Processing monthly donations

July 15, 2011 2:51 PM

Our environmental non-profit in Portland, Oregon receives a small portion of its revenue from recurring (monthly) contributions drawn via direct deposit. Recently, the bank we used to administer this account was acquired by another institution and started charging over a hundred bucks per month just to keep the account open. We shut the account down but are still looking for a reasonable alternative. If at all possible we'd like to avoid paying high administrative costs for the service and processing payments manually (since we'd most likely have to keep donors' account numbers in the office). I'm open to new ideas, and thanks in advance!
posted by vverse23 to work & money (5 answers total)

I don't have a specific recommendation, but Credit Unions are almost always better than banks. There should be at least one that would be happy to have your business.
posted by drjimmy11 at 2:53 PM on July 15, 2011 [3 favorites]

Perhaps take a look at Dwolla.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 3:04 PM on July 15, 2011

What do you use as your donor database and your financial software? I can probably make some specific recommendations.
posted by juniperesque at 4:06 PM on July 15, 2011

Is your non-profit incorporated? Would you be willing to switch to credit/debit card billing? You could use Intuit's GoPayment. Their system allows automatic recurring billing to cards. The tax-exempt I help run uses it. Funds from card charges are deposited in an average of three days. If you do less than $1,000 per month in charges, it's inexpensive.

Other than this, no association with GoPayment.
posted by fireoyster at 4:08 PM on July 15, 2011

We just solved this problem. Memail me.
posted by Fuzzy Dog at 7:41 PM on July 15, 2011