Giving Goes Digital
Digital payments are lending charitable and nonprofit organizations a helping hand.
Salvation Army bellringers, Girl Scouts on their cookie route, pay-per-plate dinner galas, the occasional all-night telethon—at some point, the donation process gets overwhelming for those doing the giving. They’re ready for a break, and it can be hard to find them.
Charitable organizations know that fundraising efforts require focus, energy, and persistence. Success requires engagement, heartfelt appeals, and real results.
But what if there was a way to engage your audience during their down time? What if the giving process no longer required filling out a paper donation form? What if digital giving with the ability to accept donations online through a payment processor could keep the proverbial bell ringing in and out of season?
Digital payments don’t rise and fall with the sun. With the right payment processor, the nonprofit payment pipeline is always open, and as a result, donations keep coming in. Around the clock, day and night, and every time in between. With digital payments, the opportunities to collect donations are endless, and most donors prefer the secure payment processing they offer over the old in-person emotional appeals or celeb-endorsed commercial.
So how can nonprofit organizations and fundraisers across the nonprofit sector maximize the potential of the online donations and new digital payment options offered by nonprofit payment processors? How can donors enjoy the same conveniences as digital shoppers and online investors? The answer is in what makes digital payments the perfect gift for those seeking donations.
They're Easy
COVID fundamentally changed the way many people move money. The safety and security of digital payments made them the preferred method for the average consumer. And most found their convenience, speed, and ease of use hard to pass up. Your nonprofit's donation base is no different. Many now expect to use online donation experiences that match the same elevated level of service as their usual payment gateway. Hassle—especially in online transactions—is a needless frustration that can derail donors and damage donor relationships for good. Thankfully, digital payments make it easy to accept transactions and collect donations online with a payment processor, helping you hit every stop along your benefaction roadmap.
Also, digital payments offer donors flexibility well beyond the amount of their contribution. When you take online donations, donors can send money with their credit card, skip the processing fee with ACH transactions directly deducted from donor's bank accounts, or use payment facilitators like Apple Pay, PayPal, Zelle, and Venmo (a PayPal company) —and that’s just for starters.
Digital payments level the playing field, offering the same access and payment processing services to groups of all sizes. Whether you’re a big organization or a small one, Key Merchant Services can help bring your online payment processing into the digital age with some of the industry's best nonprofit payment processing tools and expert advice designed to simplify and diversify your payment options.
Digital Marketing Helps Reach More Donors in Less Time
Taking your cause online can help expand its reach well past your donor ledger. Digital marketing is one of the most effective fundraising tools available, allowing a nonprofit organization to identify and effectively reach new target audiences. This offers a personalized donor experience to large groups of people all at the same time—anytime—essentially putting you right in the room with more potential donors than ever.
You can use digital marketing to target a donor’s mobile device, too. Donors who elect to share their location via GPS can receive alerts when they’re in the vicinity of an event. Then the quick scan of a QR code or even a simple snapshot of an organization’s logo is all it takes to enable instant online donations.
With the help of social media and other online fundraising techniques, donors can even do some of the fundraising legwork for you. Younger donors in particular love to share favorite causes and invite friends to lend support. It's one of the many ways digital marketing drives up donations while cutting down on fundraising timelines. Word spreads fast. More people give. More people promote your cause. More traffic flows to your online donation forms. Your donation page gets more shares and likes. And your total donation receipts keep going up.
Technology Pares Down Processing
Accepting online payments via a digital donation process can also reduce the amount of time nonprofit organizations spend on manual tasks. Automating tasks like incoming payment processing, managing recurring donations, linking to a donor's bank account, and even just general record keeping through nonprofit fundraising software providers frees up staff to focus on building relationships with new and existing donors. Scalability becomes a thing of the past as staff enter donors into an efficient and organized donor management system instead of a mounting collection of physical files.
What’s more, having a specialized nonprofit payment processor cuts down on monthly expenses (things like credit card processing fees and donor-paid transaction fees) all while keeping the books straight as an arrow, making it a valuable payment processing tool. That means faster and less expensive nonprofit payment processing with more volume, accuracy, and security than manual, paper-and-pen methods. Working with the best nonprofit payment processor for your business can even help you branch out into things like launching a crowdfunding campaign, organization memberships and merchandise, event ticketing, and other new fundraising tools designed to entice current and prospective donors to give more.
Transparency Builds Trust
Donors want to know about the nonprofit organizations they give to. It's not enough to just set up a nonprofit website or a couple of online donation forms. Donors want to know what you’re doing with their membership fees and recurring donations, and whether they're truly going to the right place. Having a secure, online payment hub on your nonprofit website, powered by a reputable payment processor, shows donors you are who you say you are by offering info about your foundation or organization and your fundraising efforts. Digital payment centers allow you to accept payments via an online donation form—but they also give your donors access to comprehensive payment histories, cost breakdowns, and other valuable financial info they need to feel like they’ve made the right choice.
The added security of an online payment hub and reputable nonprofit payment processor makes charitable givers feel safe. They know the donation process and, more importantly, that their bank account or credit card information is secure and their funds are encrypted, which reinforces your credibility. It also provides a space with an explanation of your cause, which donors can access at will, fostering membership in a community that you can turn into an ongoing relationship.
Happy Donors Donate More
It’s well known that philanthropy—doing good—makes people feel good. The more people feel good, the more good things people want to do for others. Keeping donors happy is essential to keeping recurring donations—and your nonprofit's bank account—healthy and growing. That’s why it’s important to make the online payments process as easy and effective as possible. Digital payments are a great start. Another way you can keep donors happy is by offering tiered contribution levels. Having menus of possible options on your donation pages lowers the pressure, inviting donors to pay what they are comfortable giving. These can encourage others to pay more than what they might donate on their own, or to sign up for a recurring donation plan with perks like no monthly fee.
We recommend starting with six donation amounts modeled after the donor’s past gift history. This simple approach sets the tone for achievable gift-giving milestones. It may also motivate donors to increase their giving with each round of fundraising.
You can also encourage donors to help more by starting text-to-give campaigns, asking them if they would like to opt in to recurring donation models, and offering gift-matching or double the donation up to or more than a certain amount. Much like with GPS enablement, direct mobile engagement helps you find your donor base anywhere—at home, on the couch, wherever their phone happens to be—making it easy to accept donations and lifting the demand off willing but worn-out givers.
That’s the beauty of digital when you collaborate with a leading nonprofit payment processor, and it's one way KeyBank can help your nonprofit organization drive donations higher and higher. Read Our Insights for more thoughts on digital payments from industry-leading experts.
To open a merchant account, link with a dedicated payment processor, and get the tools to help your small business make fundraising more effective, go to our KeyBank Small Business Nonprofit Industry Payment Solutions center. Or, for businesses in the public sector, visit our Public Sector Nonprofit Banking Solutions center to speak with an expert.