How to Simplify Online Donation Collection for Your NGO?

From saving children from working at a little age to protecting animals from being slaughtered unnecessarily and more, non-profit organizations in India are working in almost every sphere of life. The best part is – more and more people are coming up with ways to support those in need of help.

Both the number of social/humanitarian causes and the corresponding organizations working on them has grown considerably in India. As per the data from the Central Statistical Institute of India, there were 3.3 million NGOs in India in 2009 – that simply means one NGO for every 400 citizens in the country. In terms of registration, 1,43,946 NGOs are registered now on the Niti Aayog’s NGO Darpan Portal.

To support an NGO’s mission effectively, they ask for financial help and collect donations. In other words, an NGO acts as a link between those who need help and those who can. If you have even volunteered for fundraising for some non-profit cause, you might know that it is not as easy as it may seem. The bigger scope of an NGO’s core objectives, the more funds they would need for it.

If you also run an NGO in India and still rely on cash and cheque payments for donations, you are letting go of a lot of donations that might be coming your way. Indeed, there is competition even in the non-profit sector. Considering the rise of the online buying/selling space, it’s time for you to focus on online donation collection. Want to know how? You’ve come to the right place.

You can do more with your NGO’s website

Why focus on your website first and foremost?

As a part of the trend, you must have all the basic elements of online presence already ticked on your list, be it an official website, Google business profile, or social media profile. Among all of these, having a website holds significant importance. In fact, 38.5% of users judge an organization by how its website looks (Source).

But holding on to potential donors is easier said than done. It takes more than just supporting a valid cause.

This is where you need to do more with your website to attract more donors to visit the portal and feel the urge to make online donations. But for that, you need to ensure that your NGO’s website is capable of accepting donations online. Every interaction with a potential donor must meet their preferences as they join hands with your NGO to donate a certain amount.

Keep in mind that other non-profit organizations like yours are already doing it, hence every detail matters – from making individuals reach your website to enabling them to donate online in a few simple steps.

An e-commerce website and your NGO’s website – what’s the connection?

Have a closer look here –

An NGO’s website has a well-crafted home page that defines the cause it supports. An e-commerce website has that too, based on what it sells and to whom.
An NGO’s website has ‘About Us’ and ‘Contact Us’ pages. Most e-commerce websites have them too.
The new-age websites of popular NGOs have a widespread presence and accept payments online. Most e-commerce websites do that too.

The crux here is – you need to add the payment processing capabilities to your NGO’s website to start accepting donations online.

Think of a user’s journey as they reach your NGO’s website that accepts online payments –

A user visits the website’s home page, and reads about the story and the causes it supports.
He checks for your vision and mission.
Once completely satisfied with the cause you support, he clicks on the ‘Donate Now’ button, selects his preferred payment method (credit card, debit card, UPI, etc.), and completes the payment.

After reading this, you might be wondering –

‘How can I add such payment processing powers to my NGO’s website?’

All you need is a reliable and suitable payment gateway. Before you move on to search for a payment gateway, let’s understand first why integrating a payment gateway to collect donations online makes sense.

What can a payment gateway do for your NGO?

Ask any developer or agency about how you can start accepting donations online and they will suggest this – integration of a reliable payment gateway.

A payment gateway is basically analogous to a cashier in an offline store. It accepts your money, places it in an intermediary account, and lets the end-consumers take what they bought. In the case of NGOs, there is a feeling of giving back to society and those in need when people donate.

In technical terms, payment gateways can be considered a technology that connects your NGO’s bank account to donors’ accounts or cards. This way, the donations they send online will reach the linked bank account automatically (as per the payment gateway settlement cycle).

In particular, there are several benefits of integrating a renowned payment gateway into your NGO’s website, including the following:

Ease of accepting donations online
Ease of integration and account activation
Security of payments received
Easy to accept payments via popular digital wallets
Real-time bank settlements
A wide range of payment options for potential donors – credit/debit cards, UPI, net banking, etc.

If you are now convinced of integrating a payment gateway to accept online donations, you might also want to know about payment gateway selection.

How to select a payment gateway to accept donations online?

Your regular and potential donors are your NGO’s best advocates and have the power to bring more like-minded people to support your vision. This is why it is important to ensure a glitch-free payment experience for them all.

Since the overall payment experience does depend on the underlying payment gateway, you must consider the following factors while selecting one for your NGO’s website:

Multiple payment options
International payment support
High payment success rate
Large payment collection facility
Timely settlements
Competitive pricing
A merchant dashboard to keep track of donations received

Want to know where you can get all these benefits? Look no further than Paytm Payment Gateway.

Paytm Payment Gateway – the best choice for NGOs to accept donations online

In simple words, Paytm Payment Gateway has everything you expect a payment gateway to deliver for seamless payment acceptance. Some of its most impressive features include:

Robust SDKs and APIs for PG integration
100% online onboarding so that you do not have to worry about meeting agents in person
100+ payment sources supported
Industry-best success rate
Powerful dashboard to get real-time insights about donation acceptance
T+1 settlements on business days
International payment support, and more

Besides these features, we have also helped a leading NGO in the country – CRY, Child Rights and You, witness a 30% increase in online donations.

Read CRY’s full story here.

Other smart ways to accept donations online

Paytm Payment Links

While running an NGO, you do not know when a donor would come knocking on your door to make donations. Besides having a website that accepts donations online, you can also use Paytm Payment Links to collect payments remotely without letting the payer visit your website.

With Paytm Payment Links, you can:

Create links in just a few clicks on the go
Share the created links via SMS, email, or Whatsapp to collect donations
Create multiple payment links in bulk at once
Accept international payments
Paytm Subscriptions

Subscriptions to different kinds of products or services have become a part of our lives. In the similar manner, you can utilize our subscriptions to accept recurring donations for the NGO. This will be quite useful in case you have certain donors who pay a certain amount every month for the welfare of your non-profit organization.

Once the subscription is created, they need not be reminded to send their donations. The specified amount, as they choose, will be deducted from the linked bank account or card automatically.

Conclusion

Running an NGO requires a lot of effort. From acting on the underlying social cause to ensuring that the work done is impactful, there is a lot to be done. In between all this, it is always good to streamline and automate the donation acceptance process with the help of the right payment gateway.

Switch to Paytm Payment Gateway