Senior Tech Center: Comparison of Donation Services and Websites

Corporation for National and Community Service

Comparison of Donation Services and Websites

Questions To Ask

If you decide to partner with a charity portal or other donation service, consider the following criteria when choosing:

What are the costs? Make sure to figure out both the upfront and the ongoing costs, which are often a percentage of each donation, so look for service that takes a low percentage. Many charity portals offer their services without taking a percentage.
When someone donates to your program, how will you receive the donations? What's the timeframe? How often will you receive the money? Weekly? Monthly? Quarterly? Often times the donations are deposited into your account, or you are sent a check in the mail on a predetermined schedule.
Are you able to track donations to your program? Through what means?
How can the service be integrated into your website? How seamless will the integration be?
Will you have access to the donor's information? What are the company's privacy policies?
How many other Senior Corps programs are using the service? What are their experiences?
What other services do they offer that may benefit you?

The following tables will help you to compare the services available to you for help in your online fundraising efforts. Also see "The eNonprofit: A guide to ASPs, internet services, and online software" for more information on this subject. It is available for loan from The Resource Center Library.

These are provided for informative purposes only and are not an endorsement of any product.

Charity Portals - The least expensive alternative. Use a charity portal if you would like the donation process to be hosted entirely on another website with a link from your website to theirs, and are not concerned with making the page match your website.

Company

Costs

Receiving the Donations

Tracking Donations and Donor Information

Integration to your Website

Donor Privacy Policy

Network for Good

(steps for joining)

This service connected to GuideStar

Charities receive 100% of the donations.
Nonprofits pay no fees or costs.

Electronic Funds Transfer

The Network for Good Giving System allows you to securely track donations made to your organization and see donor contact information if the donor has elected to share it with you.

A customized URL is provided to link directly to from your website.

"We do not disclose, share, sell, or trade information about your individual visits to Network for Good or the information that you may give us such as your name, address, e-mail address or telephone number, to any outside companies except for the use of completing a donation transaction that you initiate."

Just Give

Also pulls data from GuideStar.

Gift services, wedding registries, etc. to encourage people who wouldn't normally give.

appears to be free. Charities receive 100% of the donations.

Starting Sep. will charge 3%

Checks sent monthly to your program.

A monthly report is sent to your program, this is not an online service.

A "donate now" button for your site is available, and then the visitor is taken to the Just Give website.

"We guarantee that we will not sell, rent, or trade personal information to anyone outside JustGive.org. we offer the option of donating anonymously so that the charity to which you donate will not receive information about you without your permission."

Charity Auctions - These sites require registration and are great for specific fundraising events.

Company

Costs

Receiving the Donations

Tracking Donations and Donor Information

Integration to your Website

Donor Privacy Policy

MissionFish

NOTE: This seems like a really fun way to try to raise money. Also unique because it allows people to donate items for auction as well as cash.

See the Effective Practice,Using an online auction to raise program funds for an example of an RSVP program using this service.

Joining MissionFish is free, and your organization pays only the credit card fees assessed by banks for items that sell--less than 3% of the final bid price.

Information not available on website.

The free service is not integrated, but they offer custom fee-based solutions that can be integrated with your site.

Users of MissionFish are given the opportunity to "opt-out" of receiving communications from MissionFish or sharing their contact information with associated nonprofits and corporate partners. Users may indicate on their initial registration form whether or not they want to receive communications from MissionFish or share their contact information with associated nonprofits and corporate partners.

Payment Services - Use one of these companies if you are interested in setting up your own donation page, but want someone else to handle the credit card transactions. Since many of the other organizations or companies require your project to be a 501(c)(3) organization, it you are not one, this may be your best option.

Company	Costs	Receiving the Donations	Tracking Donations and Donor Information	Integration to your Website	Donor Privacy Policy
PayPal	No set up or monthly fees. Transaction fees as low as 2.2% + .30 per transaction.	Instant availability of funds.	PayPal maintains detailed transaction records on their website.	Easy to implement - no CGI scripting necessary. You can create your own "Donate Now" button, and then they willbe taken to the PayPal site to do the credit card transaction.	PayPal will not sell or rent any of your personally identifiable information to third parties.

Donation Services (ASPs) - These companies can help you with setting up a custom or semi-custom donation page for your own website.

Company	Costs	Receiving the Donations	Tracking Donations and Donor Information	Integration to your Website	Donor Privacy Policy
Groundspring (nonprofit that merged with Network for Good)	One-time account setup: $129 (standard page) or $199 (custom page) Monthly fee: $14.95 for nonprofits with annual budgets under $250,000 $24.95 for nonprofits with annual budgets over $250,000 Per donation fee: 3% of each donation	Monthly check (if over); otherwise quarterly	Provides a detailed breakdown of your donation history. Download donor information (name, email, address, etc.) into an excel spreadsheet for easy data manipulation.	Custom page - matches the exact look-and-feel of your website. Standard page - generic look and feel.	Website states they will "never sells, trades, or rents donor information, and our site has security measures to prevent the loss, misuse, or alteration of donor and donation data"
Donation Depot (owned by Kintera Inc.)	They use a flat-fee pricing system. Specific pricing information not available on website.	Donation Depot forwards the donations it processes on behalf of nonprofit organizations on a monthly schedule.	Included with your monthly check or electronic transfer is an electronic file containing complete donation information. NPO Pro™ customers may also check donation totals and other giving information in real-time through an online administrative function.	Two options: NPOPro integrates fully with website. "Spotlight Membership"provides nonprofits with a free full-page giving profile and allows donors to make contributions through our secure network.	Website states they "will never sell, trade, share, or rent your personal information to its charities or any other organization. Personal information will not be shared with the organization to which you are donating unless you choose to make it available to them."
Contribute	There are no set up fees or annual subscription fees. They charge regular hosting fees and a processing fee for each contribution. Sign up for more information to get exact fees.	Information not available on website.	View reports and statistics online wtih custom admin tools (compatible with Access, Excel)	Online forms are branded to your website and seamlessly melded with the rest of your web pages (but hosted by their secure server).	Website states that they do not collect individual data for sale to third parties. Your donor and member data is exclusively provided to you.
Entango	5% per transaction if you use your own credit card merchant account 8% if you use their credit card merchant account	Receive donations directly to bank account; pay back the 5% at the end of each month	Secure, password-protected access to your online donor information any time. Exportable donor data in industry standard formats so you can add your donor history to your database.	Pages mirror your website's look and feel, including its navigation. They provide you with a button for your website.	Website states they "will not disclose, sell, trade, rent, or otherwise reveal nonprofit supporters" e-mail addresses with a third party, other than the nonprofit receiving the transaction"

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