Ensuring that your charity offers flexible payment options could improve your donations.
Here’s how you can do it:
There’s a large variety of payment options in regular use today. While that’s excellent news, it can become a source of frustration when the service a charity use does not match with the preferred payment method of the donors. Not offering one of the essential payment options could decrease your income from donations. That is why you should ensure that your charity can receive payments in as many ways as possible. Here are the four payment options your charity should keep readily available.
Option #1. Credit and Debit Cards
It is a fact that cash has been widely replaced by credit and debit cards. In addition to the usual way of accepting payments through a card reader, you can also make online payments available. To do this, you can launch an e-commerce site and include a payment gateway. Bear in mind that customer information security in online payments is your responsibility, so you may only want to use industry-approved services.
Option #2. BACS, CHAPS, and Faster Payments:
BACS is a way of pulling funds out of an account or moving them into one. These kinds of money transfers are respectively called direct debit and direct credit. However, the process takes three days to complete, making it less convenient for payments. CHAPS was introduced to address the issue. It functions in the same way as BACS, with the main difference being that transfers are instantaneous. While the system is fast and secure, it comes with a relatively costly transfer fee. This makes it better suited for substantial payments. Faster Payments is the latest variant of the BACS system that’s ideal for smaller payments. It doesn’t come with a three-day waiting time of BACS, nor the pricey fees charged through CHAPS. But the limitation with Faster Payments is in terms of the maximum amount of money you can send. Remember that to ensure you can receive payments via these systems, you will need to get the FCA’s appropriate license as a Payment or E-Money Institution. Note that the process is somewhat complicated and many requirements are involved.
Option #3. Mobile Payments:
Mobile payment apps are becoming the norm for a large number of online purchases and donations. The convenience of this method is understandably appealing – once the payment app is set up correctly, the process is quite straightforward. This option could be as convenient for the charity as it is for the donor. The most important thing you need to do is ensure that your payment acceptance method is secure since privacy and personal information issues are an unavoidable part of online payments.
Option #4. Online Payment Gateway:
Payment gateways serve to enable payments directly on your site. They can secure your customer’s information as well as handle customer accounts. While most payment gateway providers focus on credit or debit cards, making online donation buttons available instantly from your website makes it a unique option. Many charities are taking more payments online using platforms such as Enthuse donations https://enthuse.com/ or other online platforms that are available, such as Paypal https://www.paypal.com/uk/home
More Flexibility Equals More Donations. Implementing the most frequently used payment methods will create greater donor satisfaction. Research by Enthuse has shown that there is an increase of drifting donors and ‘give & forget’ donors, especially amongst the younger generation of donors. Their conclusion from the research also states: ‘it shows that longer-term changes like the shift to digital donations are becoming permanent’ (pg 24 Donor Pulse Winter Edition (2020): Insights from Enthuse Intelligence).
Is your Charity in a challenge, wondering how to fix your finances, or make the right management decisions because of limited finances? Are you wondering how to set up systems for easy financial reporting? Do you need help to set your charity up? Then contact Bim.
Tel: 07541 465 529Email: info@aeaccountax.co.ukAE Accountax LtdHelping Charities & Businesses Adapt, Grow & Thrive
