Non-profit organizations stand to gain significantly by accepting donations through their website; however the fact is that most NPOs’ websites do not handle online donations.

According to a Kintera/Luth Nonprofit Trend Report, ¹ “65 percent of donors visit at least one of the websites of the charities they support, and 40 percent always go online before making a giving decision.”

Online fundraising has the potential to be a huge windfall for non-profit organizations. An advantage of online fundraising is that it has overall lower costs. Another key strength is that when a donor gives, metrics software can provide vital information that includes donors contact details as well as demographic and psychographic data that can help a NPOs marketing/donor relations team. The bottom line is that a non-profit organization that is not engaged in online fundraising is missing out on a major donor segment.

Why are NPOs not pursuing online fundraising? The main reasons are a lack of understanding of the value of online fundraising, not possessing the skills to implement it or believing that they don’t have the budget for it.

NPOs do not need to be experts in online fundraising, they just need to be able seek out the services of a consultant that can help them. Hiring a consultant is not as expensive as one might think. While consultants working at firms with high profile clients will be at the expensive end, independent consultants or student/interns will be at more affordable end. An independent consultant will charge approximately $4000 – $6000 for a website with online donation capability; this fee will also include coaching on how to maintain the website, staff training, plus designing a strategic plan to use the site to build better donor relations and reach fundraising targets.

Another option for NPOs is to use Canadahelps.org – a cost effective web service that simplifies online fundraising by allowing individuals to donate to charities of their choosing through Canadahelps.org. For charities it’s an easier less expensive means of raising funds online and for donors it’s a trustable, one stop shop for giving.

Canadahelps.org is a simple process. NPOs create a profile that describes their cause. In the interest of transparency, charities can even permit donors to designate their funds directly to specific projects, a capital campaign or a room in a new building, etc. Potential donors can search for any charity in Canada and donate using their credit card. Donors can donate once or through a payment schedule. Canadahelps.org also accepts cash or securities such as stocks and bonds. What Canadahelps.org does not allow are payments for non-charitable gifts such as memberships, event registration or product purchases. Since it’s a registered charitable foundation, donors are issued a tax receipt. Donations are transferred to a NPO’s bank account minus a 3% transaction fee. Charities are notified by email that their accounts have received a donation. The website also provides donor research data that can be used to foster better donor relations.

An alternative that Canadahelps.org provides is that allows a NPO to use its own website a donation portal while processing transactions through Canadahelps.org. This is accomplished by adding a simple “Donate Button” to an NPO’s existing website.

Online fundraising is constantly evolving and new trends are constantly appearing. The most important trend is that online fundraising is here to stay and will continue to grow. It should be part of any organization’s comprehensive long term and sustainable fundraising strategy.