Hi friends 👋🏻

As part of a recent project, I've been helping a client select their first online donation platform platform.

Wading through all the possible vendor options and presenting a shortlist of options was a challenge, so I've written up my process in the hope that it will help other orgs that are wrestling with the same questions!

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How to choose an online donation platform for your nonprofit

If you want to skip straight to reading the full guide because you're tackling this project right now, click here!

Read on for a teaser.

Some organizations don't have any functionality for accepting online donations. That was the case with my recent client. They were receiving plenty of donations, but all transactions were happening by mailed check or wire transfer, often raised through direct contact with donors

Other organizations might be ready to modernize their online donations process. In this category I’m thinking of organizations that have:

• One of those simple old PayPal buttons that bounces a user over to an unbranded PayPal checkout form that opens in a new tab
• A donation link to a form hosted by their donor CRM that opens in a new tab and doesn’t match their website branding
• An embedded donation form that doesn’t meet the standards today’s donors expect around security, or options like choosing a gift amount, dedicating a gift, or making a recurring gift

If your organization falls into one of these categories and you’re considering upgrading to a new online giving platform, this guide is for you.

These are the steps I recommend you follow:

• Invite the right people to the conversation​
  In my experience, selecting an online giving platform should be a joint project of your development and communications teams (if you have both). Also make sure to bring your finance and bookkeeping folks to the table.
• Identify your online donation processing needs​
  Before looking at platforms, make a list of your core needs. This will help avoid feature overwhelm when you start looking at options! There's a list to consider in the guide.
• Understand pricing, transaction fees, and payment processing fees​
  Online donation platforms have complex pricing, and may include some combination of monthly/annual subscriptions, per-transaction fees, and payment processing fees. Make sure you understand the differences!

After those sections, I've included a sample of different platforms you could look at, in three categories:

1. "Free" options – these are platforms that market themselves as free, doing their best to pass all per-transaction and processing fees along to the donor.
2. Low-cost options – these typically have some per-transaction fees on top of payment processing fees, but no monthly subscription. You'll typically get a more robust feature set and better support here, and fees may all still get covered by the donor.
3. Higher-cost options – these are creeping into donor CRM territory, and come with more extensive features and integrations, plus monthly or annual subscription costs.

If you want to dive into the full guide, here's the link again 👇🏻

If you're making this decision or have an online donation platform that you love, hit reply and share your experiences!

Until next time ✨

— Ed Harris (your digital strategy guide)

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