As a non-profit, you want to make taking donations as easy and seamless as possible for potential contributors and supporters.
People usually mean well, but it is human nature to come up with enough excuses not to donate on their own, there is no need for you to make it any easier for them to say “I’ll do it later.” One of the ways that you can make it extremely simple for people to donate to your cause is to use Stripe.
One of the ways that you can make it extremely simple for people to donate to your cause is to use Stripe, an online payment gateway (or API).
Why Not Just Use PayPal?
There is no blanket reason why you shouldn’t offer PayPal or another “legacy” payment gateway. Many people love PayPal, especially since it accepts e-checks and peer to peer money transfers, plus the service does offer a reduced rate for non-profit organizations (501c3 only).
With that said, Paypal does have some downfalls, especially for non-profits. Some people have had bad experiences with PayPal in the past (with its former connection to eBay), or find the process of using it to pay with a credit card too confusing. As well, Paypal controls the process, meaning users will leave your website to visit PayPal, instead of paying on your website.
What is Stripe?
Stripe is a payment service that is specifically designed for web developers to use on websites. In fact, some of the biggest companies out there use Stripe including Lyft and Kickstarter. It has become one of the easiest ways to take donations and has competitive processing fees.
What’s great about Stripe versus PayPal is that the customer never has to actually leave your website to make their donation.
Instead, the software is fully integrated and they will stay with you the entire time. This cuts down on customer fear of their payment being hijacked while they are en route to a different processing URL and makes your donation percentages go up.
The Benefits of Stripe for Non-profits
One of the biggest benefits of Stripe for non-profits is that the API is really flexible(at least, web developers like us think so), which basically means that it is really easy for your web designer to integrate into your existing design or create the perfect non-profit website design with it.
Some of the other benefits include:
- Checkout without leaving your website
- No monthly fees
- No set-up fees
- Transaction fees are competitive (same as PayPal and most credit card processors at 2.9% + $0.30, or special rates for non-profits if requested)
- Automatic fraud protection
- Monthly or other regular payment structures already integrated
- Available in more than 20 different countries
- Over 100 currencies supported and automatic conversion into your currency
- Automatic bank transfers every 48 hours
- Automatically syncs with your QuickBooks software
Why Stripe is perfect for Non-profits
Unlike many companies, a non-profit or NGO can fold or thrive due to the assistance of a single donor.
The bottom line here is that you want to make sure that every person who is willing to help is able to make a donation and to eliminate every reason possible for them not to donate. As well, Stripe is a very well developed API, meaning many organizations are actively working to make it better. One example of this is DonorBox, which aims to make donation forms on website beautiful and simple to integrate and use.
A St. Louis web design firm, like Hub & Spoke, that is experienced with non-profit websites will be able to make Stripe the easy and fast way for customers to make a donation to your non-profit. Let’s talk today and how we can help you thrive online.
