Auctionpay

Vendor Site: www.auctionpay.com
Example Client: www.redcrosshelps.org

Auctionpay is a good option for organizations looking for a middle-of-the-road donation, registration, and event solution at a reasonable price. Their donation form can be integrated into the look of a website to some degree, and is quite flexible. They offer a few features for those looking to use a vendor’s merchant account without all the downsides: the organization’s name appears on the donor’s credit bill (as opposed to just the vendor’s), and Auctionpay distributes the donated money twice a month.

Fees and Transaction Costs
Setup Fees: Medium Fees When Few Donations: Medium Fees When Many Donations: Low

• $395 setup fee (plus an additional $100 for more than four donation pages)
• Yearly fee of $200 (if the organization purchases the entire event suite, including an offline event management software, there is no yearly fee)
• 3.3% of the donated amount (3.45% for American Express)

Merchant Account: Vendor’s

• The organization will use Auctionpay’s merchant account
• The charge on the donor’s credit card shows that it was made to “Action Pay:” and then the organization’s name

Company Background: Good

• Private company that specializes in event management software, both on and offline, as well as online payment processing for events, products, and donations
• They just received a large venture capital investment in their firm
• They have been taking online payments since 2003, and have about 1100 customers using their online services

Setup and Support: Excellent

• Auctionpay staff will setup the donation form based on the organization’s needs in about 2-3 weeks
• Two changes of up to three custom fields are included per year; after that updates are $50 per change or $100 per new form
• Support is available via phone and email 6:30 AM - 5:00 PM PST
• Several current customers report that their customer service is responsive and helpful

Donation Form Appearance: Good

• The donation form colors and fonts are tailored to the website
• Auctionpay is willing to include the navigation bar in the form, but they typically do not
• The standard form is clean and professional looking
• A substantial Auctionpay logo appears at the bottom of the form; it can be removed on request

Donation Form Flexibility: Excellent

• Organizations can add an unlimited number of custom fields, and can tailor the amount and text shown for any standard donations
• Organizations can have as many donation forms as desired – for instance, to support different campaigns

Payment Processing: Excellent

• Commonly process Visa, Master Card, and American Express
• They can process credit cards issued by banks outside North America
• They support recurring donations as a standard feature. They handle the communication process with the donor as well – they send monthly emails to inform donors about the charge, and follow up on credit cards that will expire
• They do not support eChecks
• Fraud prevention is a strength – they do a number of automatic and manual checks to try to flag and investigate anomalies
• They report that they have had approximately 6 minutes of downtime per quarter for the last year

Reports & Data: Good

• A web-based administrative interface allows organizations to view donor information
• Month-to-month or year-to-year comparisons are not available
• The data can be downloaded into a CSV text file; no customization of this file is available
• Auctionpay does not currently offer any method to access data programmatically that would allow a programmer to build an automated feed to another database

Money Distribution: Excellent

• Money is deposited directly into the organization’s bank account twice a month