What Is a "Donate Now" Button?
A donation button can be added to your website, so that when someone
visits your site they are given the option to donate to your program
online. The tricky part to this is making sure that your site is secure
and is able to accept credit cards. For most giving online, people want
to use a credit card, so it is probably easiest to use a company that
specializes in this type of service, instead of creating it yourself.
This way the donor can enter their contact and credit card information
into a secure Web page, and have that information securely transmitted
to you. The advantage to online donations is that it offers a quick,
easy way to donate, so the donation process needs to meet that
expectation and be quick, convenient and comfortable.
You have three options for including a donation button on your website:
Option #1: Build It Yourself
To add this functionality to your website, you first need to figure out
how you are going to receive credit card information securely online.
This requires your Internet Service Provider (ISP) to support a
technology called SSL (Secure Sockets Layer), which allows information
to be submitted securely from one computer to another. When you go to a
website you know you are on a "secure" page when the web address starts
with "https://". The basic service you may be receiving from
your ISP may not include this SSL support, so you may have to switch to
another company that does support it. Most companies will offer this
service for $35/month.
Once you have the SSL technology, you will need to build the online
donation form. If you have any experience in creating a form for a web
page, this will be a fairly simple process with all of the pertinent
information in separate fields - name, type of credit card, credit card
number, expiration date, e-mail address, amount to be given, and any
other information you feel is applicable. You would also want to ask
permission to send them your e-newsletter.
Then, once the website is set up properly, you would need the
capability to authorize the credit card donations. This would require a
merchant account, so you have to decide if you are simply going to set
up the account and process donations manually, or if you want to
automate the entire process. If you choose to do it manually, you would
receive the donation information, fill out a paper receipt and call the
toll-free credit card company number, or use a dial-up terminal to
process the order. This is the most complicated and expensive part of
doing it yourself because you have to pay for the merchant account, and
deal with the credit card companies. Discountech, the place where
nonprofits can go to get deeply discounted software, is offering a Verifone/NPC Credit Card Processing Terminal and Electronic Printer.
The bundle includes a donated VeriFone terminal, an electronic printer,
and a credit card processing account from National Processing Company
(NPC).
The big advantage to building your own donation button is that you
have complete control of what the page looks like and can fully
incorporate it into your website, as opposed to a donation service
where the prospective donor must leave your website to make their
donation. The disadvantage is that this option requires someone with
HTML skills and it will cost you extra money to have a "secure" area on
your website.
Option #2: Outsource to a Donation Processing Service
If
building your own donation button and processing system sounds a little
too overwhelming, you can outsource the entire service to a company
that specializes in online donations and other online services for
nonprofits. These companies are also known as ASPs, or Application
Service Providers.
An example of company that provides these services is Groundspring.org (recently merged with the company, Network for Good). They provide the Donate Now! service program.
With one of these companies, you can have the advantage of the look
of a custom donation page and better incorporation into your website,
but don't have to do any of the building of the site yourself. On the
negative side, there will be costs associated with someone else
building it for you. You need to research this decision carefully and
make sure that you understand all of the terms and fees that the
company will be collecting before you sign up for anything.
Option #3: Hybrid Approach: Build and Use a Charity Portal
Another
option is to design a donation page on your website with information
about your company and a donation button that takes a donor to a
charity portal. Since a charity portal is essentially a directory of
nonprofits, a person who has decided to donate to your program would
leave your site for the charity portal to make the credit card
transaction and processing secure. This is an advantage for you because
you don't have to worry about making your site secure, or setting up a
merchant credit card account. The disadvantage is that the donor has to
leave your website to make the transaction, so the page where they
actually enter their credit card information won't match the rest of
your website.
There are many charity portals that provide this service, and it is
a good idea to get listed on as many as you can. Then you can use your
favorite one to link to from your website as your own donation button.
The prospective donor will then click on your "Donate Now!" button and
be taken to the charity portal to donate to your program. It is best to
have the charity portal open in a pop-up window, or least a new
full-sized window so that they know they have left your website. This
way, after they have donated they have a way to easily get back to your
website. See the next section, for details on how to choose a charity
portal.
A similar approach would be to use a payment service, such as
PayPal. If you have ever purchased anything from an online auction such
as eBay you you may be familiar with a payment service. This service
allows you to accept credit card donations without having a merchant
account. With a charity portal, you get the added benefit of the
portal's advertisements for their own website and name recognition, and
you wouldn't have that with a payment service such as PayPal. The only
way a potential donor would find you is through your website, and they
would then use the payment service there to give to your program. Visit
PayPal to learn more about how to incorporate the service into your website. |
