The 9 Best Credit Card Processing For Nonprofits: Best Free Credit Card Processing For Nonprofits, & More

We chose Helcim as the best overall choice for nonprofit credit card processing. Helcim gives modern nonprofits the tools they need to conduct fundraisers and accept payments — online, in-person, and over the phone — all while keeping your costs as low as possible.

While Helcim’s mobile card reader is relatively pricey — though it includes a free countertop stand — you’ll get a virtual terminal, recurring billing, CRM, and payment portal pages for no extra cost whatsoever. A specialized donation platform might charge you $100 a month to use these features.

Helcim’s payments package is an outstanding value for nonprofit organizations.

• $0/month
• Interchange + 0.30% + $0.08 to interchange + 0.10% + $0.05 per standard in-person transaction, with fees decreasing with processing volume
• Online transactions start at interchange + 0.50% + $0.25 per transaction, with fees decreasing with processing volume
• Nonprofits get lower interchange fees than standard users

Combining low interchange-plus pricing (including Visa and Mastercard’s special nonprofit interchange rates) with honest service and excellent customer support, Helcim is one of Merchant Maverick’s favorite payment processors.

Helcim’s nonprofit-friendly features include the following:

• Donate buttons
• QR code payments
• Payment links
• Mobile credit card reader (sells for $109)
• Recurring billing and membership management
• Hosted donation pages
• CRM functionality
• Invoicing
• Virtual terminal
• International payment support
• Your own merchant account

Helcim’s merchant accounts come with month-to-month billing with no early termination fees — just provide a 30-day notice beforehand, and your account will be closed. This is the exact type of flexible arrangement we like to see in the payment processing industry and one which has thankfully become more common over the last decade.

Unfortunately, Square doesn’t give nonprofits a discounted rate unless they take in more than $250K/year in donations. Nonetheless, we included Square on this list due to the company’s bevy of free processing, business management, payment analytics, and donor management tools. Combine this with numerous integrations with other useful platforms, and the appeal of Square for nonprofits becomes clearer.

For larger nonprofits eligible for Square’s high-processing-volume transaction discounts, there’s even more to like.

• $0/month
• 2.6% + $0.10 per in-person transaction, 2.9% + $0.30 per online transaction
• Nonprofits taking in $250K+/year in donations may get a discounted rate; otherwise, nonprofits pay the standard rate

Square’s nonprofit page details some of the benefits the company has to offer a nonprofit organization. All in all, Square’s package includes numerous features that can benefit nonprofits, almost all of which come free after signing up.

• Capture donor information in a Customer Directory
• Donation links with customizable donation goals
• Donation tracking
• Virtual terminal
• Free magstripe-only card reader
• Inexpensive ($49) chip card reader
• Hosted donation pages
• Invoicing
• QR code payments
• Square Online (website/online store builder)

Like all third-party processors, Square has no long-term contracts or early termination fees.

Host Merchant Services combines transparent nonprofit-discounted pricing with solid features, excellent customer support, and a great reputation in the industry. Additionally, you won’t have to sign a long-term contract, and there are no early termination fees if you jump ship. While the company doesn’t publicly disclose pricing details for its credit card terminals and card readers, it’s not alone in this regard.

• $14.99/month
• 1.35% + $0.05 per transaction for nonprofits
• Offers discounted nonprofit pricing through its HMS Gives program

Along with discounted processing for nonprofits, Host Merchant Services also provides several features that nonprofit organizations can make use of, including:

• Virtual terminal
• Web hosting and a basic website
• Credit card terminals
• Mobile processing and card readers
• In-house Bonsai POS system
• Shopping cart integrations
• eCheck processing
• Your own merchant account

Thankfully, Host Merchant Services offers month-to-month arrangements with no long-term contracts and no early termination fees.

PaymentCloud is a credit card processor specializing in servicing high-risk businesses, and nonprofits often get classified as such.

The company pitches itself as a nonprofit payment processing solution, offering processing services, an integrated gateway to nonprofits and businesses, and features such as a virtual terminal, a shopping cart integration, and ACH/echeck processing. We just wish PaymentCloud offered discounted rates for nonprofits or disclosed any pricing information on its website.

• Quote-based pricing — tiered and interchange-plus plans are available (get interchange-plus pricing if possible)
• No further pricing details are provided, but no nonprofit discount is offered

Features offered by PaymentCloud include:

• Virtual terminal
• Free credit card terminal
• ACH/eCheck processing
• Integrated shopping cart software
• Mobile POS integrations
• Multiple payment gateways
• QR code payments
• Recurring billing
• Your own merchant account

Note that while the credit card terminal is free, you’ll have to ship it back to the company immediately if you close your account. Otherwise, you’ll be charged for the full cost of the machine.

Your merchant agreement will depend on whether or not your nonprofit is classified as high-risk. Low-risk merchant accounts are offered on a month-to-month basis with no early termination fees, while high-risk accounts may come with a two-year contract and an ETF. However, you may be able to get the ETF waived, even if you’re classified as high-risk.

We chose Stripe for this list due to its unmatched customizability for nonprofits needing an advanced processing solution. Stripe offers many nonprofit-friendly features, but remember that you must raise at least 80% of your funds through donations to qualify for nonprofit pricing. If your organization raises more than 20% of its funds through membership fees, tuition payments, etc., it won’t qualify for this discounted rate.

Stripe lets your nonprofit create a custom website experience, accept payments on desktop and mobile devices in any currency, and generate custom reports. Stripe is also one of the best credit card processing companies for recurring billing. Some very large charities/nonprofits use Stripe, including Unicef, Oxfam, and NPR. If you go with Stripe, you’d be in good company. Our Stripe nonprofit guide has a more detailed rundown.

