This is How to Make the Donation Platform Simple
The goal was to quickly enable the audience of a website to make donations to it. By selecting the PayPal online payment solution, it provided the most brand recognition for the users, a donation button to integrate with the website, and the easiest, yet most flexible end-to-end process at a lower cost as compared to other donation platforms reviewed.
Here are links to my assessment:
- My Story
- Evaluation of Donation Platforms
- Summary of Four Donation Platform Options
- Continuous Improvement
- Lesson for Dumber Self
- Next Step for You
My Story
I assisted a business that was looking for a replacement income stream through donations. Within a day, I found seven candidates for the donation platform and narrowed them down to four potential ones to do a deeper analysis on.
Evaluation of Donation Platforms
During the review process of four potential platforms that could accept donations, I realized that the choice boiled down to user experience and cost.
User Experience
Considering both the experience of the business user and the potential donor when implementing a donation platform was an important factor.
Company/Brand Trust
When dealing with financial transactions, the business’ and potential donor’s trust in the company and its brand are significant items to take into account. The length of time the company has been providing the service and how it’s making its revenue impact a person’s confidence in the company being able to ensure a donor’s contribution reaches the business.
Set-up Process
With implementing the donation option on the website, it had to be easy, with no coding involved, to minimize the turn-around time and cost.
Donation Process
Making the donation process as effortless and quick as possible while providing customization options would be ideal. This way, the donor makes the fewest clicks for a one-time or recurring donation using the preferred payment method in the amount desired without having to sign up for an account.
However, if the donor wants to customize the transaction more, an option to specify the donation amount or include a message with the donation should be available.
Pay-out Process
For the donation process to be successful, the last step of the transaction, transferring the funds to the business, should occur in a timely manner at a minimal cost. Though there are many ways for the company to receive the donations, the focus of this research was on transferring the amounts to a local bank account.
Cost
During my investigation, not only did I learn that the sample of four companies noted a charge for payment processing, they also could charge for platform features, so the intention was to find the company that offered the best value.
Summary of Four Donation Platform Options
Here the details about the company, the end-to-end process, costs, and additional benefits/services for Buy Me a Coffee, Ko-Fi, Patreon, and PayPal:
| Criteria | 1. Buy Me a Coffee | 2. Ko-Fi | 3. Patreon | 4. PayPal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Company | 1. Headquartered in San Francisco, USA 2. Founded in 2018 3. Backed by Y Combinator | 1. Headquartered in Cambridge, UK 2. Founded in 2017 3. Receives Ko‑fi Gold fees from creators and donations from supporters | 1. Headquartered in San Francisco, USA 2. Founded in 2013 3. Receives plan fees from creators and funding from venture capitalists | 1. Headquartered in San Jose, USA 2. Founded in 1998 3. Publicly traded |
| Ease of Execution | 1. Create a page 2. Use buttons, widget, and / or plugin | 1. Create a page 2. Use buttons, widgets, and / or plugin | Set up a monthly membership page, so a donor can sign up for a membership and then cancel after it’s been charged for | 1. Create a page 2. Use donation button |
| Features for Execution | 1. One-time donation payments accepted 2. Donation amount limited (Currently in multiples of $5, but not shown that a “coffee” payment is worth $5 each) 3. Donor account not needed 4. Private or public message with donation optional 5. Credit cards, Apple Pay, and Google Pay accepted 6. Donation goal set-up available 7. ‘Coffee’ customization available | 1. One-time or monthly donation payments accepted 2. Donation amount in multiples of $5 allowed 3. Donor account not needed 4. Private or public message with donation optional 5. Credit cards, debit cards, Apple Pay, and PayPal accepted 6. Donation goal set-up available | Not applicable | 1. One-time or monthly donation payments accepted 2. Three donation amounts and an “other”, or donor’s entry amount allowed 3. Donor account not needed 4. Private message with donation optional 5. Credit cards, debit cards, PayPal, Venmo, and more accepted |
| Payment Transfers to Bank Account | 1. Payment transfer to bank account on a 2-day rolling basis available 1 2. Instant payment transfer to bank account within 30 minutes available 1 1 Official payment partner: Stripe | Immediate transfer of donation payment directly into bank account via Stripe available | Payout whenever (maximum of one per 24 hours) or monthly automatically within typically 1-5 business days | 1. Standard payment transfer 7 from business PayPal Balance account to local bank account within 1-5 business days available 2. Instant payment transfer 7 from PayPal Balance account to bank account with the Instant Transfer option typically within minutes available 7 For withdrawal limits, log into PayPal account |
| Platform, Transaction, and Other Costs | 1. No monthly fee for features 2. 5% transaction fee on payments from supporters 3. 2.9% + $.30 payment transaction fee for each 2-day rolling basis transfer 4. 1% additional payment transaction fee for each instant transfer | 1. No platform fee on donations 2. Usually 2 – 3.4% + $0.30 payment transaction fee for immediate donation payment transfer directly into bank account via Stripe | 1. $0.25 USD payment transaction fee per payout 2. Refer to ‘Some Other Benefits / Services’ section below for additional details | 1. No monthly or set-up fees for donation buttons 2. 2.89% + fixed fee ($0.49 USD) payment transaction fee for domestic donations 3. No fee for standard transfer from business PayPal Balance account to local bank account 4. 1.50% fee (minimum $0.25 fee; maximum $15) for instant transfer from PayPal Balance account to bank account with the Instant Transfer option |
| Some Other Benefits / Services | 1. Membership payments (monthly or yearly) accepted 2. Analytics available 3. Messaging with account holders and posting for public / members available 4. Product or service sales available 5. Support through Help center articles, live chat, or email 6. List of supporter emails exportable | 1. Membership payments (monthly) accepted 2 2. Analytics through Google Analytics available 3 3. Messaging with supporters and posting for public / supporters available 4. Product or service sales available 2 5. Support through Twitter or Instagram direct message, question-asking in the Help Portal, and resources and inspiration in the Creator Academy section 6. ‘Coffee’ customization available 3 2 For 5% fee on income or subscription to Ko-fi Gold for $6 per month or $4.50 per month paid annually 3 For subscription to Ko-fi Gold for $6 per month or $4.50 per month paid annually | 1. Membership payments (monthly) accepted 4 2. Analytics available 5 3. Messaging, posting for, or emailing Patreon members only 4. Merchandise rewards for membership available 6 5. Support through a) Help Center & FAQ, b) email, and c) workshops 6. Unlimited app integrations 5 4 For 5% of the monthly income earned on Patreon plus standard rate for processing payments 5 For 8% of the monthly income earned on Patreon plus standard rate for processing payments 6 For 12% of the monthly income earned on Patreon plus standard rate for processing payments | 1. Reporting and analytics available 2. Selling using PayPal QR code available 3. Support through Help Center, Message Center, Customer Service, and Community forum 4. Fraud protection available |
Based on the objective of quickly implementing the donation feature, I recommended that the business insert the PayPal donation button on their website. Of all the selection criteria, the company/brand recognition was the final deciding factor.
To potentially find a better donation platform than PayPal, I would recommend the business do the following in a year:
Continuous Improvement
- Repeat the evaluation process to see if there’s a competitor that might be able to provide a better value.
Though the business was able to have the donation platform up within two days, I learned the following tip:
Lesson for Dumber Self
- Reserve time to regularly identify additional income streams and plan how to execute them in order to maintain or grow the current income.
What will you do now?
Next Step for You
- Try out one of the donation platforms listed above?
- Do additional research on a different donation platform?
- Read another post on this site? (Go to the menu at the top of the page.)