The Best Ways To Collect Donations Online & Improve Your Fundraising

As the name implies, Donorbox is an all-in-one donation management software. Donorbox has just about everything a nonprofit could ask for in a donations-raising platform, and it continues to innovate new tools like its peer-to-peer campaign option.

You (or your donors) will pay a higher price for your transactions than you would if you just went directly to Stripe or PayPal, but if you can make use of the specialized infrastructure Donorbox offers, it’s easily worth it. And if you don’t need it, the pay-as-you-go pricing makes it easy to walk away or use Donorbox seasonally.

Donorbox offers three pricing tiers, including a Standard plan with no monthly fees, a Pro plan with a reduced platform fee, and a Premium plan for larger organizations with more complex needs. Donorbox’s prices are:

• Transaction fees: 1.5%-1.75% platform fee + payment processing fee (Stripe or PayPal nonprofit fees, see entries below)
• Events: 2.95% platform fee
• Memberships: 2.95%
• Crowdfunding: 1.5%-1.75%
• Peer-to-peer: 1.5% main campaign fee, 2.95% for supporters’ campaigns

Donorbox features include:

• Customizable donation forms and buttons
• Fundraising pages
• Credit and debit card processing
• Mobile wallet support for Venmo, ApplePay, PayPal, GooglePay, and Mercado Pago
• Payment links
• Support for 44+ currencies and 11 languages
• 15+ integrations
• Fundraising coaching (premium)
• Peer-to-peer fundraising tools (see below)
• Crowdfunding
• Membership infrastructure
• Event ticketing

Peer-to-peer fundraising is a new feature offered by Donorbox that allows your supporters to launch personalized campaign pages to raise money on your behalf.

Donorbox uses, by default, a pay-as-you-go model. If you’re not processing transactions with it, it won’t cost you any money. Custom plans may have different requirements.

Donorbox donor data can be exported as a .csv file.

While Square doesn’t offer specialized pricing for nonprofits, its feature set is robust enough to handle most of your donation collection needs without having to shell out extra money for software. If you’re mainly accepting donations online, there are cheaper options, but Square’s infrastructure for supporting in-person payments and donations is second to none.

Using Square for nonprofits is pretty much a no-brainer if you’re already in the Square ecosystem or take a lot of donations in person. We especially love that Square comes with a host of free business productivity features that can be useful to nonprofits managing donations.

Square charges 2.9% + $0.30 for online transactions, including donations.

Square features include:

• Donation buttons and templates
• Payment links and QR codes
• In-person transactions with cost-effective hardware
• Recurring payments
• Free online store
• Event ticketing
• Credit and debit card transactions
• Bookkeeping tools
• Customer engagement tools
• Numerous integrations

Square’s pricing is pay-as-you-go, so you’ll only pay for transactions. Customer data can be exported from Square as a .csv file.

We love Stripe for its wide variety of customization options that allow your nonprofit to custom-tailor your donor’s experience, including making it more streamlined and simple.

You may have noticed that some other entries on this list use Stripe as their backend processor, which speaks to how effective its online infrastructure is. Not only that, but implementing Stripe for nonprofits means you can take advantage of one of the better flat-rate transaction fees on the market.

Be aware, however, that using Stripe directly comes with a higher learning curve for installation. Another thing to note: accepting the nonprofit fee will make some Stripe features that would normally be free have an additional cost per transaction.

Stripe charges nonprofits 2.2% + $0.30 per transaction.

Stripe is one of the most prolific online payment processors, with powerful eCommerce tools. It also offers a number of features which may be tempting for tech-savvy nonprofits. Stripe features include:

• Custom donation forms and buttons
• Ready-made donation forms through Stripe Checkout
• Payment links
• Limited in-person transaction support with Stripe Terminal
• Recurring payments and subscription management
• Free online store
• Credit and debit card transactions
• Supports 47 countries and 135 currencies
• Bookkeeping tools
• Customer engagement tools
• Powerful developer tools
• Numerous integrations

Stripe uses a pay-as-you-go pricing model, so you’ll only pay for transactions. Donor data can be exported from Stripe as a .csv file.

If you want extensive eCommerce support and don’t want to hire a team of programmers, Shopify is a great all-in-one platform. Yes, there’s a monthly fee, but with numerous tiers to choose from, you can purchase as much Shopify as you need. It also doesn’t hurt that you’ll get access to Stripe’s excellent nonprofit discount rate.

