Online Donations

[Dinh]

Anyone know the best solution to accept donations for a 503 nonprofit organization? Its been ages since I've used PayPal, but I would like to get some recommendations and critique in here.

 

[ripken204]

paypal is probably the simplest to set up

 

[Tawnos]

Skip paypal. Use Google checkout or similar.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Read up on Paypal IPN (Instant Payment Notification). I just finished implementing it for a game server donation system to give people items in game for donating. Works pretty nicely once you figure out how to do it as you can automate the entire transaction.

Basically you write a php (or language of choice) script that accepts a POST from Paypal (you have to configure the url in your account or when creating the pay button) When a transaction goes through Paypal will send info to this script (the listener). From there you do whatever you need to do with the data. Setup shipping, etc...

 

[noobman]

Anyone know the best solution to accept donations for a 503 nonprofit organization? Its been ages since I've used PayPal, but I would like to get some recommendations and critique in here.

If you're looking to build a web page for a fundraiser or a website that supports donations you can go directly with a payment processor (PayPal, Moneris, Google Checkout, etc) or you can go with a company that provides online fundraising software for more robust solutions (user accounts, fundraiser event management, reporting and statistics on donations received, etc etc)

Convio, Blackbaud, and Artez are some of the industry's key players.

What you choose really depends on the needs of the nonprofit organization. For example, the Canadian Cancer Society uses Convio, as seen by their donations page and virtually any of their charitable event pages.

 

[Dinh]

Thanks guys. I will look into these.