Best Online Donation Platforms – A Detailed Comparison

Donations can be easily collected to fund important causes through online fundraising apps. However, there are now many online donation platforms to select from. It can take time to tell which will meet your needs and give your donors the finest experience. 

The greatest online donation platforms to consider when selecting an online fundraising platform are discussed in this blog post. 

What is an Online Donation Platform? 

You can safely gather and process donations for your organization with the help of a fundraising platform, which is software, or a tool used online. Or, from the donor’s perspective, fundraising websites make it simple and safe for people to donate to the causes they care about. 

Nonprofits should look for a fundraising platform that makes life easy for their development team and donors. In addition to accepting one-time donations, many platforms now enable donors to set up recurring payments, make donations by text message, and participate in crowdfunding campaigns. 

With features like Recurring Donations, Peer-to-Peer, Event-ticketing, Memberships, Text-to-Give, Donor Management, and more, Sodality is an effective fundraising platform. In less than 10 minutes, you can get started with only four simple steps: 

• To join for no cost at all 
• Donate App for your campaign 
• You can either use the Sodality-hosted fundraising page, where you may copy-and-paste the code and embed the form, or a pop-up window 
• No hassle of integrating with payment gateways anymore! It all comes integrated. 

What are the benefits of online fundraising platforms? 

One of the most crucial steps in the donor cultivation process is the decision phase, and online fundraising tools aid NGOs with this. The decision to give to your nonprofit is made at this point in the donor’s journey. A donor’s decision to donate may be swayed if they realize they can do it quickly and easily through your charity fundraising platform. 

A few further advantages of these sites for raising money are as follows: 

• You can reach a wider audience, which means more prospective donors for your nonprofit. With the help of online fundraising services, you can collect donations from anyone with an internet connection. This can help you reach a wider audience of potential donors, not just in your own area. 
• Donors can contribute at any time and from any location. Donations can be made at any time by donors who pull out their mobile devices, computers, or tablets and follow their impulses. In addition, donors can manage their own participation by creating profiles in which they can change their billing information, view their gift history, and set new defaults for recurring donations. 
• They make it simple to track information about financial contributions, sales, and other financial matters. When your CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is integrated with your online Donation platform, you will easily access donor information on both systems. You can save a lot of time by automatically sending donations’ names and contact information to your customer relationship management system. Donors will appreciate it when you use their data to send them communications and invitations to events tailored to their specific interests. Moreover, when your online fundraising platform is compatible with your bookkeeping program, you can quickly monitor your finances and the results of your fundraising efforts. 

What costs are involved with online fundraising? 

Before looking at our recommended providers, you should know what factors into the price of online fundraising software. Here are some words and phrases you may encounter, along with their definitions: 

The transaction fee, or processing fee, is the amount charged when a donor uses a credit card to make a payment to you or one of your fundraisers. This fee may also be called a monthly or annual fee. You will have to pay a platform charge if you want to use a fundraising website or app. 

The Top 5 Online Fundraising Platforms for Nonprofits Organization 

1. Sodality 

Sodality is an effective, all-in-one fundraising tool with a simple interface and several customizable options. It is go-to nonprofit donation app for online donations for over 50,000 groups across 96 countries. At no point during your time with Sodality will you be required to sign a contract or pay any setup or monthly maintenance fees. 

With Sodality, donating to charity is quick, simple, and stress-free. Look at some of its features include 

• Provide your own branded mobile app to engage with donors anytime 
• Pay simple service fee instead of any monthly fee OR long-term commitment 
• Virtual library to store scriptures, audio notes, and other resources 
• In-app donations with debit and credit card payment options 
• Create your custom donation widget and get all your donations in one app 
• Enable your donators to sign up on their own without any hassle 
• Collect donations through SMS/text message  
• Create multiple locations/chapters to get donation on multiple locations 
• Offers service calendar to manage move and view all your service bookings 
• Get multiple custom email templates  
• Allows to create and publish paid events on the platform 
• Allows donators to be your volunteer directly via the app

Best fundraising platform for 

Sodality is the best white label app platform for nonprofit organizations of any type. 

Pricing: 

Sodality charges a 10% payment processing fee, and you can include flexible add-ons as you grow. It adds on costs as follows:  

• Donation add-on – $10/mo. $100yr 
• Service add-on – $5/mo. $50yr 
• SMS add-on – $8/mo. $90yr 

2. Fundly 

The crowdfunding platform Fundly allows smaller groups to test the waters without spending a fortune on fundraising app. Campaign websites tailored to a nonprofit’s specific programming and funding needs allow organizations to build relationships with their donors through online channels. 

The Fundly app makes it simple to track donations and stay informed about the status of a fundraising drive. By integrating with services like Gmail, Yahoo, Survey Monkey, and Constant Contact, this tool streamlines the process of emailing donations to charitable organizations. 

