Online Fundraising Platform for Nonprofits - Platforms and Sites for Donation Fundraising Tools

Did you know that 63% of donors prefer to give online with a credit or debit card! That’s more than half of all of a nonprofit's income is coming from online platforms. And this trend is only growing year over year. So whether you’re starting your first nonprofit, or long term organizations looking for new ways to generate donations, there is no doubt that an online presence isn’t just smart, it’s now becoming a necessity.

There is no doubt the internet offers unparalleled opportunities for organizations to connect with a global audience as well as engage with them in a plethora of ways from stories to videos on a whole slew of different platforms. The problem is, with so much opportunity online, it can become extremely difficult to keep track of everything and gauge what’s working and what’s not.

This is where online fundraising platforms created specifically for the nonprofit sector can be an invaluable tool and resource. These platforms can do a whole lot more than just accept donations online securely. With websites such as Paybee you can not only offer a slew of fundraising campaign options both on and off line, but websites like ours can also allow you to run entire organizations from one easy to use user dashboard.

Imagine being able to communicate with anyone involved in your organization, from staff and volunteers to your supporters and donors while keeping track of all your communications and even being able to set up automatic alerts and create workflows so everyone is always instantly updated on any changes and updates within your organization. And do all of this while integrating the software with all your social media channels and any other forms of communications like text messaging.

Not only can the websites greatly enhance your organizations and help them to grow to new heights, it can save you a considerable amount of time and money while doing it all. This frees up a ton of resources that would have been wasted on idle tasks and can now be used to further your organization’s mission.

With the world doing more and more online each and every day, having an online presence in the nonprofit sector has never been more crucial. If you’re still not online or you’re looking to enhance your online experience for all involved in your cause, then take a look at all Paybee and other similar ones can do for you. In fact, we have a free online demo so you can see just how drastically we can change your entire operation flow for the better. Sign up now, it only takes a minute!

Popular Online Fundraising Platforms for Nonprofits 

Right now there are actually a few options when it comes to online platforms, some of these tools are even free or have differing pricing structures so they’re more affordable than ever regardless of the size of your nonprofit. The problem is deciding which one is the best fit for all of your organization’s specific needs. That’s why we’ve created a list of what we believe are the top websites in the sector today, and seeing this is what we do every single day, we believe our list is extremely accurate.

PayBee - Fundraising Tools and Apps for Excellence

Welcome to PayBee, although we may be slightly biased, we still believe that our platform is the best online fundraising platform available today. Our commitment to offering an impressive array of nonprofit-specific features at remarkably competitive rates is one of the reasons we’ve done so well in the nonprofit sector.

With sophisticated yet user-friendly tools, your organization is able to seamlessly orchestrate in-person and hybrid events all from any device that’s connected to the internet. In addition you can create customizable online donation forms aligned with your nonprofit's branding and oversee every aspect of your online presence via our intuitive dashboard.

Organize and perform a ton of fundraising responsibilities, from staff management to scheduling, ensuring your gala—whether golfing or a Chinese silent auction—is a resounding success. And you can do all of this using our event hosting modules, streamlining communication with all involved, and expanding your global reach through live streaming and interactive networking opportunities.

With PayBee, organizing a successful fundraiser has never been simpler or more enjoyable. You can check out a demo here to see all we can do for your organization.

Fundly - The Crowdfunding Option to Fundraise

Although fundly is an online platform created for the nonprofit sector, they go about things a bit differently being more of a crowdfunding option to fuel your fundraising efforts. Ideal for smaller Charities and foundations, Fundly focuses on crowdsourcing and ease of use for your organization, giving you the opportunity to benefit from their large donor pool on their website.

While it may not boast the extensive toolset of other platforms, Fundly shines with its peer-to-peer fundraising feature, allowing supporters to create personal fundraising pages and generate additional contributions with minimal effort from your team. With event management tools and seamless integration with platforms like Eventbrite, Fundly simplifies campaign launches and provides decent analytics for monitoring your charity’s crucial data.

Plus, its social sharing features and compatibility with Facebook group fundraising make it a valuable asset for your social media campaigns. When simplicity and effectiveness are the most important part of a platform, Fundly is the crowdfunding choice for your fundraising needs.

