Tapping into the benefits of online donations is crucial for today's nonprofits, but how do you accept these funds? A reliable payment processor is an essential piece of the puzzle, seamlessly bridging the gap between your supporters' generosity and your organization's mission.
Verifying credit card details, processing payments, and finalizing contributions become challenges without trusted payment gateways.
We've curated a comprehensive guide to 8 compelling payment gateways.
Our Top Picks
- Zeffy: Best Free Payment Gateway for Nonprofits
- PayPal: Best Dedicated Payment Gateway Solution
- Stripe: Best to Create a Custom Payment Solution
- Helcim: Best for High Volume Donations
- Stax: Best for Multiple Integration Options
- Elavon: Best to Manage Donations and Set Up Recurring Donations
- Ayden: Best for International Payments
- Authorize.net: Best for Fraud Prevention
What is a Payment Gateway?
A payment gateway is a technology that collects, verifies, and securely transmits payment information between the business, the customer, and the payment processor. It serves as a bridge between the parties involved in a transaction, enabling the exchange of information to facilitate online payments.
A point of sale (POS) terminal in a physical store checks the card chip to determine whether the debit/credit card is legal, and an online payment gateway assesses whether a payment is legitimate.
Investing in a payment gateway is essential if you're collecting online funds or donations.
A payment gateway will securely validate your supporters' payment details, ensuring funds are available for donations. It will also perform fraud checks and encrypt sensitive information, such as credit card numbers, as it passes from the customer to the payment processor.
The payment processor will facilitate the transaction and transfer funds from your supporter's account to yours.
How Does a Payment Gateway Work?
Here’s a quick run-down of how payment gateways work:
- Supporter Starts the Donation Process
When supporters are ready to donate, they enter their credit or debit card information on the nonprofit organization's donation page.
- Encryption of the Data
The payment gateway securely encrypts this payment information and sends it to the payment processor.
- Authorization Request
The payment processor receives the payment information from the gateway and forwards it to the supporter's bank or issuing bank. It requests authorization for the transaction.
- Authorization Process
The supporter bank verifies the payment data and checks whether the supporter has the necessary funds to donate. It either approves or declines the transaction. They then send this response to the payment processor.
- Authorization Response
The payment processor shares the supporter’s bank response to the payment gateway, indicating whether the transaction is approved or declined.
- Transaction Result
Based on the authorization response, the payment gateway notifies the organization and supporter of the transaction status.
- Settlement of Funds
If the transaction is approved, the payment gateway application processes credit card payments or other payments and facilitates the movement of funds. It transfers the amount from supporters to a merchant's acquiring bank, temporarily holding it before sending it to the nonprofit organization's bank account.
Payment Gateway vs Payment Processor: What’s the Difference?
Although often interchangeably used, payment gateways and processors have significant differences.
A payment gateway sends a supporter's card information to a payment processor, which uses the data to process payments to the supporter's bank account and merchant account.
Here's a better look at payment gateway vs payment processor:
Best Payment Gateways for Nonprofits at a Glance!
1. Zeffy: 100% Free Payment Gateway for Nonprofits
G2 Rating: 4.9
Capterra Rating: 4.8
Zeffy is a zero-fee payment processor designed for nonprofit organizations to seamlessly process various types of payments. This focus on enabling transactions efficiently makes it a top choice for nonprofits looking to maximize their fundraising efforts with minimal gateway charges.
Built with nonprofits in mind, Zeffy offers a one-stop shop for processing donations, charging membership fees, accepting recurring payments, and much more without any payment processing fees.
Price
100% free with no payment processing fee
What Do the Users Say?
The best thing about Zeffy is that it allows the total donation to go to our small nonprofit, and we share this fact so that our donors can feel good about giving. Also, I like that I can export the data record of all our donations, which has allowed me to build a donor database. - Mary T
2. PayPal: Best Dedicated Payment Gateway Solution
G2 Rating: 4.4
Capterra Rating: 4.7
PayPal is a familiar name, making it an approachable and trusted payment processing provider. It offers a payment processor called Payflow, which is automatically included in its online payment processing tools and offered as a standalone gateway to organizations already having credit card payment processors.
Payflow offers you two options:
- Payflow link – a free checkout payment gateway hosted by PayPal.
- Payflow Pro – a service page that offers additional checkout customization with a monthly fee. With Pro, you can offer PayPal and PayPal credit options on your website.
With both choices, PayPal has fraud protection security - adding extra security to your payment processing gateway, making it more capable of handling threats and fraudulent transactions.
Price:
PayPal payment processing charges 2.2% + $0.30 per transaction, while Payflow Pro is available at $25.00/month.
What Do Users Say?
