Top 16 Online Donation Tools for Nonprofits (2024 Update)

As a nonprofit, are any of these issues nagging you?

• People visit your website but drop out at the most crucial point- the donation page
• You have built strong relations with supporters. But even so, you are struggling to raise funds online
• You have high fundraising goals, but the current online donation tool cannot meet them
• Your website is brand new, and you are searching for a donation platform to partner with

Trusted online donation tools are the answer to your question, “How can I fundraise a lot of money fast?” 

Here is a list of 16 online donation platforms that help nonprofits raise money online.

Is there a free online donation platform?

Tempting as it sounds, every online donation platform requires at least a small payment. 

However, some online donation tools charge you only transaction fees and may ask donors to give a voluntary gift.

These tools are a great fit for organizations that

1. Have limited funds
2. Want to cut budgets for donation tools 
3. Are open to using tools with limited customization options

1. FreeFunder

FreeFunder allows you to create crowdfunding pages and share them among supporters. This online fundraising platform accepts voluntary micro-donations from your donors, and it runs on these gifts.

Notable Features:

• Customizable, mobile-friendly crowdfunding pages 
• Thanking your donors and sending progress updates can increase donor retention. FreeFunder enables you to post and email updates to all your supporters. 
• Offers a text-to-donate feature so you can take your fundraiser offline too

Pricing:

FreeFunder charges 0% platform fees. They ask for voluntary gifts from donors.

Related Reading: Telefundraising and Text Message Fundraising -Strategies and Tips

2. 99Pledges

99Pledges is designed for fundraisers related to education and school activities. Register both online and offline gifts to get an accurate measure of your campaign.  

Notable Features:

• Each participant gets their own donation page where individual goals and progress are marked. Set up is done by 99Pledges
• The platform processes the entire donation amount within 24 hours of the fundraiser ending
• Helps you track and share progress among peers.

Pricing:

99Pledges charges a 0% platform fee. They charge the standard 2.9% + $0.30 per donation as a processing fee.

Read Next: 3 Creative Ways to Keep People Involved in Your Cause Online

3. Stripe

Many online donation platforms are built on Stripe, a payment platform active in 39 countries. Stripe offers a subsidized transaction fee for 501(c)(3) organizations, and if you have an in-house developer, It can be a great fit for you. 

Notable Features:

• Prebuilt integrations with hundreds of cloud and software companies that you can access without additional coding 
• They report a 24% lower cost of operations and 81% fewer unplanned outages- translating to an increase in your revenue collection
• Stripe accepts payments in 135+ currencies and payment methods

Pricing:

Stripe takes 0% platform fees. They charge a discounted rate of 2.2% + $0.30 (for credit card transactions) and 3.5% on American Express cards to nonprofits with a 501(c)(3) status. 

Note: Some online donation tools charge transaction or platform fees because they are built on top of Stripe. These platforms offer more customization options or additional features that do not require coding.

4. PayPal

If you don’t have an in-house developer team and want to accept donations directly on your platform, PayPal is a good fit. The payment platform suits the needs of small, medium as well as large nonprofits.

Notable Features: 

• PayPal integrates with your app or website and adds a “donate” button. It offers other donation appeals, such as PayPal Checkout and Invoicing Tools.
• The “PayPal Giving Fund” integrates with other apps and gives better visibility to your nonprofit
• Donations are processed to the registered bank account within minutes.

Pricing:

PayPal charges 0% platform fees. For nonprofits with a 501(c)(3) status, PayPal offers a subsidized transaction rate of 2.2% + $0.30 (for domestic transactions). For organizations without this status, standard rates of 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction apply.

Online donation tools that charge platform fees and transaction fees:

To ensure your goals are met, you need online donation tools that

1. Can target donors based on their giving history
2. Promise a high return on investment
3. Enable sharing of appeals with a variety of tools

Here are four such giving platforms:

1. Donately

Donately helps you build branded forms or pages and embed them on your website or launch the page. As they charge based on specific tools, Donately is an excellent option for small nonprofits focused on updating their online donation pages and systems. They provided embedded donation tools and peer-to-peer fundraising options.