• $0/month
• 2.2% + $0.30 online transaction fee for qualified nonprofits, 2.7% + $0.05 fee for in-person transactions
• Your organization must raise at least 80% of its funds through donations to qualify for the discounted rate

Stripe is best known for its strong developer support and excellent developer tools. If your nonprofit needs a custom solution for taking donations online, Stripe’s advanced features and discounted online transaction fees may offer what you need.

Other features include:

• International support
• Recurring billing
• ACH transactions
• Numerous integrations
• Hosted payment pages (Stripe Checkout)
• Customizable donation forms
• Manage taxes, reporting, and bookkeeping
• Payment links

Stripe offers true month-to-month billing with no early termination fees.

Dharma Merchant Services is a reputable merchant services provider that offers transparent interchange-plus pricing with discounted rates for nonprofits.

Dharma’s merchant services package is ideally suited to nonprofits processing over $10,000 per month. With nonprofit-discounted interchange-plus pricing, tools for accepting donations both online and in-person, and a wide array of eCommerce and POS integrations, there’s a lot to like for larger nonprofits — more than enough to compensate for the monthly fees charged for the core service and some of the add-on features.

• $20/month for nonprofits
• Nonprofit rates are interchange + 0.10% + $0.08 per in-person transaction, interchange + 0.10% + $0.11 per online transaction

Dharma’s nonprofit page details its features for registered charities, and these features include:

• Donation buttons
• A virtual terminal
• Recurring billing and invoicing
• eCommerce integrations (for an additional $10/month)
• Hosted donation pages
• Customer database
• ACH processing (for a monthly fee)
• Payment links
• Mobile card reader ($149)
• Your own merchant account

While Dharma offers month-to-month billing with no early termination fees, it does charge a $49 account closure fee when you permanently close your account. This fee won’t be charged if your organization only operates seasonally, however.

PayPal accepts payments in just about every form imaginable, from QR payments to cryptocurrency payments to everything in-between. If this is important for your nonprofit, look into PayPal.

PayPal does offer discounted nonprofit rates for online transactions, but even this discounted rate includes a $0.49 fixed fee, which is pretty steep if you accept lots of online donations under $10 or so (though taking in-person donations cuts this fixed per-transaction fee to $0.09). We also wish you didn’t have to pay a monthly fee to use PayPal’s virtual terminal. But for many nonprofits, PayPal’s combination of discounted rates and nonprofit-friendly features and tools (both in-house and third-party) makes for a compelling package.

• $0-$30/month (depending on the payment system you use)
• 1.99% + $0.49 online transaction fee for approved nonprofits, 2.20% + $0.09 per in-person transaction
• 2.89% + $0.49 online transaction fee for donations if your organization does not currently have nonprofit status

PayPal has a lot of resources designed especially for nonprofits. That includes special transaction rates for registered 501(c)(3) charities and somewhat discounted rates for donations even if your organization is not a 501(c)(3) charity.

Our PayPal nonprofit guide contains a full nonprofit-specific feature rundown, but here’s a quick summary of what you’ll get:

• Donation buttons
• QR codes
• Inexpensive mobile card reader with a PIN pad
• Virtual terminal (though you have to pay a monthly fee for it)
• Donation links (PayPal.me)
• Hosted donation pages
• Invoicing
• Countless shopping carts, POS, CRM, and accounting integrations
• Detailed reporting

All PayPal merchant agreements are month-to-month — no long-term contracts and no ETFs.

National Processing offers exceptionally low transaction fees to nonprofit organizations, along with a solid feature set and integration list. The company also makes additional donations to charities, ensuring that even your processing fees end up going to a good cause. However, you’ll have to pay a monthly fee for any Clover hardware you obtain, and if you want “free” POS equipment, you’ll have to sign a long-term contract that may include an early termination fee.

• $9.95/month
• Nonprofit rates are interchange + 0.12% + $0.06 per in-person and online transaction

Notable features from National Processing include:

• ACH/eCheck processing
• Virtual terminal
• Credit card terminals
• POS systems (both in-house and third-party)
• Mobile processing with Clover and SwipeSimple
• API integration
• Many eCommerce integrations
• Proprietary donation tracking software
• Nonprofit-focused analytics

National Processing’s cheap ACH/eCheck processing is well-suited to processing recurring donations.

If you purchase your POS equipment outright or if you don’t need such equipment in the first place, National Processing offers month-to-month contracts with no early termination fees. However, if you choose to receive “free” POS equipment, you’ll likely have to sign a three-year contract, though you should be exempt from any ETFs if you promptly return the “free” equipment.

Clearly Payments is a relatively new credit card processor, but its impressive range of features and extensive pricing disclosures are good indicators as to the quality and trustworthiness of this merchant account provider. The company advertises itself as a solution for nonprofits, though it does not specify whether or not nonprofits get a discounted processing rate. If you’re considering using Clearly Payments, ask a company rep if your nonprofit can get processing at a discount.

• $21/month with interchange-plus pricing, $99-189+/month with membership pricing
• Pricing for the interchange-plus plan starts at interchange + 0.28% + $0.08 per in-person transaction and interchange + 0.48% + $0.23 per online transaction, with substantial discounts available as your processing volume increases
• Pricing for the membership plans start at interchange + $0.08 per transaction, with lower rates available in plans with higher monthly fees

Features offered by Clearly Payments include:

• Next-day funding
• Mobile processing
• Countertop terminals and POS systems
• Virtual terminal
• Online invoicing
• Analytics and reporting

Clearly Payments offers the kind of merchant agreements we like — month-to-month billing with no long-term contracts and no early termination fees.