You Are Overpaying for Your Online Fundraising
With online fundraising, your organization can reach out to more potential donors than with traditional fundraising. However, most fundraising platforms want to keep a large percentage (3.5% to 5%) of the raised donations on top of the credit card processing fees. This is usually challenging for small, non-profit organizations as steep platform fees end up unnecessarily inflating the fundraising expense. Perhaps, this might make you consider whether you are overpaying for your online fundraising.
The cost of online fundraising is a major concern for donors
According to the Association of Fundraising Professionals, many donors that make their donations online are becoming increasingly sensitive to fundraising costs and over-solicitation. According to a new study by the association, donors say that the move to online fundraising is not just due to the convenience that it gives. Donors are also concerned about the costs of fundraising. While 50% of the donors say that they fundraise online due to the convenience of this approach, 25% of the cited donors said cost-effectiveness of online fundraising is an important factor.
The report notes that while donating online is a conscious choice that is aimed at maximizing returns on a fundraising investment, using costly methods to solicit donors and increasing giving frequency is counter-productive.
So, how much should you pay for your online fundraising?
When determining the amount of money to pay for your online fundraising, focus on keeping as much funds in the organization as possible. Ideally, choose an online fundraising platform that is more cost-effective. With the best platform, your organization can pay as low as 1% of the amount raised through online fundraising and reduce the fundraising cost by 70%. You can determine the cost of online fundraising for your organization by using our calculator to compare our pricing to the pricing of other online fundraising platforms. Using this calculator will help you easily identify how much you are overpaying for your online fundraising and how much more of your funds your organization could retain.
Basically, your organization would not be fundraising if it had funds to burn. So, why should it give another person or organization a large percentage of the received donations? Your organization can do a lot of good things with the money that is saved when you choose the right online fundraising platform. For instance, this money can cater for the administrative expenses of operations or it could go directly towards your cause.
Why should you care about overpaying for online fundraising?
Finding and convincing sufficient supporters to donate for your organization so that you can hit the set fundraising target is real hard work. It therefore doesn’t make sense when you give away a lot of the raised money to the provider of a platform for fundraising online. Additionally, some donors will question the high amount of money that you pay to the provider of the online fundraising platform. Therefore, to hit your online fundraising goal with lesser effort and faster, choose a platform that charges you a small percentage of what you raise online, while providing you with the necessary tools to be successful.
Focus on what your organization pays for
Only using price to judge an online fundraising platform is not the right way to go. Just like with other services, consider the tools and features that you are paying for. A platform that has more innovative features and tools will enable you to raise more money and allow you to properly build donor trust.
Allowing potential donors to donate for your organization online is very important for the success of any fundraising campaign. Since most people in the contemporary society prefer donating through an online platform, you need to use a platform that allows them to do so with ease. Ideally, choose a fundraising platform that gives you everything necessary to easily and quickly spread information about your campaign. Also choose a platform that enables you to keep as much funds from your efforts as possible. This will reduce the effort and time that you will need to hit your fundraising target. Such a platform will also convince potential donors that their donations are being spent on a worthy cause.