KnowledgeMessenger

Vendor Site: www.knowledgemessenger.com
Example Client: www.thismatters.org

With a model built to provide many integrated functions for websites, such as events, polls, newsletters, and blogs, KnowledgeMessenger is quite expensive when used solely for donations. The price for the features and amount of customization don’t compare well to other tools. However, the fees you pay for donations include nearly everything else they offer, so the tool is worth a look if you need to support more than just donations.

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

• $49.95 setup fee
• Monthly fee of $25/month
• $0.31 per donation plus 2.24% of the donated amount (minimum of $15/month in transaction fees)
• These fees include the payment gateway fees

Merchant Account: Organization’s

• KnowlegeMessenger will set up each organization with a merchant account in their name. The merchant account must be the one endorsed by KnowlegeMessenger.
• The charge on the donor’s credit card will be shown in the organization’s name

Company Background: Acceptable

• Private company that provides a integrated online tool that supports events, polls, newsletters, blogs, donations, and more. The tool is primarily directed at political candidates.
• Their clients primarily have a progressive focus.
• They started taking online payments in 2003
• They have about 85 clients and one employee

Setup and Support: Good

• KnowledgeMessenger staff will setup the merchant account and a donation form based on the organization’s needs in about a week
• The organization can make changes to the donation form through the administration tools
• Support is available via phone and email

Donation Form Appearance: Excellent

• The donation form can be completely tailored to the website, including the navigation, colors, and fonts
• The standard form is clean and professional looking
• A notable KnowledgeMessenger logo at the bottom of the form cannot be removed

Donation Form Flexibility: Acceptable

• No custom fields or donation-specific fields can be included, not even a newsletter sign-up or a program for a targeted donation
• Tributes and premiums are not supported

Payment Processing: Good

• Commonly process Visa, Master Card, and American Express
• They do not support eChecks
• Address and CSV code credit card checks are available
• They report that they have not had any downtime of any kind in the last six months

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
• KnowlegeMessenger does not 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 account within a few days after donation