Features include  

• Event registration, ticketing, integration with Eventbrite;  
• Custom domain, campaign sites, detailed reporting 
• Donation levels 
• Embeddable forms and buttons 
• Peer to Peer fundraising 
• Data analytics 
• Embeddable donor-geographic maps 
• Facebook integration 

Best fit for 

A great crowdfunding site for newer, smaller organizations. 

Charges: 

Fundly does not charge a monthly fee but takes a 4.9% cut of all donations. That is in addition to the 2.9% plus $0.30 processing fee for credit cards.  

3. Donorbox 

DonorBox is an effective online fundraising app compatible with a wide range of CMSs (Content Management Systems). Donation forms, donation buttons, and crowdfunding campaigns are all made more accessible and flexible for NGOs by using this platform. 

Key elements that will help you raise money include:  

• Making donation forms unique to your company in a matter of minutes. 
• Create a crowdfunding page complete with a donation wall and target thermometer. 
• Implement a text-to-donate drive. 
• You may launch your P2P marketing initiative in a matter of minutes. 
• Donorbox Memberships allow you to launch membership-based marketing initiatives quickly. 
• Donate page, sell unlimited tickets, and host your event. 
• Make it possible for contributors to designate which cause their contribution will go toward. 
• Encourage donors to make tribute gifts in memory of a departed loved one. 
• To make it easier for donors to track their contributions and keep track of their receipts, you should let them create an account. 
• Obtain data about patrons and handle ties with financiers. 
• Instruct contributors to pay any associated processing costs if they so choose. 
• Integrate with your current infrastructures, such as MailChimp, Zapier, Double the Donation, Salesforce, and many webs development tools. 

Best fit for 

Nonprofits raise money online and have it synchronized with their website builder (WordPress, Wix, Weebly, Squarespace, or Webflow). 

Pricing 

Donorbox charges a platform fee of 1.5%, while Stripe and PayPal charge 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction for payment processing. The platform charge of 2.95%, among the lowest in the market, covers services including Peer-to-Peer, Events, and Memberships. Donorbox allows your supporters to shoulder these costs on their own. This reduces fundraising software costs for charities while giving donors peace of mind that their donations will be used as intended. 

Add-on services such as MailChimp, Salesforce, and corporate gift matching have their costs. 

4. Donately 

With Donately, you can quickly streamline your fundraising; everything you do is tracked in one sleek dashboard. 

To maximize your fundraising efforts and strengthen your relationships with your donors, this all-inclusive platform provides the following: 

• Donation pages. 
• Embeddable donation forms. 
• Recurring gift options. 
• Data reporting. 
• Peer-to-peer fundraising. 
• A donor portal. 

Best Fit for 

Nonprofits, churches, corporations, and government institutions can all benefit from using this platform. 

Donately’s text messaging features can bolster your group’s communication and help get the word out about your fundraising effort. Your campaign is in your hands with features like unique text codes and user-defined answers. To help you save even more time, Donately can connect with other time-saving programs like Zapier, Google Sheets, HubSpot, and Insightly. 

Pricing 

There are three packages to pick from; the cheapest is the free starter package plus a 4% platform fee. 

5. Tithe.ly 

Tithe.ly is an white label app platform for religious organizations and charitable causes. It provides digital tithing options and integrations with church management systems (ChMS). And if you like, you can even tack on the capability of making an app specifically for your church. These resources do not come cheaply, but they may be well worth the additional monthly cost for certain larger churches. 

Fee for a Transaction 

The base rate for the platform is 2.9% + 30 cents per transaction plus any applicable payment processing costs. Additional features can be added for a nominal monthly charge. Find additional cost information here. 

Features 

• Donors can set up automatic payments on a weekly, biweekly, monthly, or on the 1st/15th of the month through Tithe.ly. 
• You can integrate Tithe.ly with QuickBooks Online 
• Receive daily deposits of donations.  
• Tithe.ly is also available in 50 countries and accepts 8 different currencies. 

Which online donation platform will best serve you? 

As you can see, your non-profit organization can choose from many different online giving platforms, each of which has its own advantages and disadvantages. 

We hope this article has given you the knowledge to select the most appropriate online charity fundraising platform for your needs. Consider the aspects you and your community have identified as must-haves. Consider whether a flat monthly fee or a percentage of transactions is better for your budget and business needs. 

Increasing your church’s fundraising efforts and lasting impact on the world is possible with the right online fundraising solution. 

Conclusion 

Therefore, it is the case. There is a good option among the web tools. Both the cost and the range of features offered by each platform played a role in narrowing the field down to this shortlist. 

However, Sodality should be your go-to if you want a comprehensive online donation platform that will not break the bank but has many helpful extras. Your fundraising effort will be a smashing success with the help of Sodality’s marketing and prospecting tools.