Many nonprofits successfully use donation websites such as Network for Good to process their donations.
We asked Jono Smith, a Vice President at Network for Good to tell us the benefits of processing donations through that site. Here is Smith's answer:
"Although many nonprofits, especially large ones, have their own merchant accounts, 72% of nonprofits (according to GuideStar) have an annual budget of $1 million or less. For most of these organizations, the complication and expense of a merchant account does not warrant the benefits.
"Although donations are processed through the Network for Good site, our clients own the donor relationship. In addition, unlike most merchant account providers, we also give nonprofits the tools, training and resources to help them cultivate these relationships further through our Learning Center at fundraising123.org.
"To make sure that donors are not confused by who is receiving their donation, our nonprofits have the option of customizing their donation page to look exactly like their website when they upgrade from the Basic Service to the Custom DonateNow service. Our processing fees range from 3% for our Custom DonateNow service to 4.75% for our Basic DonateNow service.
"In addition, when you carry your own merchant account, you are responsible for doing all of your own state registrations. One of the benefits of working with a donor-advised fund like Network for Good is that we are registered to process donations in all 40+ states that require registration (as reported by GivingUSA). This means that we remove the burden and expense of this process from clients who process online donations through our service."
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