Shopify plans range from $9/month to $99/month with a 10% discount if you pay annually. Shopify Payments uses Stripe by default, so it’s possible to take advantage of Stripe’s 2.2% + $0.30 nonprofit transaction rate. Using a different processor will add up to a 2% fee on each transaction in addition to what your processor charges.

Shopify offers some of the most thorough eCommerce tools in the business. As it happens, Shopify for nonprofits also has a lot to offer. It’s also a convenient way to get access to Stripe’s payment processing tools without having to implement them yourself.

Shopify features include:

• Donations through Shopify Payments (Stripe by default)
• Reduced transaction fees with advanced plans
• Buy/donate buttons
• Email marketing
• Recurring payments
• POS integrations
• Extensive eCommerce tools
• Unlimited user accounts
• Absurd number of integrations
• Credit and debit card transactions
• Automated tax receipts
• Crowdfunding
• Blogging functions
• Application forms for volunteers

Shopify is a month-to-month service, so you can cancel at any time. You can export your donor list as a .csv.

We love that Helcim uses interchange-plus pricing, which tends to save businesses money over the far more common tiered pricing model most processors use. Additionally, card brands often offer discounted interchange rates for payments processed for qualified nonprofits. Helcim passes on those savings to its customers, so charitable organizations stand to save even more when they begin accepting donations online.

Nonprofits using Helcim can set up a hosted donation page, operate a virtual terminal, set up recurring donations, and much more. Helcim really shines as a payment processor that keeps costs down without sacrificing the quality or quantity of features offered.

Helcim uses an interchange plus pricing model with nonprofits getting discounted interchange fees. Helcim’s pricing for online transactions start at interchange + 0.50% + $0.25. These rates decrease as your processing volume goes up.

There are an impressive set of features that come with your free Helcim merchant account, including:

• Recurring donation management
• International payment support
• Hosted donation page
• Donate buttons
• Virtual terminal
• In-person POS options
• Invoicing
• QR code payments
• Payment links
• CRM tools

Helcim users pay monthly and don’t have to worry about any long-term contracts or early termination fees.

Host Merchant Services’ operates a special program for charitable organizations, HMS Gives. This service offers reduced payment processing rates for nonprofits which can save your organization money. Additionally, Host Merchant Services operates several programs designed to give its customers the best prices available, including a dedicated small ticket program.

Further, Host Merchant Services offers strong payment processing features, including accepting mobile wallets such as Apple Pay and Android Pay, online reports, next-day funding and more. With a wide variety of features and several ways to customize your processing plan features, we think that Host Merchant Services is a great option for accepting online donations.

All Host Merchant Services clients are put on an interchange-plus pricing plan, with no monthly minimums, long-term contracts, or early termination fees. Host Merchant Services online processing fees start at: Interchange + 0.35% + $0.10. However, rates are lower for nonprofits and as your processing volume increases.

While Host Merchant Services may not have features that are as robust as some of the other options on our list, we believe that the processor offers every essential payment processing feature for a non-profit organization. Host Merchant Services’ features include:

• Virtual payment terminals
• Next-day funding
• Accept all major forms of payment including Apple Pay and Android Pay
• Shopping cart integrations
• Web hosting
• eCheck processing
• Multiple POS options
• Mobile payment processing

Host Merchant Services clients may cancel at any time, as there are no early termination fees or long-term contracts.

We chose Clearly Payments because it’s one of the rare payment processing companies on the market that offer subscription pricing as an option. Subscription pricing can save your nonprofit organization money, by rolling markup fees and other miscellaneous payment processing fees into a single monthly subscription price.

While you’ll still have to pay a per transaction fee, there may be less cost involved on your end if you processes a high volume of donors each month. Clearly’s interchange-plus pricing plan may be a better option for smaller nonprofits with a lower processing volume.

Additionally, nonprofits using Clearly Payments can benefit from its subscription/recurring billing management tools, PCI compliance, fraud protection, hosted donation pages, and more. It’s a solid option for larger nonprofit organizations looking to reduce their online payment processing costs.

Clearly Payments offers users the choice between interchange-plus pricing or a subscription pricing model, depending on your processing volume either option could save you money.

Clearly Payments’ membership pricing starts at $99/month and $0.08 + interchange per transaction.

Clearly’s interchange-plus pricing for online payments starts at: interchange + 0.48% + $0.23 per transaction. You’ll also have to pay a $21/month account fee, if you choose this pricing plan. 

