Selecting an Online Donation Tool, Part 2

This article is excerpted from a report by Idealware, a nonprofit that provides candid Consumer-Reports-style reviews and articles about software of interest to nonprofits. View the entire report online at Idealware's site.

There are a number of excellent options that allow even small nonprofits to accept credit card donations on their Web sites. Unfortunately, there are even more options that are over-priced or unimpressive. And it is hard to know which is which: choosing an online donation tool can involve a bewildering array of jargon, fees, and surprisingly unhelpful sales information.

, the first article in Idealware's two-part series, takes you through the steps of assessing your needs for an online donation tool. Once you've determined your needs, read through this article with Idealware's reviews to find the right online donation tool for your organization.

If you expect only a few donations, and price is a key concern:

If you are simply looking to get started with an online donation program, a lower price tool that is not specifically integrated with your Web site may make sense.

Click and Pledge www.clickandpledge.com

Offering reasonable functionality at very affordable prices, Click and Pledge could be a good choice, espeically for organizations who only expect a few donations. The donation form is designed to be integrated into a Web site as a popup; it can include some custom fields and a top banner, but not the Web site navigation bar or a tailored background color. The tool also has strong international support. A new release, scheduled for January 2006, offers a number of promising functionalities, including the ability to customize the donation form background color and support recurring donations. Read Click and Pledge review.

Network for Good

Network for Good is a low-cost, but completely un-customizable tool that could be a good choice for organizations interested in testing an online donation program. The extensive Network for Good branding gives the donor little doubt that they have left the organization’s Web site to make a donation on the Network for Good Web site. Read Network for Good review.

PayPal Donations

With no way to customize the look of or the fields on the donation form, PayPal is difficult to integrate into a Web site; the user experience is unmistakably PayPal. However, it is widely known and trusted by tech-savvy donors, which could conceivably make the PayPal branding a good thing. The lowest fees among donation tools and some advanced features make this worth a look for organizations with a technically savvy staff-person. Read PayPal review.

Best Values for All-Around Tools

There are a number of tools that offer solid features and a lot of customization at affordable rates.

Auctionpay

Auctionpay is a good option for organizations looking for a middle-of-the-road donation, registration, and event solution at a reasonable price. Their donation form can be integrated into the look of the Web site to some degree, and is quite flexible. They offer a few features for those looking to use a vendor’s merchant account without all the downsides: the organization’s name appears on the donor’s credit bill (as opposed to just the vendor’s), and Auctionpay distributes the donated money twice a month. Read Auctionpay review.

Democracy in Action

For those who need an affordable and very customizable donation tool, Democracy in Action is a great choice. It’s an even better choice for those who are looking to combine their constituent database, e-mail functionality, and more within a single tool. A self-serve administration interface allows organizations to set up their own account and make any needed changes down the road. However, the complexity of this setup process means it may not be the best option for those without technology expertise. Read Democracy in Action review.

eTapestry

The representative we spoke to emphasized that eTapestry is intended as an integrated online database, but they offer a high quality donation tool that is surprisingly affordable even when used alone. If the online donor database and email functionality meet the organization’s needs, this is an even better deal for those who want to integrate donation and email functionality in one package. The organization must have its own merchant account, and the lowest fees include only e-mail support. Read eTapastry review.

GiftTool

GiftTool is a solid choice for middle-of-the-road needs, particularly for organizations that need to support events or product sales as well as donations. They offer complete integration of their clean and user-friendly donation form into your Web site, though it is not currently possible to customize the form with fields that GiftTool has not already considered. As a Canadian company, they offer additional receipt and language options to support Canadian organizations. Read GiftTool review.

Groundspring DonateNow

Groundspring is an affordable option for organizations that don’t need complex customizations or their own merchant account. Their clean and professional donation form can be seamlessly integrated into each organization’s Web site. Several of the consultants interviewed for this report expressed concern about Groundspring’s financial stability, but their recent merger with Network for Good may help to stabilize them. Read Groundspring DonateNow review.

MemberClicks

With an interesting approach that provides organizations the tools to build their own custom donation forms and update them whenever they like, MemberClicks is a good, moderately priced option for those who don’t want to go through the vendor every time they’d like to make a change. At its heart, MemberClicks is an integrated database/donation/membership/e-mail solution, making it appealing to those who are looking to integrate donations into a larger picture. Read MemberClicks review.

If You are Willing to Pay More for Advanced Features

For those organizations that are ready to invest in a tool that can be deeply customized to meet their needs and to integrate with their external database, there are three tools that that offer top-of-the-line features.

CharityWeb

Half an online donation tool and half a web-development shop with a specialty in payment processing, CharityWeb offers custom tailored donation solutions (as well as solutions for membership registration, events, and products). With high setup fees and a merchant account required, CharityWeb is not for organizations just getting started with online donations, but it could be a great choice for those ready to invest in a custom donation solution. Read CharityWeb review.

Contribute.com

Contribute takes more of each donation than any other tool reviewed in this report, but it provides a lot for that money. The donation process and forms (which can also support payment processing for events, products, and other needs) can be completely tailored to each organization, and it provides some useful tools to facilitate synching its data with an external database. As all forms need to be created and updated by Contribute staff in a process that can take six to 12 weeks for each change, Contribute is not a great choice for organizations that will have frequent updates. Read Contribute.com review.

GivenGain eTribuo

GivenGain offers extensive support to organizations and donors outside North America, including recurring donations and eChecks from donors in many countries and currencies, making it worth the higher price tag if worldwide support is a priority. Its additional content management and e-mail functionalities may be of interest to organizations looking to combine all these functions under one roof. Read GivenGain eTribuo review.

Comparison Chart

• Setup Fee: How much does the vendor charge to get started with the tool?
• Fees When Few Donations: How much does the vendor receive if there are no or only a few donations in a month?
• Fees When Many Donations: How much does the vendor receive if there are 75-plus donations per month?
• Company Background: How long have they been taking donations? Is the company profitable or sustainable? Do they have a sizable number of clients and employees?
• Setup and Support: How easy is it to start using the service? To make updates over time? Is the vendor available to answer questions? Note that vendors could only receive an "excellent" if we had outside feedback about solid service (we were only able to gather feedback for about a third of the vendors).
• Donor Form Appearance: How well can the donation form be tailored to match the Web site? Does the form itself look clean and professional?
• Donor Form Flexibility: Does the form support more sophisticated features, such as tributes and employer matching? How customizable are the form fields?
• Payment Processing: Does the vendor support sophisticated payment types? What options are available to safeguards against fraud? Is there substantial downtime?
• Reports and Data: How easy is it to see what was donated? To synchronize the data with an offline donor database?
• Money Distribution: How and how often do organizations receive their money?

View the Ratings Guidelines to see the details of how the tools were assessed in each of these categories.

Fee Comparison Chart

Merchant Account Fees Chart

Looking for something more specific? There are a lot of other donation tools out there. Idealware reviewed other online donation tools that didn't make this list, but might meet your specific needs. View the entire report online at Idealware's site.