PayPal is the oldest and largest fintech-like company in the world. It has many 3rd party sites where you can use it to pay. It's very flexible considering implementation. Also PayPal has very good customer support which can take care of any problem the client may approach. – Mateusz L.
3. Stripe: Best to Create a Custom Payment Solution
G2 Rating: 4.3
Capterra Rating: 4.6
Stripe is a prominent payment service provider best known for its overall payment processing solutions, but it also offers a comprehensive payment gateway.
Stripe Terminal easily integrates with your in-person payment solution. You can track all your offline and online transactions in one place, making tracking and reporting donations a breeze. It is better suited for nonprofits who need to create a custom pay gateway or need to accept payments in person.
Stripe also offers a vast selection of APIs that allow you to customize your payment gateway to best fit your needs.
With Zeffy, nonprofits can access Stripe 100% free of charge as we cover all the fees for nonprofits.
Price:
Stripe offers a discounted fee to eligible nonprofits who process 80% or more of donation payments on the platform. It offers 2.2% +$0.30 per transaction instead of 2.9% + 30¢ for businesses.
>Unlock Stripe’s features at no cost – Find out how Zeffy covers the fees for nonprofits!
What Do Users Say?
Not only is their system intuitive, but the customer service agents ACTUALLY like to help you! No fake smiles over the phone or loud exhaling and strained voices. You know which ones I mean ---- the kind you get from employees that don't like their job and it feels like it is a burden to help you. Yeah ---- NEVER have I experienced this with Stripe. They have a beautiful online system, they have happy employees ---- that can only mean Stripe really knows how to stay in business. And THAT is very important for my business because I use them on a daily basis – Nayeli.
4. Helcim: Best For High Volume Donations
G2 Rating: 4.2
Capterra Rating: 4.2
Helcim serves as both a credit card processing service and a payment gateway. It comes with a variety of tools that make collecting donations easier.
Whether you're looking to create a donation page, are interested in online fundraising, or want to add a donation widget to your website, Helcim can help. It allows you to customize your payment gateway with its wide variety of APIs.
Price:
Helcim provides reasonable credit card processing rates to some qualified charities. These are:
- Visa Canada 0.98% to 2.00%
- MC Canada 0.92% to 1.80%
- Visa US 0.65% + $0.15 to 1.35% + $0.05
- MC US 1.45% + $0.15 to 2.00% +$0.10
What Do Users Say?
The software is an integral part of my business and is reliable, well thought out and has an easy-to-understand interface for myself and for my customers when they are paying. – Paul
5. Stax: Best For Multiple Integration Options
G2 Rating: 4.9
Capterra Rating: 3.5
Stax is a software company and payment facilitator that offers various payment processing solutions, including a payment gateway. It supports merchants in accepting payments using their own method of choice.
Along with debit and credit card payments, organizations can accept payments through ACH transfer, cash, paper checks, e-checks, money orders, and digital payments.
It offers a RESTful API for creating custom integrations. Stax even links with HubSpot CRM, Xero Accounting, Zoho, Mailchimp, QuickBooks, and several third-party apps and social channels.
Price:
Starts at $99 per month
What Do Users Say?
Stax provides efficient solutions for ecommerce integration and payments processing. It is easy to use and rich in features. Supports credit card processing and is a no-contract solution. – Willis M
6. Elavon: Best to Manage Donations and Set Up Recurring Donations
G2 Rating: N/A
Capterra Rating: 3.4
Elavon is a notable name on the list of payment gateways, offering three unique, flexible, and robust gateways.
While its Fusebox and CenPOS payment gateways are suited for specific industries and businesses, its Converge solution is one of the best payment gateways for nonprofit organizations.
Converge accepts everything from debit and credit card transactions to digital wallets, PayPal, and electronic checks.
Features like donation buttons or links, billing and invoicing, and a product catalog, among other features, make donating easier while tracking the performance of specific fundraising campaigns.
Elavon enables your donors to set up regular contributions on a frequency that suits them. Similarly, it will proactively manage recurring donations by flagging debit and credit cards near expiration.
Price:
Elavon has not disclosed its price, so you would have to reach out to them and learn about its cost and fees.
What Do Users Say?
Elavon has the best rates for nonprofit long-time customers, any time an issue has arisen contacting customer service is a breeze. - Stevie C.
7. Adyen: Best For International Payments
G2 Rating: 3.3
Capterra Rating: 4.9
Ayden is a financial technology platform with a payment gateway functionality that supports international payments.
It offers dynamic currency conversion (DCC) at the checkout for 36 different currencies. This allows your international supporters to pay in their own currency. It is straightforward to integrate into your website.
Ayden offers solutions like authorization optimization, risk management, and virtual and in-person payments - all in one platform.
Price:
Ayden has a fixed processing fee ($0.13) + a fee determined by the payment method.
