Small town fundraising

October 23, 2023 9:03 AM

I'm originally from a small town in Appalachia but follow the local paper and social media frequently. When folks (organizations typically like schools, but sometimes individuals) ask for donations, they invariable only ask for check or even tell them the account number to deposit at the local bank. I rarely see online payment or the usual (Zelle, venmo,paypal). Is this a small town thing, an organization thing, or just my small town thing?
posted by sandmanwv to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (8 answers total)

I'd assume it's a small town + generational thing. Who still reads the local paper? Probably mostly older people. Facebook? Older people. They may be reaching out to parents directly with online payment options, but from a practical perspective for the fundraising organization, why lose 3% from online processing when people can drop a check off at the bank or school while they're out and about in town?
posted by Sweetie Darling at 9:11 AM on October 23, 2023

My small-town bank doesn't accept Zelle, and other online options have fees that probably aren't worth it (especially including the administrative overhead of managing the accounts.)
posted by restless_nomad at 9:12 AM on October 23, 2023

Fundraising groups - even small ones that may not be registered as charities - should have segregated bank accounts for all their transactions to ensure there is no co-mingling of personal and group funds. It is particularly tricky to have Zelle and similar apps have two accounts, going to two bank accounts, on the same phone number. The person running the group often ends up with a choice - do they use Zelle/PayPal/Venmo/etc for their personal phone only for the cause they're fundraising for, do they get a new phone and phone number just for the group, or do they simply not take Zelle/PayPal/Venmo/etc?

The last option is usually the easiest.
posted by saeculorum at 9:43 AM on October 23, 2023 [1 favorite]

I can't speak to your small town in Appalachia, but my small town in mid-Northern Canada only got half-decent Internet (fixed wireless, so still kinda crap, but at least it exists) a few years ago and many of the people who live there are on fixed incomes and can't afford it.

So when they sold a community cookbook a couple of years back, I tried to e-transfer them money to have them send me one and they didn't have anyone who could accept an e-transfer on the cookbook committee. They still bank by driving an hour into town where the bank is, because until very recently that was the only option and for those without Internet, it still is.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:45 AM on October 23, 2023 [7 favorites]

And of course there's the idea that the organization accepting the donations might get _all_ of the hard-earned money someone sends, instead of having an additional payment processing company benefiting from someone's heartfelt desire to help others.
posted by amtho at 10:41 AM on October 23, 2023 [4 favorites]

My child's suburban New England high school is fund-raising, using an app that takes a 20% rake off every transaction. Plus a flat fee! We holler at them, but they flap their hands and bleat some excuse. Between my wife and I, we have quite a few payment options -- but we still get surprised by new ones every few months.

So I don't blame someone from a small town, who isn't Very Online, from not being up-to-date on the variety of online payment platforms.

And by sending a check, you know that they'll get all the money, without some rent-seeking app developer taking a piece of every donation.
posted by wenestvedt at 10:50 AM on October 23, 2023 [7 favorites]

Also, even in small Appalachian towns, there are usually some particularly wealthy folks who donate to local causes and want to be mindful of their taxes. It's usually easier for them to donate to a bank account, both for logistical and tax reasons. For instance, in a donor-advised fund (DAF), sending a check to an organization is particularly easy. Sending via Zelle/Venmo/PayPal would be both impossible, and would cost the donator in taxes.
posted by saeculorum at 11:22 AM on October 23, 2023 [1 favorite]

Hi - I'm a professional fundraiser, and you have some good answers here. I'd like to highlight a couple.

- Cash or Check means 100% of your donation goes to the charity, which means both more money and less accounting for them

- While organizations can use Paypal, Venmo's terms of service specifically cover only personal and "approved business" accounts. They don't have a separate category for nonprofits and my understanding is that to become an "approved business" is kind of a process. Zelle also specifically prohibits sending or receiving "payments in connection with your business or commercial enterprise" -- so its a violation of the terms of service for NPOs to use these services for fundraising. If anyone ever asks you to make a donation via Venmo or Zelle, 99% of the time you're sending it to a person and not directly to the charity accounts.

- Setting up secure and reliable online fundraising is surprisingly hard and kind of expensive ... payment service fees, hosting fees, getting registered with a payment processor, all that kind of stuff - it can be difficult particularly if you don't have technical people on staff. And -- particularly in very small, all volunteer nonprofits - there is always the danger that if the one person who is managing payments or handling web hosting dips, the org can no longer access the website or the payments (this happens A LOT more often than you'd think)
posted by anastasiav at 12:59 PM on October 23, 2023 [8 favorites]