PayPal for nonprofits is one of the best ways to receive donations and maintain security. With its impressive suite of features, PayPal is a powerful payment processor that helps your donors feel safe giving on your website.
However, PayPal isn't the only payment processing option available for nonprofits. There are plenty of platforms to consider that also offer nonprofit-specific payment tools that allow organizations to fundraise effectively.
With this in mind, we've answered some of the most common questions about using PayPal for nonprofits. Plus, we're going to review the information you need to make the right decision about which payment processor is right for your organization.
PayPal is online payment processing software that allows you to send and receive money electronically. PayPal makes accepting donations, processing e-commerce transactions, and invoicing simple and affordable. With PayPal, you can improve the donor experience and fundraise more efficiently.
Let's explore some of PayPal's nonprofit fundraising features:
One of the most recognizable features of PayPal is the donate button. With PayPal, you can easily create and customize a donate button for your homepage, allowing you to instantly begin receiving donations.
With the donate button, your nonprofit can:
Source: PayPal
PayPal allows you to accept all major credit cards, debit cards, and Venmo. It also converts currency with no hassle. With PayPal Checkout, donors can complete their transactions while on your page and add recurring donations as a checkout option. This ensures you don't miss a moment to connect with your donors and that your donors feel comfortable giving on your website.
Source: PayPal
PayPal's highly-customizable experience ensures your organization's marketing and fundraising strategies remain in sync. You can create a custom link with your theme and logo and share it on your website, social media, email, and text messages. PayPal also allows you to request specific donation amounts through your link so you can meet your fundraising goals.
Source: PayPal
PayPal's invoicing tools allow you to collect donations, send your invoices from any device, and automate the invoicing process with no software required. This enables you to stay organized and keeps donors in the loop.
Source: PayPal
PayPal was not designed as an all-in-one fundraising tool. Without features like event registration, donor management, peer-to-peer fundraising, crowdfunding, or wealth screening, PayPal may not meet all of your nonprofit's needs.
This is where integrations come in. Integrations allow you to organize all your donor and fundraising data in one system so you know where to get the information you need. By integrating PayPal with other donor management software, you can ensure your nonprofit has everything it needs to organize its data and manage online fundraising effectively.
For example, PayPal integrates with Bloomerang to ensure all donor and donation data are organized in one place. Additionally, you can use Bloomerang's comprehensive CRM to categorize and manage the relationships you gain from marketing outreach, events, and donations. By integrating Bloomerang with PayPal, you can maximize your nonprofit's fundraising and outreach potential.
PayPal offers verified charities a discounted processing rate of 2.89% + $0.49 per donation.
To register for PayPal for nonprofits, you'll need to provide information such as:
In addition, all nonprofits must apply to be considered for the discounted fee. To verify your nonprofit, you'll need to submit the following information:
PayPal for nonprofits is undoubtedly a robust payment processing tool, but your nonprofit may be looking for more than just a payment processor to manage its online fundraising processes.
By only using PayPal to manage your online fundraising, you may miss out on other useful fundraising features that can help your nonprofit track and manage donor relationships more effectively. For example, you won't be able to track donor relationships over time or run reports on donor engagement trends.
This is where donor management software comes into play. By using an all-inclusive donor management and online fundraising system, your nonprofit can:
If your organization needs a more convenient way to manage online donations and track donor information, a full-fledged donor management system might be the right tool for you rather than just using PayPal for nonprofits.
You must weigh all the options when considering which payment processor your nonprofit should use. Of course, safety and efficiency are top priorities. However, it's also important to consider where the majority of your donations come from and what type of payment process might make your donors feel most comfortable.
We've outlined some of the best alternatives to PayPal so you can ensure you're making the right decision for your organization and donors.
Bloomerang offers a best-in-class payment processor and so much more. As a Bloomerang user, your nonprofit can access a robust, all-in-one system for donor management, online fundraising, and data reporting.
Bloomerang Payments is fully integrated with Bloomerang CRM, meaning you'll experience seamless donor data transfers from your payment processor to your supporter database.
In addition, Bloomerang's payment processing features include:
Donorbox is donation processing software designed with nonprofits in mind. With Donorbox, you can easily manage recurring donations and store donor data. Because the platform specializes in donations, Donorbox caters to nonprofit-specific needs. However, it lacks many of the transaction and e-commerce features supported by PayPal or Stripe.
Additionally, Donorbox processes donations through Stripe or PayPal. Though this ensures quick deposit times, nonprofits can choose to cut out the middleman by using Stripe or PayPal on their own.
Stripe is another well-known payment processor that's already trusted by many businesses and nonprofits. It offers instant payouts and in-person transaction potential. Stripe also allows you to create donor profiles to track recurring givers and update expiring credit cards without contacting your donors.
You're probably familiar with Square from its card readers and point-of-sale transaction processors. Square allows you to easily process gifts and donations at events and keep track of donors with an online directory.
Additionally, Square offers customer engagement tools for nonprofits that aren't ready to invest in nonprofit CRM software.
Choosing the right payment processor is key to creating a streamlined donation process for supporters and making it easier for your team to track fundraising progress. PayPal offers many features that your nonprofit needs to manage online fundraising. However, if you're looking for a more robust system to track all fundraising activities in one location, a donor management system might be the right solution for youLooking for more information on nonprofit payment processing? Start with these additional resources:
