off). It is, however, highly recognized and vastly used. It’s a common, well-known name and many people are used to paying through this system/platform. It may also be one of the least expensive processor options. Just for reference, here is their data: 2.2% + .30 cents per transaction. Learn about PayPal and nonprofits from their website here.
Google Checkout has no setup fee and no monthly fees. It charges 2.9% + .30 cents per transaction for under $3000 a month and then goes down for there. What it doesn’t have are any of the recurring monthly features or things like that. Still, if you want absolutely bare bones, it’s hard to beat. For more details visit their site for FAQs here and here.
Amazon Payments is another decent option. Has the benefit of people being able to use their existing Amazon accounts but the downside is it requires a Amazon payment to work. Has features like monthly recurring and is definitely thinking about how to serve nonprofits. Here’s the basic info and here are their FAQs. Total cost is the same as Google – 2.9% + .30 per transaction.
In terms of the iPhone application (iPhone app for credit cards!) we looked at, it is an option, but it’s ONLY good for mobile processing – it doesn’t do anything for your online interface/Catapult website. The cost is $50 for the application, plus $15/mo, plus 2.09-3.09% per transaction. This is a fine option, but doesn’t have any of the features that make something like Network for Good appealing, and is really about the convenience of mobile. It wouldn’t answer your day-to-day internet based giving needs. It would also involve signing up with Authorize.net, which is a merchant account/payment gateway system, which can be complicated and which would include use fees, a monthly fee, then we would have to pay for the iPhone app itself which would only go on one phone…I think. I think this service/feature is best suited for individual merchants who are always on the go and always in different places.
Finally, there is one random wildcard option, which is to sign up for a site like UniversalGiving, which handles the back end for you. The cost is the same as Paypal – they just use PayPal processing – and they don’t add an additional fee. (They’re able to make their money from consulting with corporations so they don’t need to charge for this). The downside is then you have to do everything through their website, which may not be the most desirable.
Finally, just for reference, here is an article about this. Some of the information is out of date but it’s still a pretty nice overview.
In terms of hosting events (fundraisers, etc.) and having a payment processor there, the best bet is just taking information and manually entering it into online credit card forms, or even just taking it with pen. The biggest conclusion is just that merchant account stuff is just way more complicated than necessary right now. In the long run, as the volume of donations and transactions increases, it may make sense, but right now my feeling is that it’s a lot of headache and complication for not a lot of benefit.
Other options we have come across include GlobalGiving, JustGive, and Kickstarter.”
On a final note, we recently acquired Salesforce at Catapult, and are now looking to integrate a payment processor with Salesforce – if possible. We want to keep our records straight. Regarding those SalesForce applications that exist to enable online donations, the following are the ones that we have found:
- eGiving by Mobile Metrics
- PaymentConnect by Linvio
- Chargent by Rogue IT
- Trio by Click and Pledge
