The Top 9 Payment Processing Tools for (Smart) Nonprofits

Payment Processing Tools for NonprofitsIntegrated with Double the DonationRating
CharityEngine✔4.9 out of 5.0
iATS Payments5.0 out of 5.0
Regpack5.0 out of 5.0
DonateKindly4.9 out of 5.0
Snowball4.9 out of 5.0
Fundly✔4.8 out of 5.0
Faithlife4.8 out of 5.0
Stripe4.3 out of 5.0
PayPal4.1 out of 5.0
Braintree3.9 out of 5.0

If your nonprofit wants to start accepting online and mobile donations, you need to have a payment processing tool.

Payment processing tools complete the backend operations that take funds from your donors’ accounts and deposit them into your nonprofit’s bank account.

While there are hundreds of different payment processing tools that your nonprofit could choose from, we’ve got the best four right here.

Each payment processor comes with pros and cons, but these nine are the cream of the crop and can help you start accepting online donations quickly and easily.

Top Credit Card Processors for Nonprofits

CharityEngine

CharityEngine offers both payment processing for nonprofits and donation tools for fundraising.

Overview

CharityEngine‘s all-in-one solution provides nonprofits with a suite of tools designed to fulfill their every fundraising need, including secure payment processing. 

With their PCI-certified payment processing solution, CharityEngine goes the extra mile to ensure your nonprofit and your donors’ data stays as safe as possible. 

As a comprehensive nonprofit software solution, CharityEngine’s payment processor, donation pages, CRM, advocacy software, and other tools all integrate with each other. This creates a streamlined software ecosystem to help your nonprofit stay organized.

Collect donations, process payments, store donor information, create reports, and track campaigns all in the same place with CharityEngine.

Why We Love It

CharityEngine is designed specifically for nonprofit use, meaning their team understands your organization’s unique data security and billing needs. Get in touch with their team to receive expert support.

With CharityEngine, your nonprofit isn’t just investing in a payment processor, but a complete solution that covers nearly every fundraising need. You can ditch the software add-ons, cut costs, and compile your nonprofit software into one comprehensive solution.

Pricing

CharityEngine’s all-in-one solution helps nonprofits cut costs. Instead of paying separately for a payment processor, a donation platform, a CRM, and a marketing platform, you can invest in a single solution: CharityEngine.

Contact the CharityEngine team and request a demo to learn more about their comprehensive software.

Learn more about CharityEngine

iATS Payments

iATS Payments is one of our favorite payment processing tools for nonprofits.

Overview

iATS Payments was formed two decades ago on a simple premise: to help nonprofits process donations more easily and more efficiently.

With over 20 years in business, iATS Payments has proven that commitment time and time again.

They maintain the highest security standards (level 1 PCI compliance) and offer their nonprofit clients a whole host of fundraising and payment processing solutions.

iATS Payments also integrates with dozens of nonprofit fundraising software providers.

This means that if your mobile bidding provider, text-to-give tool, donation page software, and peer-to-peer platform all use iATS Payments to process donations, your financial reporting is automatically synced and in one place.

Why We Love It

iATS Payments is one of the only payment processing tools that works exclusively with nonprofit organizations. Because of this specialization, iATS is able to give their nonprofit clients the best possible customer service in the industry.

Plus, the multitude of channel partners that iATS Payments has means that your nonprofit can seamlessly transition all of your payment processing into one, easy-to-use tool, regardless of the different types of software you have.

Pricing

Rates for credit card processing range from 2.49% (for Visa, MasterCard and Discover) to 3.2% (for American Express) per transaction.

ACH processing is offered at a flat $0.26 per transaction no matter the amount.

Learn more about iATS Payments

Regpack

Overview

Regpack’s registration management software toolkit is complete with an integrated payment processing solution that any nonprofit can leverage. Regpack’s PCI-compliant Level 2 payment processor allows your nonprofit to create customizable forms and collect donations directly from your website.

