Want to know more about online donations and online fundraising for your charity or Christian organization? We have put together this collection of articles to help your ministry understand the current trends in online donations and how to implement your own online donations for your Christian website.
One of my greatest passions is helping Christian non-profits succeed in their mission. Christian-web-masters.com focuses on helping Christian organizations with website resources. Accepting online donations is becoming one of the website resources which I most frequently recommend to the non-profits that I work with.
The chief reason for non-profits to accept online donations is the potential to develop a steady stream of recurring giving among its members. Most online donation systems allow donors to setup automatic monthly donations. These monthly automatic donations, will, over time, result in a predictable (usually steady and increasing) stream of giving. A predictable stream of income is a benefit to any non-profit, whether large or small.
Online donations are on the rise. In fact, according to a report from USA Today in June of 2005, online donations to the USA’s biggest charities increased 63% from 2003 to 2005. The ePhilanthropy Foundation has reported that online giving is growing exponentially each year, from $250 million in the year 2000 to more than $4.5 billion in 2005.
As a result of the growth amount of dollars being donated online and the increase in numbers of people giving via the web, E-commerce vendors and other technology companies have been on the move to help non-profits meet the rising need to accept online donations by providing new tools to help charities with online fundraising.
For more information on trends in online donations see:
USA Today Article About Online Donations
About.com About Online Donations
Network For Good Study on Online Giving
Online giving is particularly cost-effective for charities. While it can cost $1.25 to raise a dollar from a new donor through direct mail and more than $.63 through telemarketing, the costs per dollar of raising money online can be as little as five cents. (Sources: Fund-Raising Cost Effectiveness/James Greenfield, Cost-Effectiveness of Nonprofit Telemarketing Campaigns/Keating, Parsons & Roberts, and Network for Good.)
Once an online donations system is setup, non-profits and ministries will generally have less to manage than they do with traditional offline donations. There are no envelopes to open. Recording donations and giving may be done automatically and electronically, so there is less administrative work and likely fewer mistakes. There are no manual deposits needed. If your donors are set up to automatically give each month your non-profit will also save on having to send reminders, invoices, and receipts.
A recent study conducted by NetworkforGood.org, concluded:
Online donors are generous. Whether due to income levels, the impulsive nature of online giving or the credit card effect, online donors give significantly more than offline donors.
According to Giftsandofferings.com,
The GiftsandOfferings site points out that church member giving continues even while members are away on vacation or out of town.
Tomorrow: A look at implementing online donations for your ministry.
Today I am taking a look at NetworkforGood.org because it has the following advantages for your church or nonprofit website:
Note: I and CWM are not affiliated with Networkforgood.org or Guidestar.org.
Network for Good is a nonprofit organization that has been around since 2001. Networkforgood.org acts as an online donations portal for non-profits. Networkforgood.org accepts online donations for any nonprofit listed within the non-profit database ran by Guidestar.org.
Guidestar lists all nonprofits who are an exempt nonprofit registered with the United States IRS. This means that if you are a church or non-profit in the US, then you are probably already listed on these websites.
Based on the information from their website, you can get started taking online donations in 4 easy steps.
Once your nonprofit registers, you can add to your listing in Guidestar. Network for Good provides you with a link and even images to let people click to “Donate Now” from your website.
Network for Good also provides a paid service to let your nonprofit customize more of the donations process. You can view information regarding this service using the links provided below.
The Network for Good website provides helpful information for you to get started at:
See their Basic Online Donations Service
Hope this helps your nonprofit Christian website get started taking online donations today.
These CWM Forum Topics Discuss Online Donations:
How do I implement a "donate now" button
Tomorrow: A Look at Using Paypal to accept online donations for your Christian website
PayPal Donations provides Christian Websites, Churches, and Non-profits with a simple low cost solution for accepting secure online donations. With PayPal Donations your ministry’s members and donors may easily donate from your website using their credit card or bank account on PayPal’s secure server. The advantages to using PayPal’s Online Donations for your Christian Website are similar to those discussed for NetworkforGood.org.
PayPal’s Basic Online Donations includes the following advantages for your Christian organization:
When using PayPal Subscriptions, your members and donors may:
One very nice feature of PayPal donations is that your Christian organization could setup donation links which may be included within emails to your members.
Unlike, NetworkforGood.org, PayPal does not require your Christian organization to be an exempt nonprofit registered with the United States IRS.
One only needs a PayPal account in order to get started receiving online donations and your Christian website can begin receiving online donations in less than five minutes.
PayPal provides the following seven step overview on their website:
From my experience, the “Donations” link in step three is sometimes hard to find. Donation buttons may be generated in the same place you find your PayPal button factory. Also look for the donations link in the copy on the “Merchant Services” page, once logged in.
If you would like to skip using the online donations button factory, and just start taking donations from your Christian website immediately, you can use the following HTML form code:
<form name="_xclick" action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_xclick">
<input type="hidden" name="business" value="paypalaccount@yourministry.org">
<input type="hidden" name="item_name" value="Donation Entry Text You Would Like in Your Records">
<input type="hidden" name="currency_code" value="USD">
<input type="hidden" name="amount" value="15.00">
<input type="image" src="http://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/x-click-butcc-donate.gif" border="0" name="submit" alt="Make Online Donations with PayPal - it's fast, free and secure!">
</form>
The following html code provides a PayPal online donation form and the option to use PayPal subscriptions so your online donors may choose to automatically donate a set amount each month to your Christian ministry. Again, remember to check your PayPal service agreement when using this code to take online donations.
<h4>Online Donation</h4>
<form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" class="donateform" id="donate1" title="Online Donation">
<input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_xclick">
<input type="hidden" name="business" value="paypalaccount@yourministry.org">
<input type="hidden" name="return" value+"http://www.yourministry.org/onlinedonate/thankyou.php">
<input type="hidden" name="item_name" value="Donation Entry Text You Would Like in Your Records">
<input type="hidden" name="item_number" value="Optional Donation Item Number for your records">
<input type="hidden" name="no_shipping" value="1">
<p>Give a one-time donation:</p>
<p>$</p><input type="text" name="amount" size="10"><br/>
<input type="image" src="http://images.paypal.com/images/x-click-but04.gif" border="0" name="submitdonate1" alt="Make online donations with PayPal - it's fast, free and secure!">
</form>
<h4>Set-up monthly donation</h4>
<form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" id="donate2" title="Monthly Online Donation">
<p>$</p>
<input type="textfield" name="a3" value="5.00" size="10">
<p>for</p>
<input type="text fields" name="srt" value="12" size="3">
<p>months.</p>
<input type="hidden" name="p3" value="1">
<input type="hidden" name="t3" value="M">
<input type="hidden" name="src" value="1">
<input type="hidden" name="sra" value="1">
<input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_xclick-subscriptions">
<input type="hidden" name="business" value="paypalaccount@yourministry.org">
<input type="hidden" name="return" value="http://www.yourministry.org/onlinedonate/thankyou.php">
<input type="hidden" name="item_name" value="Monthly Donation Entry Text You Would Like in Your Records">
<input type="hidden" name="no_note" value="1">
<input type="hidden" name="currency_code" value="USD">
<input type="image" src="https://www.paypal.com/images/x-click-but20.gif" border="0" name="submitdonate2" alt="Make monthly online donations with PayPal - it's fast, free and secure!">
</form>