When it comes to fundraising for a cause, nonprofit organizations have a lot of tools at disposal which can help when it comes to reaching their goals. Among the available tools is PayPal, a simple and easy to use payment processor for both personal and business purposes.
If you were wondering what PayPal for nonprofit can do for your charity organization, this article highlights every aspect right from setting up an account, creating donation buttons and links to accept funds, the associated transaction fees, and other alternative fundraising platforms available in case PayPal isn’t right for you.
Is PayPal For Nonprofit right for you?
When it comes to sending and receiving online payments, PayPal continues to demonstrate as the best with lots of features which makes it perfect for your charity organizations. From providing easy fundraising links and donation buttons, PayPal allows your charity organization to receive donations from anyone who wishes to with a simple click. Their service allows anyone who wants to make a contribution to use a credit card, debit card or even pay directly from their account balances thus completely easing the entire process, and there by being more than right for your organization.
Benefits of using PayPal for Nonprofits
- Creating an account is very simple and requires a few minutes to get started.
- Creating donation buttons for fundraising is an easier process
- You choose between one time or recurring online donations
- A payment processing fee discount is applied to donated funds
- You can receive donations via email or without a website
The downside of using PayPal for Nonprofits
While the benefits seem to override the bad side, you can conclude that PayPal for nonprofit is fit for all kind of charity organizations. Since PayPal is a third party service, common issues like account termination and limitations, holding of funds, inability to link a bank account except for those based in the US, having to sign up and verifying the identity of the organization, etc may turn a burden to most nonprofits.
Setting up a PayPal account for Nonprofits
- Sign up for a PayPal business account
- Select Nonprofit Organization under business type
- Choose Nonprofit under category
- Link your PayPal account with your charity organization’s bank account
How to accept PayPal donations for your Nonprofit
In order to start accepting donations for your NonProfit, you must set up a donation button or create a donation email link. This you can do upon successfully creating your charity organization’s PayPal account following the steps above.
Creating a donation button and email link
- Sign in to your PayPal account
- Click create your button now
- Choose your button type from the drop down menu and select donation.
- Enter your service name which can be your organization, etc and add your donation ID if you need since its optional
- Click on customize button link to personalize your button if you need (features include selecting the button size, linking to your own image and others), and or simply leave that option and continue
- Select the currency you want to use from the drop down menu and too choose if you want your donors to contribute any amount they want or for you to set a fixed amount.
- Complete set up and copy the button HTML code, or email link
- Paste the copied code to your website, or add it in your email and you will be ready to start receiving donations.
Adding PayPal donation button on WordPress
- Log into WordPress as Admin
- Click Appearance
- Click Widgets
- Choose Custom HTML
- Paste copied code
- Save widget
Adding donation link in Gmail
- Choose email instead of website when creating button
- Copy and paste the code on a notepad or wordpad
- Log in to your Gmail, click settings and signature
- Paste the saved code and you will be done.
Whenever you send an email message, your donation link will be viewed by the recipient which will increase on your chances of receiving multiple donations.
PayPal for Nonprofit fees
PayPal has a standard processing fee which is 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. For registered charity organizations, a discount applies and the transaction fees change to 2.2% + $0.30 per transaction. In order to quality as a registered charity, you must provide all relevant documents as required by PayPal in order to confirm your nonprofit status.
PayPal for Nonprofit alternatives
In any case you are still finding it hard to make use of PayPal’s donation option, or the limitations are leaving your charity unattended to, you may consider trying out the different alternatives payment processors to see if they have the required tools for the success of your organisation.
