What's the best solution for online giving to a church?

January 30, 2012 7:05 PM

What's a good service/setup for a church or non-profit to accept online donations?

I've been looking at options for a congregation to move into the future and use online donations. I'm looking for a service that would handle the operations and provide an easy administration tool for a non-tech person to use. It's okay if it costs money or takes a percentage off the donation (but the cheaper the better). And it would need to have the option to allow different donations to be sent to a specific ministry (i.e. food). Anyone have success with any of the options out there, such as First Giving?

posted by Stynxno to computers & internet (5 answers total)

I recently donated somewhere and they used Razoo.
posted by wocka wocka wocka at 7:12 PM on January 30, 2012

Our church uses EasyTithe.com. The pastor seems happy with it but I can't give any behind the scenes specifics. If you want to get in touch with my Pastor, I'm sure she'd be happy to fill you in. Just memail and I'll put you in touch.
posted by The Deej at 7:28 PM on January 30, 2012

I run the giving administration at a nonprofit, and I use and would highly recommend Donor Town Square. They charge a flat 6% fee on all donations, which includes the administration, credit card processing fees, everything.

When we were looking for a solution, we compared 9 different vendors and their various fees using formulas in Excel. We put in a bunch of hypotheticals, including our current gift volume (around 6-8 gifts per month averaging $100 each), potential higher gift volumes, and let Excel do the math for us. In all but very few scenarios, DTS came out on top even though 6% seems high compared to all the other services. But they had so many per-transaction fees, percentage fees, set-up fees, monthly fees, PCI compliance fees (!), that in the end DTS's 6% ended up being the best. It surprised the hell out of me, but the numbers didn't lie. Until we are at over $5,000/month in revenue, it will continue to be the most cost-effective online giving solution for us. YMMV.

I also have great things to say about their customer service. They're friendly folks, return calls and emails quickly, and have made us very happy.
posted by juniperesque at 8:04 PM on January 30, 2012

I'm the office admin for a Unitarian Universalist congregation. We use Vanco Services for about 250 members, 200 other donors.

It has the capability for people to donate to certain accounts we set up. We don't use that often, but did when many of our members were hit by a bad flood.

I don't have anything to compare it to, but Vanco has always been professional and quick to respond to any questions.
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 8:21 PM on January 30, 2012

We are using WePay to raise money for a friend. It seems to work although Razoo from above seems cheaper (2.9% v 3.5%).
posted by NailsTheCat at 9:09 PM on January 30, 2012