Donorbox - Virtual Fundraising Software

Donorbox is another solid choice we've included in our article as a fundraising platform for nonprofits solution and is easy to setup and begin getting started. Used by 50,000+ organizations across 96 countries, Donorbox offers online mobile giving tools and features without upfront costs or contractual complexities which can be beneficial for those organizations looking for cost-effective fundraising alternatives.

A few notable features include visual crowdfunding with goal thermometers and donor walls, text-to-give initiatives, and quick peer-to-peer campaigns. Donorbox also allows membership drives, event ticketing, and live fundraising via its innovative Donorbox Live™ Kiosk app.

Your also able to accept payments via various methods, including Google Pay, Apple Pay, Venmo, credit cards, bank transfers, and PayPal. Donorbox even integrates cryptocurrency and stock donations seamlessly. Connect effortlessly with systems like MailChimp, Zapier, Salesforce, and other popular web applications to make their software even more powerful.

With support for 20+ currencies and donation forms in 11 languages, Donorbox embraces global giving. Transparent pricing includes a $0 monthly fee, a 1.75% platform fee, and payment processing fees (2.2% + $0.30 for Stripe and PayPal). Upgrade to Pro for enhanced features or opt for Premium for personalized support and coaching.

FundRazr - Raise Funds with a Peer Centric Approach

FundRazr is a virtual fundraising platform for nonprofits specializing in peer-to-peer fundraising initiatives, positioning itself as a transparent solution with its "Simply Free" tier. However, they are not truly free as when the donor decides not to cover the cost of the transaction, your organization is still responsible for the payment which varies based on third-party rates or negotiated nonprofit rates.

However, they are not truly free as when the donor decides not to absorb the cost of the transaction, your organization is still responsible for the payment which varies based on third-party rates or negotiated nonprofit rates which makes the whole idea of free fundraising sort of mute.

While donors have the option to cover platform fees with tips, the platform offers competitive pricing models, including a standard 5% platform fee when your donor decides not to absorb the costs offering budget-conscious organizations an avenue for fundraising without substantial upfront costs.

BetterWorld – The No-Cost Option for your Charity

BetterWorld offers a comprehensive suite of fundraising tools designed to empower nonprofits and individuals to make a difference without the burden of cost, meaning they are completely free to use. They achieve this by asking your donors for a contribution to their platform. So while yes, the platform is completely free to use, we understand some organizations won’t exactly appreciate their donors being asked for yet another donation on their check out forms, so be aware.

Otherwise this platform has grown and is still a solid solution, especially for the extremely budget conscious. With just a few simple steps, you can register your organization or nonprofit, build a campaign tailored to your cause, and easily share it with donors using pre-created templates and social media integrations.

Similar to PayBee, this company offer both online and in-person event solution which is not ordinarily the case. So if you're planning an annual gala, peer-to-peer fundraising initiative, tournament, or auction, BetterWorld is able to accommodate them all and do it all pretty well.

The platform also boasts several other helpful features, including video integration, text message notifications, consignment items, an image library, and an automated fulfillment center, streamlining operations and enhancing donor engagement.

Key Features of Top Online Fundraising Platforms

In the realm of fundraising platforms for nonprofits, a plethora of options vie for attention, each boasting a myriad of helpful tools. However, nonprofits require specialized toolsets often overlooked by general-purpose platforms. This underscores the importance of opting for websites tailored explicitly for nonprofit needs, eschewing one-size-fits-all solutions.

Platforms not purpose-built for nonprofits tend to suffer from bloat, sluggishness, and convoluted navigation due to extraneous features. Despite these, nonprofits end up footing the bill for functionalities they never utilize. Identifying websites genuinely beneficial to your nonprofit entails recognizing key features essential for well-designed Software as a Service (SaaS) products. Delving into each feature's significance will help your organization make informed decisions when selecting a solution based on your specific needs and goals.

Comprehensive Donor and Donation Management

When examining an online fundraising software for nonprofits, the number one reason for using a platform is to be able to secure donations in multiple ways while making it extremely easy for your donors to complete their donations. This includes everything from efficient management of donor databases, including contact information, donation history, preferences, donation management and communication logs, to offering an easy and intuitive giving experience to anyone looking to support your cause. All in a secure and easy to navigate environment.

