Christine Ward This post was updated on March 13, 2018, to reflect a change in Stripe’s offerings to nonprofits.
When it comes to accepting donations on your nonprofit website, there are a ton of options out there. Some of the biggest names include PayPal, Authorize.net and Stripe. We realize the details surrounding payment processors can be hazy at best, and you probably have better things to do than research pros and cons. To make your decision easier, we’ll come out and tell you that we recommend Stripe for nonprofits that we work with.
We’re not getting any compensation from Stripe to say this. Our recommendation comes from working with various payment processors through our nonprofit clients and experiencing the differences first hand.
Our Criteria
We believe that Stripe is currently the best payment processor for nonprofits, and we based our decision on the following criteria:
| Criteria | Stripe | Paypal | Authorize.net |
|---|---|---|---|
| Does it enable you to accept donations directly on your website? | Yes | Pro version does, Standard does not | Yes |
| Does it allow you to accept recurring donations? | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Is there a monthly fee associated with accepting recurring donations? | No | Yes | No |
| What are the fees on each transaction? | 2.2% + 30¢ per transaction | 2.2% + 30¢ per transaction | 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction |
| Are there any fees outside of what you’ll pay for each transaction? | No | Yes | Yes |
| Is there a discount for nonprofits? | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Is it user friendly? | Yes | No | Yes |
| How is customer support? | Helpful | Unreliable | Helpful |
As you’re weighing your options, price will likely take a front seat. Stripe for nonprofits charges a fee for every transaction, but there aren’t any additional fees that you need to worry about. Many payment processors charge a fee for every transaction, but some also add fees for things like setup, monthly usage and account cancellation.
Rates and Nonprofit Discount
These are taken out of every online transaction that goes through the payment processor. Check out Stripe’s standard pricing:
- 2.9% + 30¢ for every successful transaction
Although they’re not currently advertising these rates on their website and they may be subject to change, nonprofits in the US with a 501(c)3 designation with the IRS can expect the following rate from Stripe:
- 2.2% + 30¢ for non-American Express transactions
- 3.5% for American Express transactions
To get the nonprofit discount, you’ll need to reach out to Stripe at nonprofit@stripe.com. Here’s a breakdown of the information they’ll need.
It’s that easy! Making the switch to Stripe could end up saving your nonprofit a decent-sized chunk of change and give your supporters a great online donation experience.
Have any questions on why we like Stripe for nonprofits? Want to talk more about payment processors? Ask away in the comments.
Once a donor has made a payment do we get confirmation right away via email?
Great question, Janet. If you’ve selected to receive notifications for “Successful Payments”, you should receive an email confirmation once the donation is completed. You can turn on those notifications at https://dashboard.stripe.com/settings/user. I hope that helps!
Depending on where your located, don’t forget about your State disclosure requirements! 🙂
Good point, David! This post details using Stripe as a payment processor for donations. But before fundraising, you’ll want to make sure your nonprofit complies with the required charitable solicitation disclosures in the states that you’re planning to fundraise in.
If I have a non profit in Canada can I get the non profit rate?
Great question, Chris! To see if the US rate is available to your nonprofit in Canada, I’d recommend reaching out to Stripe at sales+nonprofit@stripe.com and specifically requesting the nonprofit discount. I hope that helps!
Hi Christine,
A not profit from Nepal can register and use stripe?
Hi, Sushil. Unfortunately, Stripe isn’t yet available in Nepal. You can see the full list of countries they provide services to at https://stripe.com/global.
How can I make sure that the invoice is 501C3 invoice?
I didnt see it on the receipt
Hi, Neta. If you have a question about a specific invoice or receipt, I’d recommend reaching out to Stripe’s support team. Good luck!
Thanks for your information. we are non-profit and currently using paypal. we are trying to change the contact name for our business in paypal and i could not do it….it is so frustrating. i am also unable to change the bank account associated with the paypal. i also read that paypal community forums say that it is totally impossible to change the contact names. do you know if stripe does that smoothly ?
Hi, Santhosh. We’ve heard similar frustrations with using PayPal before. Stripe does allow you to change the “owner” of the account as well as update your contact information and bank account. This support article outlines a few different options you’d have: https://support.stripe.com/questions/change-account-owner. Good luck with the switch!
STRIPE is NOT user friendly. Political donations need to extra fields on their form, occupation and employer. There are no free plugins that interface with STRIPE that I have found that work for this purpose yet. Oh yeah, there are some great PAID ones, but they want an arm and a leg, not once, but every year. Some of them more than I pay for the hosting account. So if you have a good wordpress interface with stripe FOR POLITICAL DONATIONS, that works, AND IS FREE (or under $30) …PLEASE…..tell me about it. becuase I”m tired of installing and uninstalling plugin after plugin.