Notable Features:

• Many customization options while being user-friendly
• Detailed donation tracking
• Share donation appeals via text

Pricing:

For start-ups, Donately charges a 4% platform fee. For bigger organizations, they charge a $49 monthly fee (billed annually) and a 2% platform fee.

2. GoFundMe

GoFundMe has raised $9 billion in 10 years. Secure donations from this online giving platform via events, online donations, and more.

Notable Features:

• Track and manage data with a mobile app
• Get started on your donation appeals within minutes!
• Email updates to donors and those who have registered on the platform in the last six months. Such updates increase your chances of getting new donors and retaining old ones.

Pricing:

GoFundMe has a paid plan for charities that charge a 3% platform fee + 2.2%+$0.30 processing fee. 

3. Click & Pledge

Click & Pledge offers innovative solutions to reach donors, such as a TV Player, cloud fundraising, and card reader. Its integration with Salesforce CRM makes the online donation platform user-friendly and affordable.

Notable Features:

• Recurring donation option with weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly scheduling options
• SMS giving and peer-to-peer fundraising 
• Create ads on Facebook and target your potential donors. 

Pricing: 

USA: This is a free merchant account, with transactions charged at 3.75% + $0.37 and batch deposits charged at $1.50 per day. Pricing varies by country.

4. DonorBox

DonorBox, an online donation tool trusted by 35,000 organizations, lets you integrate donation forms as fundraising pages, pop-up forms, or widgets embedded in your website. These pages are mobile-optimized and can be localized in Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Danish, and Swedish.

Notable Features:

• Pop-up forms for websites. 
• Social media integration to Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Create a donor wall to display messages and feedback from supporters
• Company donations and gift-matching

Pricing:

DonorBox charges a 1.5% platform fee + processing fee of 2.2% + $0.30 (for PayPal) or 2.2% + $0.30 (for Stripe credit cards). Integration with CRMs is charged extra.

Related Reading: 4 Fundraising tips to guarantee Digital Fundraising Success

Online donation tools with in-built integrations with popular tools:

Using online donation platforms that integrate with each other can save staffers a ton of time from shuffling data around in large spreadsheets. Integrations help you:

1. Centralize donor data
2. Improve communication with supporters by understanding your shared history
3. Equips you to identify repeat donors and prioritize them 

We have shortlisted eight such CRM-integrating online donation platforms:

1. Blackbaud

Blackbaud is an all-encompassing platform that offers marketing, financial management, organizational, and payment service support. Its integration with CallHub- a text marketing and call center tool keeps your communication relevant to donor behavior and history.

Notable Features:

• Access your contacts via CallHub and send personalized donation appeals through texts and phone calls
• Peer-to-peer fundraising solutions that enable your supporters to appeal for donations on your behalf
• Deep insights into your donors’ financial, demographic, and lifestyle characteristics.

Pricing:

Fundraising pricing starts at $119 per month.

2. Anedot

Anedot offers nonprofits, political campaigns, schools, and churches a full suite of online fundraising tools. Their upsell features are particularly interesting, allowing you to make follow-up asks once someone donates. Data from Anedot suggest a 25% conversion rate for follow-up asks to nudge donors for recurring donations or gifts to partner organizations.

Notable Features:

• Offers a text-to-give feature so you can share donation links via SMS
• Anedot promotes donor retention with reminder emails for incomplete donation forms, recurring donation options, and more
• Integration with about 20 popular tools keeps donor data centralized. Integrations with tools like NationBuilder and i360 are especially helpful for political campaigns. 

Pricing:

The online donation tool charges a 4% + $0.30 processing fee. Due to COVID-19, Anedot has reduced its pricing. To inquire, mail them to [email protected].

3. Classy

Nonprofits can use Classy to manage all of their online fundraising in one place. It combines acquisition tools, relationship builders, collaboration, and online donation tools. Classy also offers crowdfunding campaigns and peer-to-peer fundraising methods.

Notable Features:

• Peer-to-peer fundraising, recurring giving, website donations, and international fundraising. They also offer an integration with Facebook to receive payments. 
• Integrates with Salesforce, MailChimp, Kindful, and other popular tools. 
• About 19% of first-time donors are retained by nonprofits Vs. 63% of repeat donors. Classy’s ‘recurring giving’ option can help you retain more supporters.