This all begins with flexible and user-friendly donation forms that can be easily customized to align with your organization’s branding and messaging and includes popular payment gateways necessary to securely process donations online such as credit/debit cards, PayPal, and bank transfers as well as others.

Furthermore, the capability to set up and manage recurring donation plans is crucial as 57% of donors are enrolled in a recurring giving program and give 42% more per year than one-time donors! This is simply because when you allow donors to contribute automatically on a scheduled basis, you’re actually enhancing donor retention and lifetime value. That’s a massive income boost for any nonprofit!

Your chosen platform should also offer functionality to track and manage corporate matching gift programs, enabling charities to leverage employer matching contributions. These programs while still a smaller percentage of giving compared to recurring donations still offer some easy wins for your organization such as securing new donors with little effort as the company is the one that introduces and vouches for your nonprofit.

Peer-to-peer fundraising is another way to grow your support base with little work as your supporters are the ones who are creating personal fundraising pages and soliciting donations from their networks on your behalf. This a great way to help you raise awareness about your mission and goals while also hopefully adding more income to achieve them and all basically without needing to do any additional work yourself.

Moreover, robust campaign management tools greatly assist in the creation, management, and promotion of fundraising campaigns streamlining registration, ticket sales, and attendance tracking for fundraising events like galas, walks, or auctions for all sorts of fundraising online giving trends . Always be sure there are a number of different fundraising tools available and that they match the ways in which your organization does its own nonprofit fundraising.

And of course no platform is complete without a host of backend donor communication and engagement tools, including personalized outreach, automated thank-you emails, newsletters, and updates on their donation’s impact, all of which help to foster strong donor relationships and retention rates. This should also include tools for tracking and analyzing your online donations in real-time reporting, generating comprehensive reports, and deriving insights into donor behavior and trends based on actual data are essential.

User-Friendly Interface

While you may not think this needs to be a priority, having a user-friendly interface is an important part to any well thought out and built online software. The user experience isn’t just for your supporters and donors, it needs to be just as intuitive and easy to use for you and your team. After all, the last thing you want is a platform that will take days to learn how to use an online fundraising tool effectively, eating into time and resources that could be better used else where.

This all begins with an intuitive dashboard for the backend of your platform where you and your team will do most of the daily tasks required to run your nonprofit. Things like paying bills, assigning tasks to your staff, keeping track of employees and setting up fundraising campaigns should all be easy to manage from the back-end and accessible to anyone with access.

And on the frontend, clear menus and pages should be easy to find by supporters and site navigation should fit into your prospects normal expectations. Navigating from page to page should be easy and branding should always be consistent. Your traffic should never feel they are on the wrong site, in the wrong place or unsure if your page is the right one to donate funds to.

A user friendly interface that is easy to use for everyone creates less friction when it comes to allowing donations, as well as allowing your team to work without spending time on finding the necessary pages or data they need to keep your organization running at peak performance.

Customizable Fundraising Pages

Customizable fundraising pages allow you to not only build and keep trust with those spending time on them, they also allow you to create and test page layouts, button placement and a host of other variables in order to increase conversions and bring more income into your organization. Any nonprofit fundraising platforms that don't offer these features for your project are most likely not going to be the best option.

Consistent branding is always a must and many websites come with this type of customization options right out of the box. If it doesn’t, we suggest you seriously look somewhere else for your solution. This is the same when it comes to adding logos, changing fonts and their sizes as well as colors and other HTML elements on the page.

Another thing to look for is what sorts of content can be added to a page. You should be able to include any type of content you want, from text, video and images to MP3s and even PDFs. Having multiple content types on a page can help keep your donors engaged longer, bringing them deeper into the donor cycle.

Your payment buttons are always an important aspect of any page, as well as your call to actions on the donation form. These should always be tested for a slew of variables including button sizes, colors and what wording your using to get an individual to start giving to your cause. The more you test and get serious about the process, the more financial support you can garner from the same amount of traffic to your platform.