What Do Users Say?
Adyen is very good for international merchants and the excellent customer service is very pleasing. Adyen does not have setup or application fees that attracts everyone. – Thomas A
8. Authorize.net: Best for Fraud Prevention
G2 Rating: 4.2
Capterra Rating: 4.4
Authorize.net offers a payment gateway that excels at fraud detection and prevention. It comes with an Advanced Fraud Detection Suite (AFDS) with 13 fraud filters that can be personalized according to your needs.
You can set payment velocity settings, geographic limitations, minimum transaction thresholds, and more, having more control over transactions. It automatically spots sketchy IP addresses or suspicious transactions.
Beyond advanced fraud detection, the platform offers recurring payments, an account updater, and digital involvement and supports major credit cards.
Price:
Available in three packs:
- All-in-one: $25 monthly gateway and processing rate per transaction is 2.9% + 30¢
- Payment gateway and eCheck: $25 monthly gateway & processing rates for eCheck 0.75% and credit card transaction is 10¢ + daily batch fee 10¢
- Payment gateway: $25 monthly gateway and processing rates per transaction is 10¢ + daily batch fee 10¢
What Do Users Say?
Authorize.net is an easy system to install and use. You can customize invoices or checkout pages to fit your company branding. It's also very easy to create and send invoices. – Thomas W
How to Choose the Best Payment Gateway for Your Nonprofit
While you'll find an array of payment gateways in the market, not all are created for similar goals.
The right payment gateway is essential for offering your supporters a frictionless donation experience so that they will continue to support your nonprofits.
Here are a few features to consider when picking the right one.
1. Security
When collecting online donations or funds, you must protect your donor's personal and financial information. They're unlikely to complete the transaction if they don't trust your donation page with their information.
Look for a secure payment gateway that is PCI compliant, detects and prevents fraud, and offers tokenization, encryption, and 3DS Authentication.
2. Customer Experience
Another essential thing to ensure is that you provide customers with a seamless transaction experience. You don't want your donor to go through filling out the donation form only to realize your website won't accept their preferred payment method.
Pick a payment gateway that lets you process various electronic payments apart from credit and debit cards (PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, or bank transfers) on your nonprofit website.
3. Hosted vs Self-Hosted
A hosted payment gateway will send donors to a completely different website to make payment. Your supporters won't like this, and you have no control over the checkout experience.
Zeffy operates as a hosted gateway solution, which means it manages the transaction process on its own platform. This approach helps ensure security and compliance without requiring nonprofits to handle sensitive payment data directly.
4. Cost and Fees
Understanding the fee structure is crucial when selecting payment gateways. Most payment gateways charge a transaction fee. It’s important to compare these costs, as they can significantly impact a nonprofit's overall financials.
Zeffy is one of the top payment gateways as it covers the entire transaction fee. There are no hidden charges ensuring you get 100% of the donations without any deductions.
5. Multiple Integrations
Choose a payment processor that integrates with your website or donation form and your existing fundraising software. You would want something that also connects with your accounting software. When you receive funds, the corresponding information will also automatically update your bookkeeping system.
Not to mention, consider how easily the payment gateway integrates with your system or website. Look for gateways that offer SDKs, APIs, and plugins.
Final Thoughts on Payment Gateway
Choosing the right payment gateway is essential for nonprofits to process donations efficiently while minimizing costs. All payment gateways offer unique features suited to different needs, such as transaction fees, security measures, and integration capabilities.
By carefully assessing their specific requirements, nonprofits can select a gateway that not only fits their budget but also enhances their fundraising efforts. Remember, the right gateway should simplify the donation process, ensuring a seamless experience for donors and effective fund management for the organization.
Platforms like Zeffy stand out by offering a 100% free service, ensuring nonprofits receive the full amount of every donation made. With no transaction fees and a comprehensive set of features that support donation management and security, Zeffy exemplifies a gateway designed with nonprofit needs in mind.
FAQs on Payment Gateways
What is a multi-currency payment gateway?
A multi-currency payment gateway is similar to standard payment gateways, except it offers the flexibility to support multiple foreign currencies. This means a person is allowed to choose their currency preference and language at the time of donating.
The multi-currency gateway will automatically convert it into your currency of choice for settlement. With its help, you can collect donations from multiple locations globally without the added cost of conversion fees.
Is PayPal a payment gateway?
No, PayPal is not a traditional payment gateway, but it does offer a payment gateway solution called Payflow as part of its payment processing solutions.
Do payment gateways have any transaction limits?
It depends on which payment gateway you decide to use. Transaction limits will vary depending on the payment gateway provider and your account type. It is best to check the limit and transaction fee to ensure you can collect multiple donations and that they all go straight to your nonprofit.
