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My ED asked me to investigate how we can accept online donations through our website. And I have no idea where to start! Any suggestions for companies to use, internal policies, process? I don't even know where to begin.
There are several ways which tie in with The Raiser's Edge. (I assume that is what you are after otherwise there are very many different sites offering this kind of service)
One of the simplest but perhaps least elegant is to use NetSolutions. This gives you the option of creating web pages and using Blackbaud together with IATS. When the names and addresses come in you get the opportunity of matching up against existing RE users or creating new ones. This works but it is not very flexible.
A more beefed up option is NetCommunity. I have little experience of this but there are enough people on this forum who can advise.
A third option is to use an existing site such as CharityWeb or FirstGiving, download the donors on to an CSV and import them into RE. This process could also be automated using a plug-in that the site may have for RE. It is worth asking various vendors if they have a plugin for RE as this is something that they are starting to compete on.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you need any more information.
Some other options include services like Kintera and Convio/GetActive both of which claim they interface with RE but the question I always ask is what their definition of "interface" is. Always involve the person who will be responsible for importing the gifts into RE in the decision about which products are "easier to use" and have them help you make the decision. You may need/want additional programming beyoned the "interface" and the data person can help you determine this.
If you are really just getting started you can simply start by publicizing your presence on GuideStar and one of its Partners that can accept and forward the gifts for you. GuideStar - About - GuideStar Partners Ones I have seen come through to organizations I have worked for in the past have been JustGive.org and NetworkForGood.org. The individual makes the gift to the website charity and the charity makes a gift to you (usually sends a check) minus a processing fee and will give you the name if the donor allowed it. It is not the same as accepting the gifts yourself but it is an option if you want to get started in the online giving arena.
When collecting gifts online you need a) a vendor to create the interface for the donor and b) a company to run and verify the credit cards being run. With NetSolutions Blackbaud recommends using IATS Ticketmaster (the non-profit vendor side of Ticketmaster) to process the cards while Blackbaud hosts the interface. With IATS you are using TicketMaster's merchant account to run the cards. Other vendors, like Convio, require you get your own merchant account (usually from your bank) to charge the cards.
One of the simplest but perhaps least elegant is to use NetSolutions. This gives you the option of creating web pages and using Blackbaud together with IATS. When the names and addresses come in you get the opportunity of matching up against existing RE users or creating new ones. This works but it is not very flexible.
A more beefed up option is NetCommunity. I have little experience of this but there are enough people on this forum who can advise.
The difference between NetSolutions and NetCommunity is that with NetSolutionst the donor goes to a page on Blackbaud's webservers which can be customised to some extent to look like part of your site.
With NetCommunity Blackbaud put the software on your servers. It's a lot more powerful, as it can be the webserver for your whole website and do a lot more than just one donations page.
I would expend NetSolutions is a lot cheaper, as you generally get what you pay for.
The first question I would ask would be "What is the budget?" We use NetCommunity, but this is not an inexpensive module and I think you would find it too expensive if all you wanted it for was online donations. We use it for online donations, e-bulletins/newsletters, event registration, etc. etc.
__________________ Harriet Farmer
Ottawa Humane Society
All of the solutions presented are viable paths - but Harriet hit the nail on the head - 'what's your budget?' - we considered Netsolutions/NetCommunity but felt that our needs were too unique to conform to their limitations. We had a proprietary web/backend process that was recently amended when we engaged a commercial firm to build our new web site (Wycliffe Bible Translators), which collects the donations in a 'datamart' - our prior backend process was modified a bit to accommodate those web changes & essentially provides a means to stage exceptions, and set up others for processing into RE via a 'customization' built by BB (at some cost 2 years ago ).
In short, maybe the paypal option suffices for now with something more elaborate later?
__________________ Jim DiGiovanni Applications Manager, CSM Wycliffe Bible Translators jim_digiovanni@wycliffe.org Life is a series of short equations
Thanks to you all! Yes, it is looking like paypal might be the way we are going. We have no budget for online giving. So, it is easy to convince the powers that be to go with the paypal service because it is 'pay as you go'. Maybe we'll upgrade to something that will intergrate with RE in the future... One can dream...
I got a quote from my BB account rep and NetSolutions costs $18k, NetCommunity costs $45k. We talked with Convio about helping us out and they were pretty reasonable at $25k (roughly) and should have about the same flexibility as NetCommunity. Please verify the difference between NetCommunity and Convio for yourself though......
My ED asked me to investigate how we can accept online donations through our website. And I have no idea where to start! Any suggestions for companies to use, internal policies, process? I don't even know where to begin.
Netcommuniy bill seeems to be ecessive I think it is firs year covering setup, training etc, yearly are much lower and similar to other players on the market (Convio, Kintera etc)
The key is integration and so far from my research haven't heard about fully satisfied organization using Kintera and Convio web interface and RE back office. I am not a great fan of Netcommunity (which is being implemented here with lots of pain) for $45k first year and $20k each year you probably can get a developer to plug anything to RE through API and it would look and sing as you want.
If you get your management to sign it is another story. This would be my preference.
We don't have a lot of online giving so we are currently using Newtork for Good which links to/from Charity Navigator. They take a fee out of the gifts given. There is no cost if there are no gifts. Works for us.
__________________ Nina T. Williams The Cleveland Institute of Art Making Art Work
