Comments on: Accepting Donations Online: Three Great Service Providers

By: Jeffrey Golby

Jeffrey Golby — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 19:02:03 +0000

Hi – great overview – I would love to add our company Global Currents (PINC Giving) to the list (globalcurrents.org). We operate in Canada US, Britan and Australia, super low transaction rate (3.8% +.25) and no monthly fee for most of our accounts and free set up for a few of our products too. In addition to the features that the others have we give donors the opportunity to ‘cover the cost of their transaction’ which is pretty great as for a donor it’s a couple bucks but for you it’s a big deal.

Anyways – sorry to sound like a salesperson, I’m not, just really believe in the company. Read click on the WHO we are on the globalcurrents.org site to hear why we do what we do.

best of luck

By: Syam Buradagunta

Syam Buradagunta — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 23:18:47 +0000

Jackson, Acceptiva is great. Excellent choice. They have a great team and customer service as well. They have the ability to post back data as well which gives you unlimited flexibility for integration. We incorporated Acceptiva into SWEET 2 years ago for Habitat for Humanity and have nothing but good things to say about them.

By: Jackson Jones III

Jackson Jones III — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 22:11:57 +0000

Sandra,
I thought I’d close the loop on this discussion (sorry it took so long to respond to your answer). We chose to go with Acceptiva, they are the first provider listed in your directory. They had the lowest fees, unlimited number of secure pages for the same monthly fee, EFT/Echeck capabilities and recurring charge capabilities also. Besides the unbeatable pricing, we liked that they have a month to month contract for both the Acceptiva service and the merchant account and also offered a 30 day complete money back guarantee. So far we have donation pages, event pages, tribute gift pages and pages we use their (free) virtual terminal with. Again thank you for your directory, it was most helpful in the decision process.

By: Sandra Sims

Sandra Sims — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 02:59:02 +0000

Hi Pam — great point. EFT has a lot of advantages over cc/debit. I have set up monthly giving for nonprofits by working directly with the bank. We didn’t have an online option set up for that though, it was just a paper based form.

By: Pamela Grow

Pamela Grow — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 10:44:20 +0000

This is a terrific side-by-side comparison Sandra. My only question would be do these providers offer EFT payments? For monthly giving I encourage a system that allows a donor to create a monthly debit directly from their checking account. Bank debit and credit cards expire and get lost and replaced – an EFT set-up allows for better continuity.

By: John

John — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 06:54:01 +0000

Greetings.

We the small church wanna help to the poor, needy and orphans. but we ve no funds with us. will u able to help us through online donation?

By: Grag

Grag — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 20:02:49 +0000

am looking for an online donation solution for a church that does mission to the rural world in Ghana so i wanna ask if you have the solution to that

thanks

By: Sandra Sims

Sandra Sims — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 19:15:23 +0000

Hi Jackson -- thanks for your comments. I am not affiliated with any of the 3 listed in this article. In fact the only partnership I have with an online donation provider is with DoJiggy . You have a great point about disclosure though. Most of the companies for which there is a financial affiliation with this site are listed on the partners or advertisers pages, which are linked at the bottom of every page. Otherwise we include a note on the page stating the relationship. There are so many providers and it depends on your org.'s specific needs which one is best. That's why I list all the reputable ones I know of in the directory. Another online service that I recommend a lot (no affiliation) is GiveForward. They do not require a group to be 501c3 to raise money. So there are a lot of people using their service who are raising funds to help pay for medical costs, college tuitions or trips.

By: Jackson Jones III

Jackson Jones III — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 16:23:53 +0000

I have a question. Do you receive a commission or referral fee for either of these services? The reason I ask is because we have just completed our review of service providers in the area of online donation processing (we searched on’accept doantions online’ on Google and found your website) and during our own research have discovered that two of the three that you recommend are in fact the highest cost providers from a processing standpoint (C&P and Firstgiving).

If you are receiving any sort of financial incentive from these providers you should disclose it.

Our non profit is small and starting out and very cautious re the cost of service. We found that there are several other providers that offer similar or better services/features at a lower overall cost than the three you recommend.

They are, ironically, listed in your own online directory of fundraising services and so I won’t relist them here.

Anyway, thanks for this site. We found it very useful.

Jackson

By: Syam Buradagunta

Syam Buradagunta — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:53:37 +0000

Thanks for your opinion. It’s a good discussion topic. I agree that online donation service providers do not directly solicit donors like a consultant would. That’s all the more reason that they shouldn’t receive commissions. They don’t do antyhing to raise the money regardless of the amount given. At worst, they should be charging a flat transcational fee that is above and beyond the credit card discount rates. This is much more fair because they won’t charge more based on transaction size b/c frankly, they don’t do any more or less work based on the amount donated. Thanks again.