How Online Donations Affect Your Payment Strategy

Part One

Your customers' payment processing strategy is an important part of your business.

Online donations are everywhere.

Online donations are convenient, accessible, and engaging—it's no wonder they're so popular! Because online donations have become so widespread, your nonprofit customers need to develop a long-term strategy for utilizing online fundraising methods in a smart, sustainable way.

Nonprofits need to know their options.

Some of your customers might opt for the quickest payment processing solution rather than taking the time to learn how online donations work, consider their options, and determine the most effective path. It's your responsibility to make sure your customers are educated so they can make the best choice.

Your nonprofit customers trust you.

Your nonprofit customers are the most important relationships you have, so it’s important for your business to know how to advise them toward choosing an experienced, reliable processor. By helping them grow their organization, you'll emphasize your trustworthiness (and retain more customers!).

There are major differences among payment providers.

As you start shopping around for a payment processing partner, keep the following points in mind.

PayPal is a short-term solution.

While PayPal can serve as a quick, easy-to-get-started-with payment processor, it’s not a sustainable solution for most businesses.

Being an aggregator account, PayPal stores all of its partners’ transactions in a huge shared merchant account. That means your customers will be at a higher risk for interruptions, fraud, and other headaches.

Security should be your payment processor's top priority.

In general, online giving is very secure! Thanks to security measures like tokenization and encryption, fraudsters are finding it harder and harder to steal donor data and use it for their own purposes.

However, if a security issue does occur, an aggregator will shut down your account, causing a major interruption. iATS, on the other hand, can work with you personally to resolve the problems without stalling your customers' transactions.

What's more, iATS adheres to PCI compliance standards and has all of the necessary security measures in place to minimize your customers' risk of fraud. 

Fees aren't the only thing that matters.

While choosing an affordable payment processing solution is important, you'll need to consider the scope of the solution you choose as well as the cost.

For instance, a large aggregate payment processor may boast low rates, but you won't receive the personalized support or one-on-one attention that a more expensive dedicated processor would provide.

Additionally, it's crucial that you're aware of all the costs associated with your payment provider before recommending their services.

A "low-cost" solution may end up charging more than they let on once you add in set-up costs, monthly or yearly fees, and chargeback fees (among other expenses).

Choose a payment processor that understands your business.

Before selecting a provider, check to see if they have the following qualities.

Nonprofit Knowledge

Since many payment processors work with both businesses and nonprofits, they aren't familiar with the specific needs and pain points of your customers.

That’s why it’s so important to choose a payment processor that understands fundraising and has insight into your customers' concerns or challenges with raising money online.

Integration Options

Your nonprofit customers are likely using several different types of fundraising software to ask for and receive donations.

When looking at payment processors, you want to make sure that the vendor you choose has integration options that fit in with all of your customers' existing software solutions.

Customer Care

You want your customers to go into the world of online fundraising knowing that their payment processor and fundraising software provider have their back.

Take a look at what their customer service values are and how they treat their partners. Make sure you're confident that your payment processor will value your team and your customers! 

Learn even more about online donations!

Read part two of this guide to continue learning about how online giving impacts your customers.

Ready to Start Your Search for the Perfect Payment Processor?

Look no further than iATS Payments, the only payment processor dedicated to serving the nonprofit community.