If you’re looking to accept payments online, your organization has probably considered using PayPal, a common payment processing tool for businesses, nonprofits, and individuals. However, upon closer inspection, you’ll find that it doesn’t offer the full range of features that your nonprofit needs to reach your fundraising goals.
In this guide, we’ll help you find PayPal alternatives to meet your nonprofit’s specific needs. Here’s what we’ll cover:
- What are the benefits of PayPal alternatives?
- Top 8 PayPal Alternatives for Nonprofits
- Additional Resources for PayPal Alternatives
Whether you’re considering PayPal or are already using their tool, you should be aware that there are better options that offer more customization, ease of use, and integrations. Let’s get started!
What are the benefits of using PayPal alternatives?
While PayPal aims its features towards the general public, the small details of a high-performing online donation page are overlooked. For instance, donors using PayPal have to go through a series of pages and clicks before accessing your donation form. This complicated process can lead to donor abandonment and cause your nonprofit to miss out on precious funds. Plus, PayPal puts limits on your account so that you can only withdraw $500 a month, meaning your nonprofit won’t be able to withdraw all of the donations it needs to fund important projects.
Thankfully, there are several PayPal alternatives specifically geared towards nonprofits. These software providers provide your organization with:
- Greater customization: Creating a customized donation form will help highlight your nonprofit’s mission and make it easier for donors to know how their funds will be used. For instance, if your university is looking to raise money from alumni, your online donation form will look slightly different than an animal shelter raising money online.
- Simplified giving: Most PayPal alternatives provide ways to cut down on the time it takes to make a donation so that fewer donors abandon the process. For instance, some organizations have opted to use passwordless login systems that allow donors to make an account without the hassle of remembering a password.
- Greater technical support: If your nonprofit ever runs into technical problems, you should expect excellent customer service. Most online giving providers have a technical support team that is available to answer your questions and resolve any problems. With so much support readily available, your nonprofit can save time trying to contact the technical team and focus the efforts elsewhere.
With alternatives to PayPal, you’ll also be able to create a donation that can be completed entirely on your nonprofit website. Donors won’t be redirected to a different site, which will eliminate any confusion about who is receiving their gift.
Top 8 PayPal Alternatives for Nonprofits
1. Snowball — Best PayPal Alternative for Fundraising
Paypal Alternative Overview
At Snowball, we make fundraising easy with unlimited fundraising campaigns, customizable donation pages, and mobile giving.
Plus, it only takes a few steps to complete a donation, thanks to our passwordless process. When someone wants to donate or make a purchase, all they have to do is click the instant payment button and their gift is made!
These first-time donors are also prompted to enter their payment information, which will be saved into the Snowball system. Any future purchases can be made with a simple click of a button, helping to reduce donor abandonment.
Standout PayPal Alternative Features
Some of the many features at Snowball include:
- Mobile-optimized donation pages
- Customizable forms that fit your brand
- Instant payment buttons
- Secure payment processing
Branded donation pages look more professional and establish trust, making donors feel confident about using your site.
Paypal Alternative Cost
With Snowball’s premium plan, you receive access to unlimited fundraising campaigns, customizable donation pages, and text-to-give. Plus, your nonprofit will only pay a 2.5% + 30¢ per transaction.
2. Fundly — PayPal Alternative for Crowdfunding
Paypal Alternative Overview
Fundly is an alternative to PayPal that focuses on helping donors raise money through social sharing. Their leading crowdfunding platform allows nonprofits and individuals to build a fully customized fundraising page with their logo and brand’s colors.
Additionally, nonprofits can include perks for specific donation amounts—a feature not available with PayPal. These incentives can be the push many supporters need to contribute.
Standout PayPal Alternative Features
With Fundly’s platform, organizations can expect the following features:
- Crowdfunding updates
- Space to upload images and videos
- Social sharing buttons
- Incentives and giving levels
Fundly also offers an advanced version of their platform called Fundly Pro. Organizations will have access to even more features like the ability to create peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns.
Paypal Alternative Cost
Setting up a crowdfunding campaign is free! Organizations will only pay a platform fee and 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction payment processing fee once they start receiving funds.
3. Qgiv — PayPal Alternative for Nonprofit Events
Paypal Alternative Overview
Qgiv makes it easy for your supporters to give. With their on-site kiosks and mobile giving options, you can provide donors with multiple giving options and raise more at your fundraising events.
Standout PayPal Alternative Features
Individuals can use Qgiv to:
- Create donation forms
- Launch peer-to-peer fundraising
- Accept on-site gifts
- Enable mobile text giving
Qgiv is available to nonprofits large and small. Your team can even get started using Qgiv for free with their Start package! Once you’re ready to grow your fundraising efforts, they also offer more advanced plans your team can choose from.
Paypal Alternative Cost
Qgiv’s online fundraising tools start at just $25/month with a 3.95% + $0.30 transaction fee.
