Donate.net

Vendor Site: www.donate.net
Example Client: www.nyfa.org

Donate.net offers solid functionality but an unusual default donation form setup that may discourage donors. It provides a data export format that integrates with DonorPerfect, making it a possible choice for those using this database. Others will find tools with more standard donation forms a better bet.

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

• $200 setup fee (plus an additional $150 to customize the form with navigation, plus $400 to customize the form colors and fonts with a stylesheet)
• They have two standard fee structures. For smaller organizations, they offer a package that is $2.50 per donation plus 3.3% of the donated amount
• For medium sized organizations, they offer a package that is $1.50 per donation plus 3.3% of the donated amount, with a $29.99 minimum. These rates are negotiable for larger organizations
• Donate.net can set up organizations with their own merchant account for an additional $400 setup fee. The transaction and monthly fees are the same in this circumstance as if they used the Donate.net account

Merchant Account: Either

• The organization can use their own merchant account, but typically they use Donate.net’s
• If the organization wants to use their own account, Donate.net will set up each organization up with a merchant account in their name. The merchant account must be the one endorsed by Donate.net
• If using Donate.net’s merchant account, the charge will show up on the donor’s credit card as made to “Donate.net”

Company Background: Good

• Private company that specializes in payment processing of various sorts – events, products, membership fees, and donations
• They started taking online payments in 1998
• They have just crossed the 500 client mark
• Although their product is integrated with DonorPerfect, there is no legal relationship between DonorPerfect and Donor.net

Setup and Support: Good

• Donate.net staff will setup the donation form based on the organization’s needs in one business day for a simple form or about 2-3 days for more complex customization
• The organization can update basic form elements, such as adding custom fields, through an administration tool
• If the organization wants to make changes after the initial setup, small changes can be done for free. More complex changes may require a new $150 form customization fee
• Support is available via phone and email

Donation Form Appearance: Good

• The donation form can be completely tailored to the website, including the navigation, colors, and fonts
• Their standard form is functional but uses an unusual layout which may be a barrier to some donors
• The donor sees a menu of programs and must click an “add” button in order to donate, which pops up a form asking how much they would like to donate. They must enter an amount, click OK, and then click Continue to actually proceed to filling out their information. The company representative says that they would be willing to customize this process if the organization pays the $150 customization fee
• A small logo at the bottom of the form can be removed if the organization pays the $150 form customization fee

Donation Form Flexibility: Excellent

• Organizations can add custom fields through the administration tool
• Organizations 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
• Can support tributes and memorials through custom fields

Payment Processing: Excellent

• Commonly process Visa, Master Card, American Express, Discover, and Diner’s Club
• They support recurring donations as a standard feature
• They do not support eChecks
• They can process credit cards issued by banks outside North America
• 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 only minimal unscheduled downtime in the last six months, and no planned downtime

Reports & Data: Good

• A web-based administrative interface allows organizations to view donor information and summaries
• Organizations can view month-to-month or year-to-year comparisons
• The data can be downloaded into a CSV text file; no customization of this file is available. This file is in the appropriate format to allow it to be easily uploaded into an existing DonorPerfect database
• Donor.net does not offer any standard method to access data programmatically; they would be willing to discuss developing such as method at extra cost

Money Distribution: Good

• If the organization is using their own merchant account, money is deposited directly into the organization’s merchant account within a few days after donation
• The donated money is mailed to the organization once a month if they are using the Donate.net merchant account