What are the best payment processors for fundraising payments?

Rob Binns | Expert Market

You have to manage your volunteers, keep people engaged, and ensure that everything’s running smoothly. And, when you throw handling cash payments into the mix – storing it, sorting it, and sifting through fistfuls of nickels and dimes for the correct change – it all becomes a little overwhelming.

The solution? Partnering with a payment processor. As well as bossing your events by accepting quick, cashless in-person payments, you’ll also be able to take donations through your website. For nonprofit organizations, that means collecting membership fees and selling event tickets and merchandise. For individuals, it’s creating a profile to showcase your cause, ethos, and efforts so far.

But take note – not all payment processors are created equal. You’ll require an option tailored to assisting individual fundraising efforts, or that offers discounted rates for charities – and that has a passion and mindset for giving back that matches your own.

So read on, as we break down the top payment processors for accepting fundraising payments.

iATS payments

As the world’s only payment processor designed and built exclusively for non profits, iATS payments supports over 14,000 charities – including Oxfam, Ronald McDonald House, and the American Red Cross.

Offering hundreds of integrations with the technology your nonprofit uses every day, iATS payments enables you to process donations from within your CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system, your auction software, and your website.

What’s more, its slick, small credit card reader plugs straight into your smartphone, enabling you to accept donations at fundraising events with ease.

Add in competitive fees of between 2.49% and 3.2%, a flat monthly rate, and a complete lack of hidden costs, and iATS payments emerges as the leading payment processor choice for fundraisers.

Donate Kindly

Donate Kindly isn’t technically a payment processor (by definition, anyway – it partners with WePay to actually collect the funds), but as a centralized, intuitive platform for storing your supporter and donor information, it’s a strong selection.

With Donate Kindly, you can easily embed donation forms into your website, and be safe in the knowledge that you’re protected by industry-leading fraud prevention tools. It also boasts a fixed processing rate of 2.9% + 30 cents per donation, and no setup, platform, or monthly fees – what’s not to love?

Heartland Payment Systems

As one of the major credit card processing companies in the US, Heartland Payment Systems must be doing something right. And as it turns out, it does many – from lightning-quick customer support, to a firm focus on the needs of business owners. But what does it do for charities?

Well, Heartland not only caters to fundraisers with competitive credit card processing rates, but can also equip charities with a complete workforce management solution. This includes providing assistance with payroll, tax, and HR, and supplying attendance systems for more established nonprofits.

CharityEngine

Having already processed over $2.6 billion in donations, CharityEngine empowers fundraisers everywhere to accept payments. But to say that’s all that this Virginia-based business’ software does would be an understatement.

CharityEngine bills its software as an ‘all-in-one CRM’. As well as making email marketing and event coordination a cinch, CharityEngine acts as a central hub for all your client, donor, and volunteer data.

Better still, intelligent automated workflows help ensure you’re actually using that data to best effect – re-engaging crucial donors at the right time, and reaching out to new ones with targeted messaging. Oh, and you’ll get all this in addition to recurring invoicing and billing features that work behind the scenes to collect crucial donations.

Braintree

Braintree – part of payment giant PayPal’s family – succeeds on a couple of fronts.

On the one hand, it’s refreshingly focussed on small businesses and fundraisers. It offers discounted rates for charities, as well as a range of reading material and advice for maximizing your reach and revenue.

As a payment processing platform, Braintree offers fundraisers pretty much everything they need. You can accept virtually any payment method – from Google Pay to Venmo, and Samsung Pay to ACH (Automated Clearing House) transactions – while a fully customizable checkout gives donors a payment experience that’s consistent with your website’s look and feel.

The second way in which Braintree excels is through its connection to PayPal. Tapping into the global brand’s reach and trust signals, Braintree gets you access to over 250 million PayPal accounts around the world – making it simpler than ever for them to donate to your cause.

Fundly

And, last but not least… Fundly!

Fundly helps you leverage the charitable power of social media to supercharge your fundraising campaign. You can set up an engaging, highly customizable page to tell your story with blogs and emails, thank your donors, and spread the word through likes, comments, and shares.

Better still, it doesn’t cost anything to create and launch your next winning fundraising campaign. You can set up a unique fundraising website for free, and benefit from Fundly’s fundraising ideas and advice – whether you’re raising money for a church, for a fraternity, or for a creative project.

You’ll pay a processing fee of 2.9% + 30 cents on every donation you accept, plus an additional per transaction charge of 4.9%. Sure, it’s a little more expensive than some other platforms here, but it’s just because Fundly passes the fees for its service to you – rather than charging your donors to support your cause.

What’s next?

Ultimately, the payment processor best for you depends on the size and scale of your fundraising efforts. If you’re a nonprofit raising money at large events – and taking sizeable donations through your website – then you should opt for a payment processor such as iATS payments, Heartland Payment Systems, or Braintree.

If an all-in-one system for managing donor relationships and recurring billing is higher up your priority list, CharityEngine and Donate Kindly are both excellent options. And, if you’re an individual just looking to raise money for a cause close to your heart, Fundly is the choice for you.

Now? Well, it’s time to go out there and start raising some money – good luck!

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of EconoTimes