4. Donately — PayPal Alternative for Nonprofits, Churches, Individuals, and More
Paypal Alternative Overview
Donately is a great PayPal alternative because it’s simple to start using their many online fundraising tools to accept gifts from supporters. Not only can your organization process donations, but you can also build beautiful giving pages and donation forms to get your community excited about giving back.
Standout PayPal Alternative Features
Individuals can use Donately to:
- Embed donation forms
- Launch giving pages
- Accept and track offline gifts
- Integrate with apps
Donately is a PayPal alternative that meets the needs of all kinds of nonprofit organizations, from charities to churches. Even if your team doesn’t have extensive online fundraising experience, their intuitive tools and interface will make it easy for you to get started fundraising in no time.
Paypal Alternative Cost
Donately charges just $69/month for organizations raising over $100,000 a year. After that benchmark, their rates decrease as you reach big fundraising milestones.
5. Soapbox Engage — Best PayPal Alternative for Salesforce Users
Paypal Alternative Overview
Soapbox Engage provides nonprofits with an easy and affordable way to build engagement through online fundraising, event registration, and donor management. It also integrates seamlessly with the Salesforce CRM, allowing you to pull data and make better informed decisions about your donors. Pull from your data to inform your decisions in every aspect of your operations.
Standout PayPal Alternative Features
Soapbox Engage offers some core features as a top PayPal alternative for nonprofits on Salesforce, including:
- Seamless integration with the Salesforce CRM
- Fully customizable and unlimited donation forms
- Flexible options to choose your processing service
- Intuitive data reporting and analytics tools
The Soapbox donations app is a perfect way to build out your Salesforce toolkit. Its features and options make it one of the most useful donation forms and payment processing tools. Plus, you can easily activate peer-to-peer fundraising options for donors.
Paypal Alternative Cost
The Soapbox Engage donations app starts at $59/month with considerable discounts for nonprofits. For all-in-one functionality, their unlimited plan gives you access to six of their most popular Salesforce apps.
6. Venmo — PayPal Alternative for Social Sharing
Paypal Alternative Overview
With Venmo, sending donations to nonprofits is easy. Plus, it’s a social sharing platform, meaning users can comment on their friend’s transactions and inspire their peers to continue donating to your cause.
Standout PayPal Alternative Features
Individuals can use Venmo to:
- Send and receive money
- Make purchases through mobile apps
- Transfer money to their banks
This alternative to PayPal offers a more enjoyable experience when sending money, because every user has a feed that shows their friends’ transactions.
Paypal Alternative Cost
Venmo is completely free to use. Individuals can send money for free using their Venmo balance, bank accounts, and debit cards.
7. Google Wallet — PayPal Alternative for Personal Use
Paypal Alternative Overview
Google Wallet is a simple and easy to use alternative to PayPal. With over a billion active email accounts, you’ll be able to send to and receive money from practically anyone.
Standout PayPal Alternative Features
Some of the features you can expect from Google Wallet include:
- Request payments from friends and family
- Data encryption and fraud protection
- Direct deposits to your bank account
The money that’s sent through Google Wallet can be directly deposited into your bank account so there’s no need to transfer money between applications.
Paypal Alternative Cost
Users can send and receive money with Google Wallet for free; they just need to have a Gmail account.
8. Giveffect — PayPal Alternative for Donor Management
Paypal Alternative Overview
Giveffect is a comprehensive nonprofit management software that can consolidate donor retention and event-planning into one helpful package.
While Paypal can only handle payment processing, Giveffect can handle event management and payment processing, making your entire organization’s fundraising campaign more effective and organized.
If you need an app that performs like Paypal but can also take care of other fundraising tasks like wealth screening and data analytics, then Giveffect is right for you.
Standout PayPal Alternative Features
Giveffect has some great fundraising features like:
- Peer-to-peer fundraising functionality
- Wealth and major gift screening
- Personal and corporate fundraising
Streamline your development plans and budget design by using one effective and efficient software.
Paypal Alternative Cost
GiveEffect offers a variety of plans depending on your nonprofit’s goals and needs, so see the pricing page of their website for more details!
Additional Resources for PayPal Alternatives
PayPal may be a popular online payment platform, but it’s not the only one. From platforms that specialize in crowdfunding to mobile fundraising, there are plenty of other alternatives to help your nonprofit raise more.
For more information, check out these amazing additional resources:
- Complete Text-to-Give Guide for Nonprofits and Fundraisers. Looking for more information on mobile fundraising? Check out our complete guide on text-to-give tools.
- Mobile Giving & Fundraising: Complete Intro for Nonprofits. Mobile giving is a crucial tool for fundraising in the nonprofit space. Our guide explains best practices for implementing mobile giving and why it’s necessary.
- Virtual Auctions: How to Plan A Fruitful Event in 5 Steps. Virtual auctions bring a favorite charity event to the digital realm. This guide walks you through the main steps for pulling off a successful event.
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