Pricing:

Classy charges 0% platform fees and 2.2% + $0.30 transaction fees for Visa, Mastercard, and Discover and +1% for American Express. There’s also a monthly subscription fee.

4. CauseVox

CauseVox is designed to raise funds through different mediums like peer-to-peer fundraising, events, and recurring donations. It’s a user-friendly platform that you can customize to keep your brand in focus.

Notable Features:

• Free 15-minute consultation to improve donation form designs
• Their two-step donation process is time-efficient. Donors take less than a minute from start to finish- decreasing the chances of drop-offs.
• CauseVox allows you to track campaign performance in real time through automation.

Pricing:

The basic account is free and charges a processing fee of 2.2% + $0.30 per transaction (through Stripe and PayPal). However, if you want pro features and support, pricing starts at $135 per month + a processing fee. 

5. DonateNow by Network For Good

DonateNow has a track record of raising $2.5 billion from individual donors to benefit 125,000 nonprofits. With features like email blasts, peer-to-peer integrations, bulk text messaging, and more, they improve your reach to donors.

Notable Features:

• Get tips and coaching from a fundraising expert to make the most of your campaign.
• DonateNow creates donor lists based on behavior and categorized by demographics. This helps you find potential givers without much effort
• They give step-by-step guidance to your donors and provide a one-click option to decrease drop-offs

Pricing:

Pricing starts at $200 per month and is billed annually.  

6. CiviCRM

CiviCRM is an open-source customer relationship manager that comes with a full suite of donor management and online donation platforms. It’s an open-source tool that will require some effort to set up and maintain. Over the years, they’ve built a solid support ecosystem around the tool, integrating with many popular tools. So, if you’re a large organization with an in-house developer and want to save considerably on your fundraising management costs, go for it.  

Note: The tool has been added in this section because it requires spending on maintenance and customization.

Notable Features:

• Once donors contribute, they can set their own appeal pages for your fundraiser and invite friends, family, and peers to donate. 
• An extensive directory of extensions, including call center software like CallHub, to improve communication with donors.
• Integrates with Drupal, WordPress, Joomla, and Backdrop to allow donations, display event notifications, and more.

Pricing:

CiviCRM charges only the fee that your payment processor charges. 

7. Fundly

Fundly’s USP is its social media outreach. Their Facebook OpenGraph integration automatically broadcasts key progress of your campaign, improving social impressions. Donors are displayed on your activity feed, making new visitors more likely to engage with your posts and donate to your cause.

Notable Features:

• Connects contacts via Gmail, SurveyMonkey, and Facebook. Peer-to-peer fundraising via Facebook makes donor outreach easy
• Fundly integrates with Stripe and processes your funds quickly. You can access them within seven days of the initial donation 
• Their free app lets you thank donors, increasing your chances of retention

Pricing:

Fundly charges a 4.9% platform fee. Standard transaction charges of 2.9% + $0.30 apply.

8. Snowball

Snowball is a mobile phone-optimized online giving tool designed for nonprofits. Their two-click features and text-to-give options make giving easy for donors. Moreover, you are given the choice to opt for Snowball’s payment getaway or integrate your existing one in the donation pages.

Notable Features of this online donation tool:

• Donation button, donation pages, and text-to-give options
• Real-time tracking of donations
• Their premium account gives you unlimited text-to-give keywords, unlimited campaigns, and unlimited donation pages.

Pricing:

The premium account costs $549 per year (+2.2% + $0.30 per transaction), and the enterprise account starts at $999 per year.

In Conclusion:

Online donation tools equip you with a broad reach to donors and guidance to make donation appeals more effective. However, as a nonprofit making these appeals, you must also know how and where people are willing to donate. 

Mobile payments have increased manifold in the past few years and are set to contribute over $200 billion by 2021. SMS marketing can be a game-changer for nonprofits raising funds.

To learn more, read SMS Marketing: The Definitive Guide for Nonprofits and Political Campaigns or download our e-guide, A Pocket Guide to Text Message Marketing for Nonprofits, for more in-depth information.

Feature Image Source: Melissa Walker Horn/ Unsplash