Contribute.com

Vendor Site: www.contribute.com
Example Client: www.sfzoo.org/

Contribute takes more of each donation than any other tool reviewed in this report, but they provide a lot for that money. The donation process and forms (which can also support payment processing for events, products, and other needs) can be completely tailored to each organization, and they provide some useful tools to facilitate synching their data with an external database. As all forms need to be created and updated by Contribute staff in a process that can take six to twelve weeks for each change, Contribute is not a great choice for organizations that will have frequent updates.

Fees and Transaction Costs
Setup Fees: None   Fees When Few Donations: High   Fees When Many Donations: High

• No setup fee
• 8% of the donated amount (1% more for American Express charges) with a minimum of $960/year
• 10% of the donated amount for donations made via eCheck

Merchant Account: Vendor’s

• The organization will use Contribute’s merchant account
• Contibute has made special arrangements so the charge on the donor’s credit card will be shown in the organization’s name, even though they are using Contribute’s merchant account

Company Background: Excellent

• Specializes in nonprofit payment processing of various sorts – events, products, membership fees, and donations
• Private company that is owned by CollegeNet, which makes software for higher education
• They report that the company is profitable, and the online payment functionality is self-supporting (in addition to donations, CollegeNet processed more than one million college application fees last year)
• They have been processing online payments since 1999
• They have about 400 clients

Setup and Support: Good

• Contribute staff will setup the donation form based on the organization’s needs
• They can create a general purpose form in 5-7 days; a custom built form requires 6-10 weeks (they are happy to create a general purpose form as a interim solution)
• Contribute staff will make any desired changes free of charge at any time
• Support is available via phone and email. Each organization is assigned an account manager who guides them through the setup process and provides training and ongoing support. Any desired training, support, or changes are free
• Several current customers state that Contribute’s customer service is helpful, responsive, and personalized. However, they require a substantial amount of time (six to twelve weeks) to create new forms or make substantial changes

Donation Form Appearance: Excellent

• The donation form is completely tailored to the website, including the navigation, colors, and fonts
• The standard forms are clean, professional looking, and include no Contribute branding

Donation Form Flexibility: Excellent

• Any fields can be added to support tributes, programs, or other custom needs
• Each form is completely custom designed for the organization, including custom coding as needed
• They support premiums with pictures, text, and customized receipts
• They can include a list of employers who match gifts if desired
• Organizations can have as many donation forms as needed – for instance, to support different campaigns
• Any field in the donation form can trigger an email message; for example, if a donor checks that they have an interest in upcoming events, an email can automatically be sent to them detailing upcoming activities

Payment Processing: Excellent

• Commonly process Visa, Master Card, American Express and Discover
• 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 emails to let the donor know that their card will be charged, and follow up on credit cards that will expire
• They support eChecks (for 10% of the donated amount)
• Address and CSV code credit card checks are available
• They report that have 99.9% uptime. The rare scheduled downtime is done in the middle of the night

Reports & Data: Excellent

• A web-based administrative interface allows organizations to view donor data and sophisticated reports
• Organizations can view month-to-month or year-to-year comparisons, but they are complicated to produce
• Contribute’s reporting is the most powerful of the tools included in this report, but its complexity means it’s not for the technology-phobic. Contribute reports that their support staff will help organizations create reports or generate report templates for them
• Data can be downloaded into a text file; Contribute support staff can create any needed custom text file
• Data is available via secure FTP for organizations who would like to build an automatic feed from the donation tool to an external database

Money Distribution: Good

• If the organization takes in less than $3000 a month, the money is sent to them once a month via mail
• If the organization takes in between $3000 - $5000, the money is deposited in their bank account once per month
• If the organization takes in more than $5000, the money is deposited in their bank account twice per month