Secure Political Donations?

February 24, 2008 7:30 PM

Best secure service to receive political donations via campaign website?

Hey,
I'm helping a friend set up a campaign website for a candidate for political office (United States).

I need to find a way to accept small donations from visitors to the site. I feel like there has to be a 3rd party service out there which can take these donations and keep track of who donates how much, as well as following election law.

Does anyone have any suggestions for how I can set this up?

Top priority is of course making sure the donations follow election law and are secure for the donors.

Second priority is making sure we know when the money will transfer into the campaign website so we can budget accordingly.

Third priority is careful tracking of who donates what so we can work with our supporters.

Any help you can provide would be great!

posted by ZackTM to computers & internet (4 comments total)

What political office is your friend seeking? What's your budget? Depending on the situation, you might want to consider an all-in-one solution, like this. It would certainly be the easiest way to take care of things, if it fits into your budget. I have no experience with this sort of thing, but the idea of a CMS built from the ground up for political websites popped into my mind since half the politicians in Minnesota seem to use the system I linked to.
posted by punishinglemur at 7:51 PM on February 24

This site, which I found by checking on how some local candidates were taking contributions online, offers an option to have them host and manage your donation page without using them for your entire site.
posted by punishinglemur at 8:02 PM on February 24

I have used Click and Pledge for a county party, 527 and small office online contributions. I have been pretty happy with them.
posted by GregWithLime at 8:35 PM on February 24

By small office, I meant the candidate is seeking a low-level office. In this case, city council.
posted by GregWithLime at 8:36 PM on February 24