Is Your Mobile Giving Solution Creating Barriers to Donations?

When you run a church, school or similar nonprofit organization, donations are the fuel that keeps you going. Unfortunately, in many cases, nonprofit groups and fundraisers unknowingly make it hard for their donors to give. Certain types of mobile giving are not as user-friendly as they seem.

Difficult-to-use giving methods can create a bottleneck in your flow and even deter your supporters from giving. Let’s explore the most popular types of mobile giving and some of the reasons these options don’t always work as expected.

Text Donations

Texting campaigns have become a popular part of many fundraisers in the last decade, and at face value, they are an easy way to give. Donors send a text code to a number, and the funds are automatically taken out of their bank accounts.

However, to set up a text campaign, the charity or church has to get a short code, and in most cases, the wireless carrier or the company handling the logistics of the text campaign takes a cut of the money. Another drawback is that donations are often limited to $5 or $10, which greatly reduces the potential for large gifts.

Text-to-give solutions also make it difficult to issue donor receipts. Donors tend to give more when they are given a receipt, because they can then claim the donation as a tax deduction.

Alternatively, with mobile donation apps like Givelify, donors are not only provided a receipt immediately upon giving, but they can also access their entire giving history at any time. At the tap of a button, entire giving histories can be emailed in PDF format to use for tax purposes. (All donation receipts are also emailed.)

Giving Kiosks

To inject a bit of flexibility into their fundraising efforts, many organizations have turned to kiosks. Kiosks are like small point-of-sale systems with a touch screen and a credit card reader, which can be stationed on-site and used by event attendees. This option can work well for donors who want to use their credit cards, but it doesn’t facilitate cash or check donations.

Giving kiosks offer some convenience to those who can physically attend in-person fundraising events or church services. But many of your supporters will not be in attendance and would still love the opportunity to give. This means that you will still need to find another solution for remote giving.

In addition, your organization has to deal with the logistics of setting up the kiosk and making sure that it is working properly. You may need to provide a volunteer or staff member to assist donors in using the kiosk, and that can get pricey as well.

Not to mention, why would you make people wait in line? Giving happens in the moment and when donors feel most inspired. Allowing your supporters to donate through a mobile giving solution means that they can give at the moment of inspiration — wherever they may be.

Website/Online Giving

Many nonprofit organizations embrace website donation forms for giving. This method does solve the main problem associated with giving kiosks; your supporters can give from remote locations simply by visiting your website. However, this simple solution is not as simple as you might think.

On your end, setting up these forms on your website can require a lot of coding and design work. Unless you have someone currently on staff who can make these kinds of updates to your site, you may have to hire outside help.

At the same time, online donation forms can be time consuming and cumbersome for donors. When filling out these forms, your supporters have to take the time to provide a lot of information, such as their address, phone number, credit card numbers and banking details. Anything that adds time to the donation process reduces spontaneity and ultimately deters people from giving.

Removing Barriers with Mobile Giving

To eliminate all of these issues, one mobile giving solution in particular is growing in popularity. Over the past few years, over 8,500 organizations have used Givelify to collect over $150 million in donations.

Givelify is built for the modern, mobile world to appeal to the next generation of donors. When charitable inspiration strikes, donors simply use their smartphones to tap, give…and they’re done! No memorizing text-to-give codes, waiting in kiosk lines, or filling out long forms.

This beautiful, effortless app streamlines and simplifies mobile giving for your donors.

Better still, Givelify allows organizations to securely and conveniently track each donation and receive next-day, automatic deposits. And unlike DIY solutions, Givelify makes financial sense. There are no up-front costs, monthly fees, or constant updates. No payment gateways or merchant accounts required. And no need to hire developers or provide user support. So what are you waiting for?