Nonprofits & Payment Processing

Do you have questions about payment processing?

Payment processing demystified for nonprofits

At Eventgroove, we have over 20 years of experience helping nonprofit organizations up their fundraising game with seamless and efficient payment processing solutions.

So, here are some key questions you might be asking about nonprofit payment processing:

What does a nonprofit payment processor actually provide?

What details are the most important to know?

Why does Eventgroove use Stripe?

What do I need to do to get going?

What does a nonprofit payment processor actually provide?

Payment processing supports all online giving and e-commerce tools. It provides a secure way to capture your donor’s financial information (such as credit card information) and use that data to trigger scalable, repeatable, and consistent online transactions for your nonprofit organization.

“More and more nonprofits are turning to online platforms like Eventgroove to facilitate seamless giving with the click of a button. We’re thrilled to power the fundraising process with reliable, secure infrastructure that allows platforms to help serve communities and causes.”

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Sophie Sakellariadis
Product Lead
Stripe

The basic mechanics of fundraising and nonprofit payment processing

Your donor makes a contribution

Payment processing begins when a supporter makes a gift through your donation page or purchases merchandise, event tickets, or a membership.

Any donation that is not made using cash or a check must go through a payment processing system to be verified before the funds are accessible to the nonprofit.

Data is sent to the payment gateway and merchant account

The payment gateway then ensures the credit or debit card is not fraudulent and that the account has sufficient funds. The merchant account deducts the donation from the donor’s credit card or bank account. It is during this step that the transaction fee is deducted.

In other words, Stripe combines the functionality of a merchant account and a gateway.

The donation is deposited into your nonprofit organization's bank account

Stripe deposits the funds into your bank account. This usually occurs in batches at the end of the day but may vary depending on the country, Stripe account settings, or transaction.

The basic mechanics of fundraising and nonprofit payment processing

Your donor makes a contribution

Payment processing begins when a supporter makes a gift through your donation page or purchases merchandise, event tickets, or a membership.

Any donation that is not made using cash or a check must go through a payment processing system to be verified before the funds are accessible to the nonprofit.

Data is sent to the payment gateway and merchant account

In other words, Stripe combines the functionality of a merchant account and a gateway.

The donation is deposited into your nonprofit organization's bank account

Stripe deposits the funds into your bank account. This usually occurs in batches at the end of the day but may vary depending on the country, Stripe account settings, or transaction.

“Using Stripe as a payment processor has allowed The Orchestra of Northern New York to receive payouts from ticket sales in a timely manner while also reducing our processing fees and improving reporting. Further, Stripe terminals have provided our organization with the flexibility we need to process payments both online and in-person.”

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Kevin Angstadt
VP, Web and Tech Director
The Orchestra of Northern New York

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Margaret LaBarge
Rotary District 7850

“The Eventgroove–Stripe solution has a feature that is particularly helpful which is the ability to tag specific campaigns and specific items within each campaign so that reports can be organized easily to give quick answers to questions like ‘how much did we earn from the Silent Auction items?’ Or ‘is it worth continuing to sell bundled tickets with family pricing?’ Because you can easily pick out just those specific items from your sales totals.”

Why does Eventgroove use Stripe?

Since its inception, Eventgroove has relentlessly focused on conservation and sustainability, including donating over 42% of our profits to conservation organizations since 2007.

Partnering with Stripe further aligns Eventgroove as a trusted global leader with a long-term commitment to conservation and the climate. Additionally, our integration with the Stripe platform delivers value to our customers through seamless and secure payment processing, such as:

Fully Integrated

We’ve recently gone even further to ensure ease of use by fully integrating Stripe—the leading online payment processor—to power our fundraising platform. This means every transaction is seamless.

Climate Friendly

Eventgroove users can choose to reduce their event’s carbon footprint by requesting donations for carbon removal. In addition, we’ve committed 0.5% of revenue to Stripe Climate.

Donor Convenience

Stripe is convenient and delivers a great user experience. By enabling donors to make online donations in a way that is familiar and easy, your nonprofit can raise funds faster.

Recurring Revenue

Stripe makes it easy for nonprofit organizations to encourage repeat giving. Setting up and managing recurring donations is simple and secure. Because donations run through your own Stripe account, your recurring donors’ payment tokens stay with your organization.

Secure Transactions

Donations are secure and PCI compliant. Transactions are encrypted, ensuring donor information is securely transmitted during payment processing.

Anti-fraud

Fight fraud with the machine-learning power of Stripe Radar. It scans every donation using thousands of signals from across the Stripe network to help detect and prevent fraud.

“We use Eventgroove in conjunction with Stripe as the ticketing platform and credit card processor for our three songwriter festivals. They work seamlessly together and between both platforms we get real time data and accurate information about our ticket buyers.”

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Mike Booth
Executive Director
Rocky Mountain Songwriter Festivals

But what about PayPal?

While PayPal is a common and trusted platform for many organizations, it can be less flexible than other nonprofit donation processing solutions. Why is that?

The primary reason has to do with user experience. When completing a transaction, PayPal redirects supporters away from your fundraising site or donation pages to PayPal’s site. The PayPal page will not be branded to your organization and may confuse donors, which has the potential to impact your donation rate.

With Stripe, the entire donor transaction process is kept within your fundraising site, leading to a better user experience. This is what it’s all about, providing a good experience for your donors!

What do I need to get going?