Technical Tips for Small Nonprofits and Social Change Groups:
Accepting Credit Card Donations over the Web

There are currently several ways you can use the web to raise money. There are several sites designed specifically to help you, if you are registered with the Internal Revenue Service as a tax-exempt 501 (c)(3) charity. These sites are:

www.networkforgood.org Free if you are an independent 501(c)(3).

www.groundspring.org (they are a nonprofit provider, and they charge 3% of all donations given, plus a $20 monthly fee. However they are about to merge with Network For Good.)

www.paypal.com (they are a commercial service with relatively low fees charged; however their donation pages will include links to Paypal that you might not want to see on your donation page)

www.clickandpledge.com Relatively new service that can be set up for no cost, and that charges a slightly hire transaction fee. Best for organizations with a small online donation volume.

While some sites purport to find donors for you, we have found that these organizations seldom deliver. Donors who are confronted with solicitations from hundreds of organizations are likely to give only to thos groups with which they have a personal connection. This means that you might want to devise other ways to bring people you already know to these websites. You could publish a web address in your newsletter whenever you publish extra copies, or send it out at the end of messages you send to listserves.

For a longer list of potential providers of online donation services, please see the following link:
http://www.affinityresources.com/pgs/awz55Online2.shtml.

Last Updated August 18, 2005