Best CMS/eCommerce/Something Else for donations

September 6, 2017 11:36 AM

I am a web developer setting up a new site for a client who will be taking donations for charity. Need suggestions on the best way to set everything up so that it works together easily and efficiently.

So here's the idea (not really it but close enough): Let's say you have 300 soccer players who play for 30 teams in 3 leagues and you need the following:

- website with info on the teams and leagues
- webpage for each player with stats and info
- each player needs a new pair of shoes @ $50 each
- sponsors can send in the money for the shoes online
- sponsors can "purchase" a pair of shoes (really just donate the $$) in person from my client

I know Wordpress can handle this and I know I can build something in another CMS and add a shopping cart. What I'm asking you, wise MeFites, is what's the best way to set this up so that any charges are minimized (credit card processing, ecommerce software processing, etc) and it's easy for my client to see how many pairs of shoes have been "bought"?

posted by dawkins_7 to Computers & Internet (3 answers total)

WordPress/PayPal is probably the easiest, least difficult-to-maintain way to do this, assuming you want CMS functionality for the website.

You could use an e-commerce add-on like WooCommerce, but it's really overkill for a single donation "product." You can set up a PayPal button that will accept $50 donations and/or one that lets donors specify a dollar amount.

They'll be able to see a listing of payments processed/shoes bought in their PayPal account.
posted by nosila at 11:49 AM on September 6, 2017

p.s. If you're not a WordPress theme developer, I can recommend finding a child theme for the Genesis framework that's meant to focus on donations, like Outreach Pro. Genesis will save you and/or your clients lots of headaches. Disclosure: I'm a WordPress developer who uses the Genesis framework every day.
posted by nosila at 11:51 AM on September 6, 2017

I don't know how much PayPal cost, but using Square Cash to receive the donations might be free, depending on how much you're expecting to receive. If it's not free and you go the full Square route, I've heard that Square has lower processing fees than PayPal and you might be able to sign up as a charity. I don't know about a little donation widget on the site, I've only used their $cashtag system that takes you to a page where you can submit payment, which is the free option.
posted by AppleTurnover at 12:53 PM on September 6, 2017