Technology for Fundraising

RE: online donation services

Anonymous — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 18:23:00 GMT

Thank you! The main problem with PayPal was that at some point something went wrong at some step in the PayPal process and no one could get a donation to go through. When this happened we were unable to get any assistance whatsoever from PayPal - calls and emails all went unanswered. We ultimately had to remove the link from the site because it didn't work and we couldn't fix it. You are right, though, that people are used to using PayPal, so perhaps we should try again.

RE: online donation services

Anonymous — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 18:18:00 GMT

Thank you! For some reason we have found the JustGive process rather cumbersome and slow, and we rarely get any online donations through it. We've changed webhosts recently, so maybe the problem was with our website not JustGive. Once the website redesign is loaded online, perhaps we'll see a difference in the performance. Don't let that MC of yours push you around too much. :)

RE: online donation services

Anonymous — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 18:12:00 GMT

Thank you! I will check out Google Checkout (oops - unintended pun). I like the way your website donation page is set up, particularly with the monthly donation option. Our thanks to you also for the wonderful work you are doing.

RE: online donation services

Christian_SEO — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 00:43:00 GMT

PayPal should work well, but that depends on what issues you are having. If you can describe what it is you don't like about it we may be able to help

Google checkout is also good and the no fee option is also attractive, but it has not caught on that much copared with PayPal. I have an account at Google Checkout that I have used once to buy something, and only because the venfor did not have PayPal.

Like me, more people have not only been using PayPal for years, but we also (generally) have some money in our account, and I will spend or donate from that much faster than I will take out my credit card.

I suggest that you try to solve the issues with any system you have and keep all of your options open if it makes sense to do so. :-)

RE: online donation services

rweiner — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 18:13:00 GMT

Dear Nancy,

Here's a link to a TechSoup discussion of online giving options. The Idealware article (which is also in TechSoup's Learning Center as part 1 and part 2) analyzes many different vendors.

I'm on the board of a nonprofit that uses JustGive and it has worked well for us. It's not flexible -- you can't customize the giving page or options -- but it's inexpensive and the service has been good.

Standard PayPal isn't flexible, either, but they also have a Pro version that is flexible. However, you'll pay a setup fee and a minimum monthly fee.

Google Checkout is flexible and is the only service I know of that's completely free for nonprofits -- at least for now.

Robert

Happy guardian of a Maine Coon cat!

-

RE: online donation services

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 17:32:00 GMT

You could consider Google Checkout. If you're a registered 501c3, you can put a donate button on your site and they change NO fees, at least until 2009, and then the fees are lower than Paypal. My group offers Paypal and Google Checkout.

You can see how my site is set up: Tanzania Partners

online donation services

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 16:18:00 GMT

Greetings from a new animal rescue group, Maine Coon Adoptions, the California chapter of Saving Animals from Euthanasia (SAFE). This looks like such a great site. We have a website (mainecoonadoptions.com) and have used both PayPal and JustGive as online donation vehicles. We haven't been very happy with either (but we're not very techno savvy). Does anyone have a good online donation company to recommend to us? Or something good to say about PayPal or JustGive since maybe it's just us?