Donations
Year round, twenty-four hour a day giving. The cornerstone of any organization's online efforts to enhance their online presence. Letting anyone from anywhere make a donation on their schedule and at their convenience will increase your donor base and encompass the internet generations.
Pre-set donation options allow a donor who isn't sure what gift level might be appropriate to select from four suggested options. New donors may appreciate the suggested amounts as a guide to what other donors are giving. Donors who know exactly how much they wish to give can always select the "Other" option to enter a custom amount.
In addition to letting donors simply give money, giving donors a way to direct their donations —in the form of Restrictions— is an easy way to streamline the funding of different projects or areas of your organization. Other options include Tribute and Memorial gifts that let donors specify a person who should be remembered.
These donation options increase the flexibility of your donation system without increasing complexity. As part of the donation process donors can choose to customize their gift or bypass the choice and simply make a general donation. Your organization can choose which donation restrictions are available to donors.
Restrictions
Restrictions and exclusions are sometimes known as 'earmarks.' Having a “Building Fund,” for example, lets any donor choose to earmark their dollars to help complete the construction no matter how they choose to donate to your organization. It is important that these systems apply not just to donations, but also to any recurring donation options such as Pledging, Tithing and Membership Levels.
There are two levels of restrictions that should be available to your organization. Regular Restrictions are specified by your organization and are presented in a list to the Donor on the donation form. Custom Restrictions let each donor write-in exactly what they'd like done with their donation. What they write is completely up to each individual donor. Both options should be customizable by your organization and turned on or off through your Administration Area.
Tribute and Memorial Gifts
A tribute system should be completely customizable so that you can include the fields you need filled out to accurately use the funds the donor has provided. Allowing donors to specify the name of a person or even another organization can allow you to acquire the information you need to send out cards and messages in their name. It can also collect the information you need to include on programs and in newsletters.
Simple Recurring Donations
On the surface this would seem to be the same as a pledge. The reason we call this type of billing 'simple recurring' is the simplicity for the donor. This type of system is an 'up sell' system. If a donor has come to your organization's site to give $100, they may see the recurring option and decide to make their gift recur every quarter, or every month. This multiplies the effect of their gift and provides new funding that might otherwise have never occurred.
Management and Reporting
Your Administration Area should have complete ability to edit, add and remove any type of donation option. The ability to enable and disable types of options is also key to making your form simple to fill out for each donor. Creating your donation options and tailoring them exactly to your organization's activities and operations streamlines the entire donation process. Donors see options they recognize and are looking for on your website, improving their overall donation experience.
Reporting options are also key to your administrative ability to use the information collected. Detailed reports showing exactly what was donated and how the donation is to be used is a must for any donation system. Make sure your donation system can manage, report on and export data in ways useful to your organization.