Help us raise funds for the pups!

February 22, 2017 7:10 AM

Im a volunteer with a dog rescue group (501c3) and I'm trying to figure out the best online donation portal.

Hi Metafilter!

The dog rescue group I volunteer with just got a whole bunch of pups to help, and we need to raise some extra money to cover some medical issues. Im trying to find the best option for online fundraising, and was hoping metafilter could give me some guidance on the best platform to use.

GoFundMe was the obvious choice, but it seems like their fees are on the high side. We are a 501c3, so that seems to open up Causes , which is my leading choice right now, and I think we could figure out the stripe concept.

This started because of an immediate need, but it would be nice if we could keep this open forever to collect online donations, so I'm trying to avoid the one-time-goal type sites.

If anyone has some best practices/ this was the best online donation portal knowledge I (and the pups!) would really appreciate the help.

posted by zara to Computers & Internet (3 answers total)

Here are a couple options:
Classy- I haven't directly used this but I've been impressed with the design of their donation pages
Public Good - I set up a page on here for a nonprofit I used to work at. It was very easy to use and the fees were reasonable.
posted by torridly at 11:10 AM on February 22, 2017

What about just setting up simple web page, and including a Paypal link? You can make a single static page at Wordpress.com and host it with them, as long as you don't mind being on their domain. Or if you have your own domain, you can just host your own site - many web hosts have simple software for building a site as part of their annual fee. GoDaddy, for example, has page builder software, for an additional charge, I believe.

I don't know the fee structures for Paypal vs the other options, but Paypal lets you just keep an ongoing 'Support Us' button on your site.

For google-able terms, look at e-commerce solutions to see other options. You're not exactly selling a product, but it's similar... (For example, a quick glance at Square shows that they help with ecommerce sites, and you may be able to set something up through them?)

Good luck!
posted by hydra77 at 2:15 PM on February 22, 2017

I came to make basically the same suggestion as hydra77. Using paypal for donations is really easy, and just building a simple site with WordPress would allow you to keep the site up indefinitely and have total control over it.

I'm a web developer/dog lover- if you need any help or some (free) server space for the site, feel free to memail me, I'd be happy to lend a hand.
posted by ap_classic at 11:05 AM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]