5 Online Tools for Nonprofit Donations

One of the more streamlined ways to bring in multitudes of charitable donations is through online fundraising. Each year, many nonprofits and charities utilize online methods to bring in funds; however, a pressing issue is finding the most compatible tool to use with your organization.

With the many choices available, it can be a daunting task to figure out which one is right for you. Fortunately, we can give a sense of where to start. Here is a list of five online donation tools deemed “favorites” throughout the Internet based on accessibility and affordability.

PayPal Donations
Paypal has a service that’s designed to assist nonprofits with donations received online. They offer a convenient donation button, which also allows you to obtain donor information through HTML – a feature many other service providers don’t have.

Contributors who already use PayPal will find this as an optimum, but for first-time users, there is an option to make one-time payments without creating an account. The standard charge is 2.2% of the donation along with $0.30 per donation.

Google Wallet
Google Wallet offers easy access to your organization’s online contributions and shop history. Once set, your contributors can repeat donations with simple clicks. There aren’t many options for personal customization, but the Google brand alone is unique. The standard fees are 2.9% with another $0.30 per donation.

Razoo Donation Widget
With Razoo, you can create fundraising pages or use their donation widget to accept donations from your organization’s website easily. Like Paypal, Razoo also offers the option of one-time payments. Along with an easy setup, the service charges a 4.9% processing fee per donation.

DonateNow Lite
Network for Good’s service, DonateNow, is best described as an all-in-one virtual donation aid. They offer a variety of benefits such as donation pages, email service, and real customer service.

Users see DonateNow services as relatively expensive; however, they do offer an affordable option with DonateNow Lite. You’ll get your donations page, the ability for recurring contributions, and a transaction fee of 5% per donation.

FirstGiving
From the very start, FirstGiving is optimized for nonprofit organizations. You can combine their services with other tools like client relation management, social media, analytics, donor management, and email. The standard donation fee is 7.5%, but the majority of the fee goes to upkeep of services like managing direct donations, communications, and fundraising campaigns.

Remember: This by no means a definitive list – just a starting reference from what others have seen the majority of the nonprofit industry use. There are many others you can try out and decide which is best for your organization.

After choosing your service and stockpiling those online donations, you can quickly report them on your IRS Form 990/990-EZ with our affiliate site, ExpressTaxExempt.com. Our service guides you step-by-step e-filing the 990 series, and you can list all your contributions at once with our bulk upload feature.

E-filing assistance is only a phone call away – our live experts in Rock Hill, South Carolina, are waiting for you. Contact us at 704.839.2321, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. EST. You can also send us a message any time of the day with [email protected].