With Regpack’s payment processor, nonprofits can create customizable one-time and recurring donation plans and implement recurring billing, improving donor retention. Your donors and your team will both receive automated invoices, payment confirmations, and payment failure alerts to create a seamless communication process from start to finish. 

In addition to donation management, Regpack is an all-in-one software solution that can assist nonprofits with membership applications, event and gala registrations, and more. 

Why We Love It

Regpack’s online form builder uses conditional logic to change question forms in real-time based on previous responses. For example, if a supporter attending event selects no for food allergies won’t see any additional questions while a supporter who says yes will have their form change to ask additional questions about their allergies. This system provides supporters with a fully personalized experience, whether they’re filling out a donation form or registering for a nonprofit event.  

Lengthy forms and data re-entry can lead to form abandonment. But with Regpack’s conditional logic capabilities, your forms only ask questions relevant to the user, encouraging them to see their payment process to completion. 

Pricing

Regpack’s processing rates start at 2.1%. Get a quote and request a demo to learn more. 

Learn more about Regpack

DonateKindly

Overview

DonateKindly was formed on the simple premise of providing elegant and effective payment processing tools to nonprofits at no additional cost.

Now with nonprofits across the world using DonateKindly, they’ve proven out the model of fee-free donation tools. 

They partner with WePay, who provides some of the lowest nonprofit payment processing rates.

DonateKindly’s donation forms are customizable to meet nearly every nonprofit’s needs and can be added to your website in minutes!

Why We Love It

DonateKindly is the perfect payment processing tool for small and mid-sized nonprofits.

DonateKindly is fee-free (no platform or processing fees) and provides integrated payment processing with online donation forms.

Pricing

DonateKindly is unique in that it integrates with a variety of credit card payment processors to easily allow you to accept credit cards. DonateKindly charges no subscription, platform, or processing fees and integrates with tools like WePay which can get your nonprofit’s total rates down to as low as 2.1%.

Learn more about DonateKindly

Snowball

Snowball offers top payment processing features for nonprofit organizations.

Overview

Snowball offers a complete suite of fundraising tools, including online giving pages with built-in payment processing functionality. This way, you can bring in increased fundraising revenue, improve donor engagement, and support your cause in any way possible.

Their extensive variety of giving methods allows for donors to choose how they would like to get involved in your organization, whether through a one-time gift or by setting up a recurring donation schedule.

Plus, with text-to-give tools and mobile-friendly donation pages, your supporters can get involved anytime, anywhere.

Why We Love It

Snowball’s fundraising tools make sure to follow industry standards when it comes to ensuring maximum financial security and keeping your donors safe. Plus, all donor payment information is stored in a PCI-compliant vault that utilizes tokenization to protect from fraudulent activity.

Pricing

You can get started with Snowball’s Essential Plan for free— complete with a customizable online giving page, a built-in CRM dashboard, and recurring gift functionality. Or, upgrade to the Premium Plan for $549/year for access to unlimited fundraising thermometers, online giving pages, event ticketing, and text-to-give tools!

Learn more about Snowball

Fundly

Fundly offers a stellar crowdfunding platform for nonprofits.

Overview

Although it isn’t a traditional payment processor, Fundly does offer tools to help nonprofits collect donations online.

Between its crowdfunding platform, peer-to-peer services, and other nonprofit tools, it is the perfect option for nonprofits looking to collect donations securely and through a user-friendly interface.

For the technical credit card processing step of collecting donations, Fundly gives users the option of going through WePay or Stripe.

Why We Love It

Fundly is designed with the fundraiser and the donor in mind so you can be sure that your organization will be able to use the platform and your donors will too!

Pricing

Fundly’s platform fee is 4.9% per donation. Additional credit card processing fees will be assessed and determined depending on if you use WePay or Stripe.

Learn more about Fundly

Faithlife Giving

Faithlife is one of our favorite payment processing tools for churches.

Overview

If you’re looking for an easy-to-use payment processing software system for a church, Faithlife Giving is the tool for you. Faithlife Giving is an online church giving platform that encourages stewardship practices to cultivate generosity.

