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Saint Thomas Evangelical Lutheran Church Freedom Township Michigan
Non-profits need unique fundraising solutions to meet the demands of digital fundraising in today's world. With so many causes and charities, donors are sought after more than ever and having customizable tools, targeted campaigns, and segmented communications can make all the difference for a non-profit. Choosing a platform for your organization is an important decision and you need to find an online fundraising solution that is going to be the right choice for your non-profit organization. But researching and comparing online fundraising software with all of the options out there can be an exhausting and overwhelming process.
So how do you decide what platform for collecting donations online is best for your non-profit? Find out now by learning about each of the top five online fundraising tools for non-profits. We’ve compared the top five online fundraising platforms by researching their features, donation tools and cost to help you in your decision about which one will be the best fit for your organization.
Paperless Transaction Corporation has a very attractive online fundraising platform. Paperless offers a full range of donation processing and mobile-optimized giving solutions. Whether your non-profit is large or small, Paperless has affordable donor management and fundraising services. Paperless offers straight-forward, discounted pricing for non-profits. Compared to the other top fundraising software platforms, their pricing was the most competitive and they have the lowest credit card processing rates (1.75 percent plus $0.22 per transaction). Their rate on each transaction ends up being less than 2%. Paperless is a great platform because they offer the most innovative solutions combined with cost-effective, secure payment processing that is easy to integrate with your current donor database and website.
PayPal is a well established and popular online donation platform. Because it’s a household name, most donors already have PayPal accounts or if they don’t, they are familiar with the company. PayPal is very affordable. It has the second lowest processing rates after Paperless and their monthly costs run $0 to $35. PayPal offers many tools such as custom email receipting, Facebook donations, and mobile card reader but it is the only software on our list that does not support text giving, which we believe is a key way to communicate with donors in the digital age. PayPal’s “donate” buttons are very easy to embed into your website, but donors will be redirected to a page hosted by PayPal and PayPal doesn’t offer any customization to match the branding and website of your organization.
iDonate is unique in that they allow their donors to contribute non-cash gifts (property, stocks, high-value items) in addition to the traditional cash donations. They also provide event registration tools and text giving options. iDonate provides a streamlined front-end giving experience for donors, but it does not allow donors a secure portal where they can modify their donations, track their donations, or see what future campaigns that they can give towards. iDonate is a cost-heavy platform which really dissuades small to mid-sized organizations from using them. Their monthly cost ranges from $500-$3,000 and their average processing rate is 2.5 percent plus 30 cents per transaction.
GivingFuel is a fundraising software that offers tools with lots of customization and flexibility. Their tools are great for acquiring new donors, but the company lacks donor campaigns that allow recurring or repeat donors to easily give after the first donation. They provide E-commerce Storefronts giving you a way to incentivize donors during the donation experience. They do not offer any communication tools for events such as ticketing and registration.
Network for Good’s platform is good for non-profits that don’t need their own merchant account or need any form customization. Network for Good offers event registration/ticketing, email marketing tools and fundraising coaching. Their platform lacks social media integration and a custom mobile app. Network for Good’s platform is on the expensive side and their costs can be prohibitive for small organizations. Their average processing rate is 3 percent (although they give donors the option to cover this) and their monthly cost ranges from $79 to $179.
Here is a link to the detailed comparison chart for the top five non-profit giving platforms. https://www.paperlesstrans.com/nonprofit-comparison After researching many online fundraising platforms for nonprofits, we believe these are the top five in the industry and after comparing these top five fundraising platforms, we think Paperless is the best fit for most non-profits. Paperless has cost-effective solutions with a full range of donation tools to help your non-profit reach donors in new ways and raise more funds.
If your non-profit is looking for an online fundraising platform, Paperless Transaction Corporation has many packages and prices available. We are ready to discuss your needs and come up with a custom online fundraising package, so that you have a perfect solution that fits your organization’s needs.