Choosing the right online donation service
There are many methods of promoting and handling charitable donations online. But with such a large selection to choose from, how can you tell which service is best for you?
Established charities
For established charities who need a little extra help taking the stress out of online donation processing, there is Committed Giving. This company provide a package to be used alongside your existing website. A customer will make a donation online, and the Committed Giving package will process the donation, depositing the funds into your chosen bank account within three working days. An email query service answers any questions you might have, and if you need to keep track of who donates, and how much, the Committed Giving package provides a donation record. All this for a £350 set up fee.
Regular donations
If your donators are likely to want to give regularly, www.directdebitsonline.com (DDO) offers an administrative service allowing you to set up your own mini site where customers can set up direct debits. DDO then effortlessly authorises and validates the direct debit forms whilst recording the quantity and size of the donations you receive. You are able to access this report at any time from any internet enabled PC through their high quality encrypted website. This is a very useful service, but it is a little pricey at £2,750 + VAT for hosting the mini site and processing the direct debit donations with a £750 yearly fee after that.
Alternative to regular donations
An alternative service for regular donations is www.cafonline.org. This service is very well known amongst charities and requires the donators to set up a bank account and asks customers to put a regular amount of money into their account to be used purely for donations, whether in person to churches or other charities using the chequebook and card provided or online to charities of the customer's choice. Customers are, however asked to provide a lump sum of £100 on registration or commit to pay £10 per month. For charities, they offer a free online profile for the charity. Once a donation has been made, CAF reclaims the Gift Aid and processes direct debits and cheques to the charity.
It also offers to take on the charity's membership administration including collecting subscriptions, sending out packs/reminders, managing the membership database and any queries the members may have. CAF's helpdesk is an easy to use form, broken down into departments with an easy-to-find phone number. CAF has also just been awarded the2007 queen's award for innovation. This service will cost you a one-off £150 fee for its fundraising support service, and £350 for its direct debit processing service (+VAT). Charges per donation are calculated according to each charity's needs.
Promoting online donations
If your charity simply needs to promote online donations or doesn't have the funding available for administrative systems, the following websites offer a more public-friendly interface for online donation:
www.justgive.org is a website that allows charities to create their own profile website and customers can donate online through the profile site, whilst Just Give takes a percentage commission.
www.bmycharity.com, www.workwithus.org, www.smartgive.com and www.justgiving.com offer a very user-friendly service where users can create their own profile web pages promoting their sponsored events and friends and family can submit online sponsorship. These services automatically calculate gift aid and deposit funds into your account. The profiles are very easy to set up and similar to the profiles set up in social network websites such as Facebook.
This familiarity encourages users to create an account and to come back for their next fundraising event. Each company offers a different set of charges. Smart Give is free to set up, but takes approximately 7% of donations as an administrative fee. Bmycharity allows charities to choose whether to pay as they go or whether they pay a monthly fee of £50.
For charities that expect small donations the former is a better option, whilst the latter is better for charities that usually receive larger donations. There is a set-up fee of £150 for pay as you go and £250 for the contract.
Work With Us asks for a £350 set-up charge (other administration fees apply). Just Giving provides easily the most user-friendly and clearly communicated service. They charge £15 per month to list your charity and process all sponsorship and donations with a 5% commission fee per transaction. If you have any queries, the help email and phone service is easy to find and quick to respond on all these sites, however Just Giving provided the fastest response.
Conclusion
It is difficult to decide between the different products and services provided by these companies. Committed Giving provides the most stress-free form of administration services whilst Just Giving provides the most user-friendly promotion and sponsorship service. It seems that smaller charities benefit more from the cheaper, public-driven sponsorship sites whilst larger charities would appreciate the administrative help more. Either way, online donations are a much easier way of donating money for the new, computer-driven generation, and have now become an essential service for any charity to provide.
