Donately – Better Online Giving

The team behind Donately believes that people would donate to good causes more frequently if it was easier for them to do so. The application they’ve created gives organizations a straightforward way to create customizable donation forms. These forms can be embedded on websites and other digital properties to start maximizing online donations.

The easier you make the process, the more likely people are to give money to your cause. Sign up for Donately and build a customizable donation form. Change the styles and fields to apply to your organization, or apply an existing CSS style sheet when creating your form. When your form is complete, embed it on your website, blog, and any other online properties your organization controls. From the moment your form is embedded, you can start accepting donations. You can also gather other key insights about your most influential donors. Donately integrates with your existing online merchant account, which means you can export the results of your campaign into external applications at any point.

Donors who’d like to help by raising additional funds for your organization can create fundraising pages for specific campaigns. On these pages, Donately will track the donor’s progress toward his or her goal. The web-based application also sends automated email notifications when certain parameters are met, and offers social tools that are useful for spreading the word about a particular cause.

Practical Uses:

• Collect money from people who visit your website
• Encourage donors to create their own fundraising pages
• Connect one-on-one with your biggest donors
• View a fundraising snapshot from the past 30 days

Insider Tips:

• Donately’s WordPress plugin includes a donation form widget
• Users can continue to change their campaign settings after a campaign has begun
• Donately charges whether a transaction is through credit card, cash, or check

What we liked:

• Organizations have the option of whether to customize their donation forms
• Donately automatically sets up individual dashboards for all new donors
• Donately integrates with many external merchant accounts
• Individual fundraising pages are a great way for donors to raise money on their own

What we didn’t like:

• Donately’s fees may be too steep for nonprofits that are just starting out

Alternatives:

• Believe.in – https://uk.believe.in
• Crowdrise – http://www.crowdrise.com
• Funddy – https://funddy.com

Company Info:

• Launched: 2013
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: San Diego, California
• Founded by: Fifty & Fifty
• Web site: http://donate.ly

Costs:

• 2% of $20 (max) per transaction
• 50 cents per new user