This payment processing tool allows churches to collect gifts in several easy, accessible ways—including with a link, from your church website, using a text-to-give number, at an on-site kiosk, or through a custom-branded mobile app. In this way, congregants can give in the way that’s most convenient for them.

Why We Love It

Faithlife Giving is a part of an integrated ministry platform with a whole host of other church-based software solutions. As churches become increasingly reliant on technology to run their services, engage with congregants, and collect much-needed funding for their ministry, it’s essential that you find a comprehensive suite of tools to get the job done.

Pricing

Faithlife Giving offers multiple pricing tiers depending on your church’s size and monthly online giving revenue. For smaller churches bringing in less than $7,500/month, the platform is free to use with only a standard processing fee of 2.99% + $0.45. Mid-sized churches can get started with their Premium Plan for only $44.99/month, while congregations with more than $200,000/month in online gifts are encouraged to contact the Faithlife team for a custom quote.

Learn more about Faithlife Giving

Stripe

Stripe is one of the most common payment processing tools

Overview

Stripe mainly does payment processing for businesses and for-profit entities, but they work with nonprofits as well.

Stripe is an aggregator, meaning that it processes payments through its own merchant account. Nonprofits don’t get to choose their own merchant account like they would be able to with a dedicated payment processor.

However, Stripe does offer mobile payment processing, which is helpful for businesses and nonprofits that need to accept payments on the go at events or gatherings.

Why We Love It

All of Stripe’s forms are built to stay on your nonprofit’s website. Donors don’t get redirected to a third-party site where they may or may not finish the donation process.

Pricing

Stripe’s regular payment processing fee is 2.9% + $.30 per transaction.

However, nonprofits can contact their sales team for a discounted price if they so desire.

Learn more about Stripe

PayPal

PayPal is one of many payment processing tools for nonprofits

Overview

PayPal is another payment processing tool that uses its own merchant account to process transactions for businesses and nonprofits.

PayPal is PCI compliant and allows nonprofits to securely process donations both online and on-site (with the help of PayPal Here).

There are no extra fees for account setup, statements, withdrawals, or cancellation.

Why We Love It

PayPal enables nonprofits to accept donations made with credit cards or with a donor’s PayPal account.

Pricing

PayPal offers a discounted rate for nonprofit organizations.

They charge 2.2% + $0.30 per transaction.

Learn more about PayPal

Braintree

Braintree is one of the many payment processing tools that your nonprofit can use

Overview

Braintree Payments, a PayPal company, allows nonprofit to easily accept all kinds of donations, ranging from debit and credit cards to Bitcoin and Apple Pay.

However, Braintree is a payment processor that requires a developers to get up and running. While it is easy to use for your donors, it might be a bit more complicated to set up on your nonprofit’s end.

Braintree does keep all of your donors’ personal information on their servers, and they also make sure that your donation forms are PCI compliant.

Why We Love It

The variety of payment options that Braintree Payments accepts means that all of your supporters can give the way they want to.

Pricing

Braintree Payments charges 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. An additional 1% fee applies to transactions processed outside of your home currency.

Learn more about Braintree

Additional Payment Processing Resources

Payment Processing Basics

The basics of payment processing for nonprofits

Payment processing might seem like a foreign and complicated concept, but once you know how it works, it actually makes perfect sense!

Take a look at our guide to payment processing for nonprofits to learn more.

Learn about the basics of payment processing

The Dangers of Online Fraud

Online payment fraud

Unfortunately, online payment fraud is a common occurrence. But if your nonprofit knows how to detect and avoid it, life can be a little easier.

Check out this article to learn more about credit card and ACH direct debit fraud.

Learn how to detect and avoid online payment fraud

5 Payment Processing Concepts

You might still have questions about payment processing, and that’s okay! Luckily, we’ve got the perfect resource for you.

Read about these 5 key payment processing concepts to become an expert.

Learn more about the 5 essential payment processing concepts

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