1. Pay less for processing credit card donations or don’t pay at all
How would you like to increase your annual donations by up to 4% without adding any new donors? It sounds too good to be true, but it is. Studies show that 50% of donors will pay the processing fee for their donations if given a choice. See, I told you that you might not pay at all. Now you get more and pay less. Plus, you haven’t added any new donors. Instead, you empowered and maximized your donor base. How cool is that? Imagine what you can do with that much more money!
Cash discounting is the industry term for when a donor opts to pay the fee. You need a way to implement it for sure. Well, let’s get that done. At your donation checkout page, if you have the right payment processing company, you can add a box for the donor to choose whether or not to pick up the tab. Now that the donor has paid the fee, you’re getting that much more for your charity.
Tidal Commerce offers solutions for nonprofit payment processing for nonprofits or for those looking to start a new nonprofit that helps your donors give more. It keeps their data 100% secure and grows your mission. Their program gets members an approximate effective rate of 2.15%, which crushes the competition. Some organizations are paying up to nearly 6% to process a credit or debit card donation, with an average range of 3-4%. Let them do the math to demonstrate the difference between our effective rate of 2.15 and your current rate. They will discover the tremendous impact on your organization’s bottom line.
Tidal Commerce offers a free rate analysis and approximately two business days turnaround time. Simply provide them with your last two statements. They crunch the numbers and return a no-obligation quote. During that discovery phase, it sometimes uncovers that a company offers you that shiny low rate, but by adding higher per-transaction fees, they make up for it on the back end. For example, instead of paying $.10-15 per transaction, they charge you $.30 per transaction. That takes the luster off that sparkling rate because you now learn what effective rate you actually pay. Very sneaky on their part.
The Hard Truth:
Not every payment processor can do cash discounting. Sometimes your software company doesn’t like it when you inquire if it’s possible or if you can switch processing companies. That’s because some have a revenue-sharing partnership with whomever they signed you up with when you bought their software. And sometimes, that processor has a high rate and offers nonprofits no rate considerations. In that scenario, the only one who loses is your wonderful organization. It’s not transparent or even nice, to say the least.
Outcome:
Being the genius that you are, you did your homework by contacting your software company. Or perhaps you managed it some other way and asked your website hosting company, “hey, how can we do this?” At your next company meeting, you presented your fabulous new idea to implement cash discounting and got a resounding YES! You might even get a round of applause. Because you made this happen, the next budget meeting makes it possible to add a new program or new employee, or new equipment or food or clothing, or shelter. Whatever your charity does, it now does that much more because of you. Bravo! Pat yourself on the back, you shrewd and savvy person.
2. Seek out the deals and discounts that companies love to give to nonprofits:
Some businesses want to support your excellent work through less expensive plans and nonprofit discounts.
3. Strengthen your volunteer program
Volunteers are part of the lifeblood of your organization. Many people want to help and get involved but don’t know how. Sometimes they do not know about a nonprofit operating in their area and if they discovered it. Perhaps they become a volunteer.
Deploying technology and recognizing the volunteers’ needs requires flexibility. It’s vital to educate volunteers before they dive in. These elements are crucial to growing, energizing, and maximizing the efficiency of volunteers. After all, you should strive to make their experience a positive one.
Wow, that sounds like a lot to digest. Have no fear, it’s easier than some might think.
Technology is your friend!
On average, people spend 147 minutes on social media a day. You have many available avenues to use to energize your volunteers and tap into new ones. You can use Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Tik Tik, or other platforms. You don’t know who’s waiting in the wings to answer the call to action.
Some tips to pull in, obtain, retain, and effectively utilize volunteers include:
There you have it! You now have three ways to bolster the income, decrease expenses, and attract new volunteers. In addition, you have another outlet for those in need to discover your organization. Thank you for reading and considering my suggestions. Most importantly, though, thank you dearly for what each and every one of you does to help make this world a better place.
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