Robust Security Measures

Whenever your accepting some sort of payment online, compliance and keeping your donor’s personal data safe and secure are always real world issues you’ll need to deal with. Nonprofits need to comply with sensitive information protection laws, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union or the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in the United States.

These types of laws, rules and guidelines are meant to keep your supporter’s financial and personal data safe from hackers as well as protect them from the ways in which the platform itself collects and uses this data. The platform itself should utilize encryption protocols, such as SSL/TLS, to encrypt data transmitted between users' devices and the platform's servers. This prevents unauthorized access to sensitive information during transmission.

Furthermore you’ll need to be sure that the platform supports secure payment processing methods and complies with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) requirements for handling credit card information. Look for websites that partner with reputable payment gateways like Authorize.net, Paypal, Stripe and others and use tokenization to securely store payment data.

Another aspect of security is protecting personal donor data from unauthorized access. Your platform should come with firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and you should always be doing regular security audits. Data should be stored on encrypted servers when not in use in order to prevent breaches. Implement strong authentication mechanisms, such as multi-factor authentication (MFA), to verify the identity of users accessing the platform helps prevent unauthorized access to sensitive data and administrative functionalities.

And if there ever is a problem, the platform provider should have a clear incident response plan to handle security issues effectively, including procedures for incident detection, containment, mitigation, and communication with affected parties.

Integration Capabilities

This is always mandatory for any software solution, including online platforms. Allowing your established workflow to be integrated with your platform as well as other software and social media sites can give your platform even more power, as well as allowing you to continue using certain tools you and your staff are already accustomed to using.

Many larger nonprofits need more analytical data than most platforms can provide, so they choose to integrate with a CRM software in order to achieve the level of analytics they require. While others need a more robust bookkeeping and accounting software solutions due to their individual needs and size. Websites that can allow these types of software programs to seamlessly integrate through their backends can save an incredible amount of time and effort from you and your staff.

Then there is all of your communication channels like social media platforms and email marketing software. All of these extensions should easily be included so that everything can be managed from one convenient place for anyone with access to these tools. This allows everyone to be much more productive as well as making sure everyone is getting all their information from one main source, making sure mistakes aren’t made or work that has been completed isn’t reassigned wasting time and resources.

Comprehensive Reporting and Analytics

As the nonprofit sector becomes more competitive, many nonprofits are finding data to be a serious help to outperform their competitors. With a solid CRM system in place there really isn’t any data that can’t be measured. From how your traffic is engaging with your website, to how well a fundraising campaign did, everything can be tracked and measured in order to be examined and find areas where your fundraising event can be improved.

Just imagine clearly understanding exactly what types of content your supporters prefer and learning how they are engaging with them. Or understand why a fundraising campaign was successful or not so that you can replicate successes and improve on any failures. These types of opportunities exist for all nonprofits, but without hard fundraising data to analyze, many nonprofits are just hoping something works, or guessing why the do or don’t rather than knowing without a shadow of a doubt.

Comprehensive reporting and analytics gives you facts that can help grow your organization and keep it from making the same mistakes again and again. More and more you will see charitable organizations using analytics in order to remain competitive and find new areas of growth. So finding a platform that can offer your these features or allows you to integrate a solid CRM software is a huge plus!

Innovative Fundraising Ideas with Online Platforms

There is so much you can do with a robust online platform that has been designed with the nonprofit in mind. Platforms like Paybee allows for a wide variety of digital fundraising features and options to grow any type of non-profit, from mental health charities to animal charities, websites like these can transform your nonprofit from the ground up.

Virtual Fundraising Events and Webinars

Without a doubt, having the opportunity to hold virtual events and webinars is an opportunity no nonprofit can afford to miss. Just think of Covid or something similar, many organizations would have folded if not for online opportunities.

And with the proper online nonprofit platform, holding all sorts of fundraising events and webinars is possible both through their websites as well as their apps. From virtual galas to silent auctions, virtual fundraising has never reached an audience like it does today. Anyone from anywhere in the world can now find your organization, participate in your events and give a gift all from the comfort of their home.

