Using donor management software such as church donation software and non-profit Donor Management System is replete with benefits such as managing donors’ data, networking tools, etc. A crucial component would be a checkout page for the online payment processing section.
Cheques and cash as modes of payment are still widely used. However, with the spread of digital payment options and the ease associated with the near-instantaneous transfer of funds, many embrace them as alternative modes of payment.
What is a Checkout Page?
The checkout page on any website is simply a page where the customer completes its payment. With this feature, a customer, here a donor, can add selections into the cart and can then avail benefits of various checkout options. The donor can then make an online payment, i.e., bank transfer, Credit Card, Debit Card, and various wallets with choices of payment processors like Paypal, etc.
If you wish to start accepting online and mobile donations, you need to have an online payment processing tool as an add-on to the donor management system. Payment processing operations comprise a part of the backend operations that accept incoming funds from your donors and deposit them into your non-profit’s bank account.
Be it a church donation software or a non-profit donor management system, the inclusion of payment processing in the tool will make receiving funds easy.
Steps Involved In Payment Processing
The first payment processing step gets initiated when a donor makes an online donation, purchases merchandise, tickets for a fundraiser, etc. Supporters often make contributions to the non-profit using their smartphones or other devices. When a donor uses your online donation page or a mobile app to contribute, they make online payments using various available convenient options.
The primary use of the payment gateway is to give you the convenience of making an online payment. After filling in some basic information, the payment gateway processes the payment online securely in an encrypted way.
The information shared as part of the payment process is stored in your donor database. As the donor makes an online contribution, they also submit their details such as name, address, etc. This information gets automatically logged into your database. The final part of payment processing is when the donated amount reaches the non-profit’s account. The funds from the merchant get transferred to the non-profit, which can take anything between 24-48 hours. This is the standard processing time for funds to be released.
Benefits of Accepting Online Payment
Without a doubt, one can say that accepting online payments expands the reach of the non-profit when soliciting donations from would-be donors. Collecting donations from potential donors across borders would be a big boon for non-profit organizations, as finances and budgets are often the biggest stumbling block for arranging funds for their cause.
The merchant has to contend with lower risks while accepting online payments instead of the traditional payment methods such as cash and cheques, which come with their share of difficulties, such as handling large volumes of cash and verifying the integrity of the cheques presented. If not for online payment, the donors would have to wait a few days at the very least to receive confirmation that the funds issued by them have reached the non-profit. However, thanks to the spread of online payments, donors no longer have to wait to get confirmation of their donations.
Online Payments: Some Drawbacks
There are no major disadvantages per se when it comes to online transactions. However, there are certain potential challenges that you will need to consider before embracing online payments for collecting donations.
As with any system that relies on technical infrastructure, online payments too may be subject to outages and involuntary downtime. Periodic maintenance runs conducted by payment gateways or credit card companies are also factors. However, these usually are scheduled for when the website may not have much visitor traffic.
Key Benefit of a Checkout Page
Talking about the key benefits, a top few are; A checkout page enables donors to store the list of selections and view them later. It gives the donor an option to make online payments conveniently. A checkout page also enables storing donor data into a database for non-profits. This data will be helpful in various analyses and donation expansion later on. One can also know if someone has reached the payment page but has not made the payment. Can connect with them to help them out and get your conversion.
Conclusion
Considering the increase in the popularity of e-commerce in recent years, the advantages of accepting digital payments have made it appealing to merchants to accept online payments. People can donate without their geographical location hampering their willingness to donate. Accepting online payments has become a prerequisite for non-profit organizations, whether they aim to use church donation software or non-profit donor software to support donation soliciting activities.
The checkout page is like the backbone of online payment processing. Both donors and non-profits reap checkout benefits. Both can easily keep track of their activities and retrieve their data anytime.
