Re: Merchant Accounts

Bank of America has an all-in-one option that establishes your merchant numbers, and your gateway. Most websites have a built -in option for e-commerce. This may be a shopping cart of sorts. Also, depending on what you are selling or trying to receive online, there are options for online ticketing and donations. In the past and present, I have used Tix.com to sell tickets and accept donations. Also, getactive.com does alot of online fundraisers with nonprofit organizations with and easy setup. As for PayPal, for a nonprofit with the potential to handle a lot of money, it does not look professional to have PayPal on your .org. PayPal is better for individuals who have items to sell or a small business who sells from a large inventory. Every site I've been to where the contribute options filter through PayPal, I have decided not to support.

Exactly how does PayPal "...not look professional"?

They are owned by ebay and take all major credit cards, and I think they have some options that you don't get from most merchant accounts, like subscription payments, shopping cart, pay-by-email links, and interest on any balance you have in your account. I am currently earning a little over 5% interest on my money there.

And one of the main reasons I went with them is that the fees were less than all the MAs that I looked at.

Oh, I forgot about the PayPal debit card that you can get that makes it easy to spend your money. I don't have one, I just use the free electronic transfer to my checking account.

Maybe you don't like PayPal for some reason, but I'll tell you another thing that I have found to be true, and that is when people HAVE a PayPal account and find a site that takes Paypal, it's VERY easy to make a purchase or a donation comparied to having to enter your credit card information. Click the PP link, enter or confirm the amount and click, then click to finish the transaction.

keeping money in a paypal account sure beats the TINY % banks pay..

I like the PayPal solution as well. They've made it easy to use their service and allow for numerous customization options i.e your own BUY NOW buttons, customized checkout experience etc. All of which allow for a seamless integration into site design. Over 100 million people use them and are comfortable with the platform.

To NOT accept PayPal as an additional resource, even alongside existing merchant services, just doesn't make sense.

my two cents....@ 5% :-)

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I think it's worthwhile to consider this issue from the perspective of your customers. For instance, you may want to ask a sampling of your customers a) do they have a paypal account, b) if they don't, would they have any hesitation about using paypal? c) if so, what hesitations? d) which would they prefer d1) use paypal d2) use a credit card without using paypal d3) pay by check d4) pay over the phone.

Then consider assessing the responses based on your needs. Perhaps you decide that if the reponse to a) is >50%, then it's best to use PayPal; or if there are many who are hesitant about PayPal, maybe you decide not to go with PayPal. There are very different audiences that different nonprofits deal with, so a single recommendation about using PayPal isn't going to be right for everyone.