Written by Katie Townsley
Nonprofit payment processors are an essential tool for strengthening an organization’s online presence and powering its operations. Choosing them will likely be one of the most important decisions that you take in building a donor relations platform or in revamping your website and will require research to select the right one; especially considering e-commerce and digital purchasing options have continued to increase as a result of the pandemic. Before making that decision, you probably should know what these tools do and how using them best benefits your organization as their technical nature can make them confusing. Ultimately choosing which one is best can be overwhelming, but that doesn’t mean that you should just pick one without properly researching.
Consider the basics – why do nonprofits need a payment processor? The answer is simple – to collect revenue (i.e.- donations, membership fees, selling online merchandise, and selling event tickets).
What is the difference between a Payment Processor and an Online Donation Tool? A payment processor is a behind-the-scenes tool that helps your organization collect online donations from supporters. Some payment processors have their own donation forms that you can mold to your organization and use. However, that is not the primary purpose of the processor, and not all payment processors have online donation forms. The processor is there to help you securely capture your donor’s financial information and translate that into a donation for your nonprofit. If you’re looking for a solution that offers comprehensive options for donation pages and seamless integrations with your nonprofit’s CRM, you’re probably looking for an online donation tool.
An online donation tool does just that, it helps collect online donations from your organization’s supporters. While styles may vary (donation forms to merchandise sales to crowdfunding), the core principle remains the same. With an online donation tool, you can set up a webpage that supporters will visit and use to donate to your organization. Many software providers even offer customization options and integrations with your other technology. Most online donation tools work with a handful of payment processors to help your organization safely and securely collect donations from your supporters.
It is imperative that when you are searching for an online donation tool, make sure it is compatible with your payment processor and vice versa. To help you in your research, according to “Double the Donation”, the current top-rated payment processors for nonprofits include CharityEngine, iATS Payments, BluePay, and Heartland. Moreweb.org shares that the top ten nonprofit payment providers are Stripe, Donorbox, iATS Payments, PayPal, WePay, TransNational Payments, Fundly, Moneris, Authorize.net, and Braintree. Most of these were new to me, but it is reassuring to know that your organization has options when it comes to choosing a payment processor and understanding its strengths and weaknesses.
Hopefully, these recommendations are helpful for your organization as choosing the right payment processor is a crucial first step in providing your supporters with a great donation experience. After you’ve picked one, you’ll want to optimize other aspects of the donation process for them, but that’s for another article.
