Groundspring DonateNow

Vendor Site: www.groundspring.org
Example Client: www.angelwish.org

Groundspring is an affordable option for organizations that don’t need complex customizations or their own merchant account. Their clean and professional donation form can be seamlessly integrated into each organization’s website. Several of the consultants interviewed for this report expressed concern about Groundspring’s financial stability, but their recent merger with Network for Good may help to stabilize them.

Fees and Transaction Costs

Setup Fees: Medium Fees When Few Donations: Medium Fees When Many Donations: Low

• $129 setup fee to use their standard form or $199 for “custom service” that incorporates their donation form into the navigation of the rest of the website
• Monthly fee of $14.95 for nonprofits with annual budgets under $250,000; $24.95 for nonprofits with annual budgets over $250,000
• 3% of each donation

Merchant Account: Vendor’s

• The organization will use Groundspring’s merchant account
• The charge will show up on the donor’s credit card as made to “Groundspring”

Company Background: Good

• Nonprofit organization with a mission to provide simple, affordable, and integrated services to help organizations become effective users of internet technology
• They provide a donation and email tool for nonprofits
• Several of the consultants interviewed for this report expressed concern about Groundspring’s financial stability, but their recent merger with Network for Good may help to stabilize them.
• They are very active in the nonprofit community, frequently publishing white papers and offering workshops and webinars on general internet technology topics
• They have more than 750 clients

Setup and Support: Excellent

• Groundspring staff will setup the donation form to match the organization’s site in about 2-3 days
• The organization can update basic form elements themselves, such as adding custom fields or changing suggested donation amounts, through an administration tool
• Support is available via phone and email 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM PST
• Several current customers report that Groundspring’s customer service is friendly, helpful, and responsive

Donation Form Appearance: Excellent

• If the organization chooses the “Custom” setup, the form is integrated into the navigation and background color of the website
• The donation form is very clean, friendly, and well-designed

Donation Form Flexibility: Excellent

• Organizations can add an unlimited number of custom fields
• Organizations can tailor the amount and text shown for any standard donations
• They support premiums and tribute gifts
• Organization are limited to one donation form

Payment Processing: Good

• Commonly process Visa, Master Card and American Express
• They do not handle eChecks
• They support recurring donations as a standard feature
• They support credit cards issued by banks outside North America
• Address and CSV code credit card checks are available
• They report, “to the best of our knowledge, our DonateNow service has not been down at all over the last 6 months”

Reports & Data: Good

• A web-based administrative interface allows organizations to view donor information
• Organizations can view transactions by month or 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
• Groundspring does not offer any method to access data programmatically that would allow a programmer to build an automated feed to another database

Money Distribution: Good

• The donated money is mailed to the organization at the end of each month (or at the end of the quarter, if it is less than $50)