I have volunteered for several years with a variety of non-profit organizations. Much of my work has involved counting money, bookkeeping and keeping track of how many donations we have received. While I certainly love what I do and love even more that I'm doing it to promote church giving and various types of fundraising organizations, I can't help but think of how much easier and more efficient my job could be if the majority of these donations were received online.
I make weekly trips to the banks, sometimes more often if I am working at several events in a week. I make these trips and deposit hundreds of checks and cash dollars that I have to count into strategic piles, wrap up in a paper holder that indicates the type of currency and how much is in the pile, and stuff it into a giant envelope so I can securely bring it to the bank. There are times when I've carried a ton of money and wished I had a police officer escort me to the bank. Carrying that much cash is dangerous and there is plenty of room for error when counting (not that I'd ever make such a mistake).
Not only is it extremely time-consuming to have to count all these bills, stamp all these checks and organize everything before bringing it in, but it often takes several days for checks to clear and the money to be available in the non-profit organization's account. I have stayed after an event for hours to organize the money and get it ready to be brought to the bank. As I'm sitting in the back room of a building with the door locked doing that, I can't help but think of what I could be doing if I didn't have to go through all this. I could be mingling with people who showed up and thanking them for what they've done for us, I could be helping to clean up, or I could be working on projects for our next event. This is when it really started to get to me about how much more profitable and convenient things could be if we received online donations.
If the organization had a website with a clickable button that would allow someone to make a secure payment of their choice in just a few steps, my life would be SO much easier for me. Sure, we would still be receiving cash and check donations and I would still be counting money, but I'm sure there are plenty of people who donated into that cash pile that would have preferred to just make their donation online on the organization's website.
If you're part of a non-profit or faith-based organization and haven't started accepting online donations through your fundraising yet, what are you waiting for?
I researched a little to try and find the benefits of accepting online payments, and I discovered that there are websites that work specifically with faith-based organizations and non-profits to help them accept online donations and improve their visibility and ease of donating. DonateBlue.com is one website that provides plenty of services to these types of organizations and gives them ways to accept online payments in a secure, easy to use environment.
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