I’m sorry you’ve been having issues, Donna. We don’t have any sort of partnership with Stripe so you’ll have to work with their support team to talk about fees, their requirements for political donations and any recommended plugins. When we link Stripe to client donation forms, we often use the Stripe Add-On through Gravity Forms, a tool for creating professional and user-friendly forms on WordPress sites that we like. Gravity Forms is not free, but it does provide lots of flexibility in terms of integrations. Most of the great payment processing tools and services out there do come with fees, but we’d love to hear about it if you find another way.
Can i have money paid into my paypal account with Stripe
Great question, Pat. Payouts from Stripe will need to go into a bank account that you connect to your Stripe account through the setup process: https://stripe.com/docs/payouts.
Hi Christine,
We are a charity and we want t know if we can set donation receipts automatically with Stripe
Is there an integration for salesforce ?
Thanks
Great question, Lulu! I’d recommend reaching out to the team at Stripe to find the best solution for your specific situation. On the Stripe website, they recommend using Blackthorn Payments to integrate the two. We’ve also seen nonprofits have a lot of success with integration tools, like Zapier, to connect their tools. I hope that helps. Good luck!
Hi Christine,
First off – great article and appreciate you updating it in March. I was using Stripe, but I am doing some research into other options. I know you listed 3 major players, but what is your take on iATS, Bluepay, Dharma and Heartland (I am not even sure all of those are the same thing tbh). Basically, all I am looking for at this stage is a price comparison as my donors keep complaining about the extra costs of processing fees. If there was a clear comparison of more than these 3 major players you mentioned somewhere, I would love to see that.
Hi, Peter. Stripe, Authorize.net and PayPal are the three most common payment processors that we see nonprofits using. And, for the purposes of this post, we only compared those three main players in detail. However, we have not come across a more competitive price for nonprofits than Stripe’s discount. It’s been our experience with many of our nonprofit clients that the transactional price is worth it for the user-friendly experience, integration options, helpful customer support and lack of additional monthly fees. But it’s most certainly not a perfect fit for everyone. Good luck with your search!
Hi! Do you know of a donor database that integrates with Stripe? Thanks!
Hi, Laura! There are a variety of donor database tools that can integrate with Stripe, and even more so if you use an integration tool like Zapier. Are there any other specifications that you’re looking for in a donor database?
Hello,
I began a Facebook charity fundraiser 2 weeks ago, which brought in $3,000. in donations, yet never received any money/deposits into my bank account. What should I do?
Thanks.
Sorry to hear you’re having issues with Facebook Fundraisers, Craig. Those funds actually won’t come through your Stripe account. And, depending on how your charity is registered, the funds may take longer to process. Check out these FAQs from the Facebook Help Center to learn more. And, if you think an error has been made, I would reach out to Facebook Support to see where the donations went. Good luck!
So there is no other rate but 2.2% +.30c ?
Hi, Steven. That’s right; Stripe doesn’t have any monthly or hidden fees. However, there is an additional transaction percentage fee for American Express cards. I’d encourage you to reach out to sales+nonprofit@stripe.com for more details on the nonprofit discount.
Hi Christine,
Does stripe require a personal social security number for business accounts (including 501c3) like Paypal does? This is a requirement of the Patriot Act. Thank you!
Hi, Beth. They do use your birthday the last 4 digits of your social security number to verify your identity. For other set-up questions for nonprofit accounts, I’d recommend reaching out to their team at sales+nonprofit@stripe.com.
Do the funds automatically go into your business bank account or do you have to request this?
Great question, Leonie. You shouldn’t have to worry about requesting funds. They’ll be processed and deposited automatically, but it’s also possible to set up a payment schedule based on your preferences. You can learn more about receiving payouts from Stripe at https://stripe.com/docs/payouts.
Is there any word on what non-profit rates would be if you are using the new Stripe Terminal to process payments on site?
Hey, Dean. I’d recommend reaching out to Stripe at sales+nonprofit@stripe.com about a nonprofit discount for Stripe Terminal. It never hurts to ask!
How do I know when you’re collecting information like SSN during sign up process that the information is safe and encrypted? I would like to use Stripe for processing our Membership fees and donations but am wary about the need to give you my personal SSN to do so. We are a 501c3 nonprofit.
Thanks for reaching out, Heidi. We don’t speak for Stripe and would recommend reaching out to their Support team with security concerns. That said, you should be able to use your organization’s EIN number in place of your personal Social Security Number. I hope that helps!