Quick Tips: Getting Online Donations Up and Running, ASAP

A friend/reader just took a summer internship helping a small organization to think about their fundraising strategy.  He's young (as you might have guessed from the internship bit), so the first thing the board did was assume that he knows a lot about "online stuff."  Kids today, right?

Their top priority for him was to figure out how to get the organization to a place where they could accept online donations.

There's more to having an online strategy than simply being able to take a credit card donation online...a LOT more, honestly.  Bottomline, being thoughtful is worth more than being an early-adopter of new technologies.  Always.  But ideally, you want to be thoughtful and take advantage of new tools.

Here's a very practical (if also very incomplete) listing of a few quick ways to "get online" with your donations, and I'll trust you to not jump to any irresponsible uses of technology!

• If you have your tax-exempt status, you are already eligible to receive online donations through some third-parties.  My typical picks (below) represent a good sampling of the field, and will give you some hints at things you should be evaluating when figuring out how to get online, fast.
• Network for Good - this site allows people to make donations to anyone in the Guidestar directory of verified tax-exempt entities.  There are pros and cons here - it's not the most customizable interface, and from a user perspective, it's most convenient for folks who are making a bunch of small gifts to a bunch of organizations at the same time (think year-end).  The fee structure varies from 5% of gifts to 3% + an annual fee + setup, and is likely evolving, which is not outside the typical range of fees.  Still, you can "be online" immediately - just find your organization's Donate Now page and link to it as a way of driving traffic.  If you don't have a strategy yet, but have an immediate need to be able to take someone's online gift, this is a great option.  Use it, and move towards a more strategic solution forthwith.
• FirstGiving.com - this platform has just one advantage over Network For Good: the turnaround time for donations.  With a fee structure of 5% + 2.5% credit card fee + $500 annual fee, they're on the higher side of fees...but depending on your cashflow needs, they promise weekly dispersal.
• Fundraise.com - If you've got a little more capacity for strategy, this third party has a more aesthetic interface, and one which you can customize quickly without having a high level of technical knowhow on your team. People who can use a Facebook page (upload photos, enter content with an eye towards web formatting (when/where should hyperlinks be added, use bitesized paragraphs, etc.)) should be able to customize this platform reasonably well.  They help out with some email management so you can publicize your campaign(s), and they do occasionally turn up new donors for you who are looking at the Fundraise.com homepage to discover projects that are a good fit for their interests.  Fees are reasonable (4.5% + credit card fees) and they have a 30 day dispersal schedule, which is also quite reasonable.  This is my pick, in general, if you want to maximize a very limited tech capacity.
• Facebook Causes - speaking of being able to use Facebook, this runs through Network For Good on Facebook.  If you're one of the growing number of small/startup nonprofits that have a Facebook page but no website, this is an obvious choice for you.  It can also be a good way to get your Facebook followers and friends to utilize this particular social network for you by making it very very easy.  On the other hand, if you have a database of donors who may or may not use Facebook, it's something that needs to be maintained that only reaches a subset of your supporters, and will never be something you fully control (Facebook is not infinitely customizable as your own website would be; it will continue to roll out changes that you'll have to adapt to, with or without notice.)  You need to figure out if this fits with your plans for solicitation - how are you going to be encouraging people to give money online?  If it's almost all Facebook, this might work for you.
• If you don't have 501c3 status yet (it's pending, or your goals are so modest that you just don't want to deal with the bureaucracy - fine as long as you're not misrepresenting yourself) you still have options -- and both of these work even better if you DO have tax-exempt status.   For these, you're trading convenience for control.  If you are able to take advantage of that, I usually recommend the tradeoff, but it's important to be honest with yourselves when making the decision one way or another.
• Braintree Payments - I used to love Google Checkout as a convenient and functional widget that could be added to any website.  Not the prettiest, but very very practical.  Unfortunately, that's been discontinued and the Powers That Be at Google recommend you take your business to Braintree Payments.  Early reports are pretty good - their customer service gets high marks, and they seem to be gentle and generous in providing set-up support.  It's always good to be able to keep people on your website to make donations, instead of sending them to a third-party.
• Paypal - without Google Checkout, Paypal is a reasonable substitute, and usable for anyone, with or without tax-exempt status.  After all, people can just give money to other people - Paypal just provides the mechanism.  You have to keep abreast of all the technicalities and stay within legal boundaries (e.g., obviously, you can't offer tax-deductions if you're not tax-exempt; if you're selling raffle tickets make sure your raffle is legal; etc.)  Fees are reasonable if you file the paperwork to get recognized as a tax-exempt entity - 2.2% + .30 per transaction as long as the donations total less than $100,000 per month (and let's face it - if you're clearing more than $100,000 online per month, you shouldn't be cobbling together this particular solution!)
• Best possible solution:
• Most fundraising database software solutions these days have an online payment component.  If you've got a website and can hook a fundraising page to that which will automatically enter new gifts (and new donors) into your database (as well as logistically enable the payment), that's the neatest solution in almost all cases.  If you're committed to the database already, it's either a sunk cost or very small marginal cost, you're saving on the man-hours otherwise needed to get these gifts recorded in your database, and you've got a good amount of control over your donors' experience.  If "fast" is by far your most important criteria, and your database doesn't offer this option, you'll need to use something else as an intermediary (see above), but this is likely to wind up being your ultimate destination.

Did I miss your favorite platform or service?  Tell me about it (or your experiences, good or bad) in the comments section!