Clearly Payments offers several features regardless of which pricing option you choose, including:

• Full-service merchant accounts
• Hosted payments page via APIs
• Fraud protection with AVS and CVV checks
• Credit card storage for returning donors
• PCI compliance
• Reports
• Clover and Talech POS integration
• Recurring billing and subscription management

Clearly Payments doesn’t charge early termination fees, so customers are free to leave whenever they’d like. You an take your Clearly Payments data with you when you leave, as the company offers data export options.

Practically everyone’s heard of PayPal, but maybe not everyone knows that PayPal gives a discount to qualified nonprofit businesses. In fact, using PayPal for nonprofits is fairly beneficial, as PayPal makes it easy for your nonprofit to work with them, no matter its size.

If you’re taking care of a lot of your own software and UI needs, PayPal’s simplicity and ease of setup can make it easy to start taking payments quickly. Just be aware that the cost of microdonations through PayPal is very high.

PayPal charges registered 501(c)(3)’s 1.99% + $0.49 per transaction.

PayPal features include:

• Donation buttons
• Peer-to-peer donation links through PayPal.Me
• In-person transactions through PayPal Zettle
• Credit and debit card transactions
• Mobile wallet support for Venmo, ApplePay, PayPal, and GooglePay
• Bookkeeping tools
• Over 200 countries and 25 currencies supported
• Numerous integrations

By default PayPal is a pay-as-you-go service, meaning you’re only paying transaction fees. There’s no commitment. Donor data can be exported as a .csv.

GoFundMe has taken on a reputation for raising money for personal causes, but there’s no reason it can’t be used to crowdfund nonprofit agendas.

GoFundMe has a narrow use case, but it’s one of the most straightforward ways to crowdfund a nonprofit. You get to keep everything you raise regardless of whether you hit your funding goals. And while it’s possible to offer rewards to backers, you aren’t required to.

GoFundMe charges 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction.

GoFundMe offers:

• Crowdfunding tools
• Versatile campaign uses
• Keep-what-you-raise terms
• Tax-deductible receipts to nonprofit donors

If you’re running a smaller-scale charity or nonprofit, you can take donations without paying anything extra (besides the costs required by your payment processor) if you run your campaign entirely on Facebook. Given that so many people are already on Facebook, making your campaign Facebook-exclusive probably won’t affect your reach at all.

A lot of people use a combination of Facebook, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram. If you’re a small nonprofit that doesn’t have much of its own infrastructure, leveraging Meta’s venerable social media tools can be a low-cost way to reach your prospective donors.

There are no additional fees for using Facebook Pay to conduct your campaign. However, there are reports that Facebook’s algorithms do not, shall we say, prioritize campaigns that aren’t buying ads.

Facebook’s charitable giving tools require you to first set up a business page and designate it as a nonprofit. From there you’ll have access to:

• Donate buttons for Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram
• Fundraisers
• Donation matching
• Allow other users to fundraise on your behalf
• Event creation

Cash App is a popular P2P application that’s on many users’ smartphones, which makes it easy to take donations on the fly. Further, Cash App’s transaction pricing is favorable for micro-donations, making it a good tool for collecting a little bit of money from a lot of people.

Cash App is Square’s P2P payment app. While limited, it can be an easy way to accept donations without any other infrastructure.

Like Square, Cash App does not offer any nonprofit discounts. By switching over to a Cash App business account, you can accept non-personal transactions. These cost 2.75% per transaction.

Cash App offers the following features:

• App-to-app transactions
• QR code payments and payment links
• Unique “cash tag” identifier for easy payments
• Bitcoin transactions

Venmo can be a low-cost way to collect donations so long as you’re making them directly with the Venmo app. The social feed aspect of Venmo, while controversial for individuals, can be a major asset for nonprofits that want to promote their activity to other Venmo users.

Venmo is another popular P2P transaction application and is a part of the greater PayPal ecosystem. Venmo’s pricing structure makes it very cost-effective for in-person transactions, less so for website integration.

Venmo does not offer nonprofit discounts. Business transactions on Venmo cost 1.9% + $0.10 each if made through the Venmo app. Venmo transactions made through PayPal Checkout or Braintree cost 3.49% + $0.49.

Venmo offers the following features:

• App-to-app transactions
• QR code payments and payment links
• Venmo debit card
• Social feeds
• Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin transactions