But virtual events aren’t just convenient for everyone, they’re also a lot cheaper to organize and run, not to mention scalable behind all comprehension making them some of the most profitable ways to fundraise. And the amount of engagement you can foster during these events make them an even more profitable venture for any organization.

These flexible solutions can offer all sorts of unique ways for donors to participate as well as learn what you and your charitable cause is all about. And with our platform Paybee, you can hold both online and live events while streaming everything on all of your social media platforms live to boot! It really is incredible what you can do with the web, the only limits seem to be the limits to your ideas.

Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Campaigns

Another amazing tool you can incorporate into your fundraising that many websites offer is the ability to offer your donors the ability to create and run their own peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns.

These types of fundraising campaigns are more like free cherries on top of everything else you’re doing. This is because unlike most other fundraising events, your donors are doing all the work, not you or your team.

Not only are they creating their own fundraiser to help you raise more, they are sharing their pages with family and friends, meaning the people looking at their event are most often open to what their friends are involved with. This gives your organization even more reach to new potential donors and helps raise awareness, all without needing to advertise or making a ton of cold calls.

Many charitable organizations are catching on to the power of offering their supports options like these as they cut down on staff maintenance, and are usually more profitable than cold campaigns.

Recurring Donation Programs

As we stated above, 57% of donors are enrolled in a recurring giving program and give 42% more per year than one-time donors! This is so important. To disregard this one option is to potential cut your yearly donations by half. Something we doubt any organization can afford to do.

And the best part is you can incorporate the idea of a recurring donation in everything you do. Anytime someone sees a call to action and decides to donate, all you need to do is make an option on their cart page to give the gift once, once a month, or once per whatever time period they feel most comfortable with.

And once these types of payments are set up, it’s extremely rare the donor cancels them, which means you can potentially be receiving recurring income for your organization for years to come!

Matching Gifts and Corporate Sponsorships Giving

Corporate America is always looking for ways to increase their positive images, and a great way to do that is to offer a matching gift corporate sponsorship program.

Matching gifts and sponsorships are initiated by a businesses for a specific cause or organization. The idea is anyone that belongs to their company and makes a donation, the company will match that gift, in essence doubling the donation.

This gives the company a tax write off as well as the employee, and it looks good that the corporation is supporting the local community through a grassroots campaign they’re presently doing business in. It’s also a win for the charity as all donation made will be doubled automatically, and your organization is the attention of all the company’s employees. It’s a great way to extend your reach without doing any of the work yourself.

Crowdfunding for Specific Projects and Donations

There are specific types of websites that offer crowdsourcing opportunities. These websites are a bit different than platforms like PayBee or Classy Pay as their draw is they offer anyone in the nonprofit sector or corporate sector an opportunity to get traffic even if they are brand new.

Crowdfunding websites like GoFundMe and Fundly offer smaller organizations ways to be seen without the organization needing to drive their own traffic to their own websites while allowing people to give to your cause easily. The negative of a crowdfunding platform is you often have limited control over your own pages, and many of these types of websites don’t offer nearly the amount of tools or features that websites like Paybee do.

But crowdsourcing can still be a viable option for very small nonprofits or when you have a specific reason to fundraise like a sports team fundraising for uniforms or similar crowdfunding projects.

FAQs on Online Fundraising Platforms

What are the major benefits of using online fundraising software?

The major benefits include versatility, cost effectiveness and the ability to reach a global audience instantaneously for all your fundraisers. Plus the convenience for your donors, to not use an online giving platform is to severely limit the growth of your organization.

How does an online fundraising platform secure my data and that of my donors?

There are a variety of encryption protocols and security measures that websites use to secure their data. Some measures are required for all financial transactions and are monitored by organizations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union or the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in the United States.

Can I customize my fundraising campaigns to match my organization's brand?

Yes, you can usually customize practically any part of a page or site. Any platform that doesn’t offer customization ability out of the box is probably not one you should be considering.

What are the typical service fees associated with online fundraising platforms?

Almost all platforms have some sort price or set or a transaction fee usually based on financial transactions like donations, or platform fees that can be a percentage of your income, or flat fees for certain tools and features. Each platform is different, so you’ll need to do your own research regarding pricing.