We are hearing that merchant processors are offering to waive credit card fees on donations for the disaster. Is that something that your company is doing? The processors are not waiving fees to my knowledge, however the card associations are. So far Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express have all announced plans as of January 15. The good news is that over 95% of credit card processing costs are typically in interchange fees, the same fees that are being waived.

If your non-profit is not on the list, you can ask your processor to help you get on the list, but it’s pretty unlikely. Your charity will need a long track record of donor dollar efficiency to hope to qualify. Contact your merchant account provider to make this request.

The charities covered varies by the card brand.

Visa Waives Interchange Rates for Select Charities

San Francisco, January 14, 2010
Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) today announced a comprehensive commitment to help the people of Haiti following the recent devastating earthquake, which includes a $200,000 donation to the American Red Cross Haiti Relief and Development Fund. Visa will also match employee donations to Haitian relief efforts on a two-to-one basis through the end of January.

As part of Visa’s response, through the end of February, Visa will also donate revenues generated by charitable contributions to the crisis in Haiti directly to the American Red Cross.

In addition, Visa will waive interchange fees through the end of February on donations made to a select group of major, U.S.-based charities that are providing support to Haitian relief efforts. Eligible charities are:

* American Red Cross
* AmeriCares
* CARE USA
* Direct Relief International
* Habitat for Humanity
* International Rescue Committee
* Mercy Corps
* Oxfam America
* Save the Children
* US Fund for UNICEF
* World Vision

As part of this initiative, Visa is reaching out to the U.S. and Haitian governments to explore how its payment technology can be helpful in effectively distributing relief funds, as Visa has done in the past.

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Here are the plans for other cards:
Discover waives merchant fees and matches donor dollars
MasterCard Waives merchant fees
American Express rebates merchant fees retroactive

How can non-profits lower credit card processing costs for online donations? Video presentation specifically reviews these costs with real examples so controllers and CFO’s can benchmark their current costs vs actual lowest costs possible. Based on Visa and MasterCard Associations  2009 interchange rates and actual non-profit merchant statement reviews.

Lowering Credit Card Processing Rates for non-profits presentation

Convio is a preferred vendor for many non-profits using online fundraising. We offer low cost credit card processing solutions fully compatible with Convio, with preferred pricing for non-profit organizations.

Convio software automates the process of accepting donations by enabling nonprofits to create event sign ups and other online donation forms on the fly via a back-end web based administration dashboard. You’ll need a gateway to accept secure payments. The only true independent gateway they support is Verisign. By independent, I mean you can use this gateway with a wide variety of approved payment processing platforms. I’ve been involved in ecommerce for major companies since the 90′s and I strongly endorse Verisign. Even if it costs a bit more the PCI Compliance and fraud protection controls are worth it.

You’ll also need a payment processor. We have different solutions available for you and place you in the best one to suit various pricing, treasury and bookkeeping needs.

Convio does not support integrated Google payments or Paypal at this time.

What are the benefits of using my recommended solution for credit card processing vs one that may be offered by the Convio group?
- Wholesale pricing. The same type of pricing plans offered to the biggest companies in the world. Even though your non-profit may be big, not everyone supplier offers this pricing.
- Interchange management- The right price plan means nothing if no one is checking to see what interchange levels you hit. This is 90% + of your total costs. It is not atypical to reduce payment processing fees 20% in this area alone.
- Chargebacks- How can you avoid them? Reduce fees? This is part of our ongoing standard consultation process.
- PCI compliance- We will work with your team on a number of issues related to this. All services offered are always PCI Compliant and forward looking to meet future compliance requirements anticipated.

What’s needed to add an alternative payment processor to Convio?
- Sign a new merchant agreement
- Complete a specifications worksheet. This is really very simple. We need to know the domains where you accept donations online now, and what gateway you are using, along with a few other items.
- We send a worksheet to Convio based on your gateway. They have different requirements depending on the gateway.
- Convio does the change of payment processor.

You continue to manage your donations the same way you do now.
You access merchant statements and over 50 accounting related reports for your credit card transactions via a secure web page.
You access American Express, and Discover* reports the same way you do now.

You receive the benefits of an assigned relationship manager who will work with you to help you manage costs, compliance, fraud and other issues your non-profit is facing. There is no out of pocket cost to you for these services. Non-profits using the expertise offered will save from 5% to 30%, with double digits savings being common.

See our video: Are there lower credit card processing rates for non-profit organizations?

* In July 2009, Discover reporting and fees will be fully integrated into a single statement along with your Visa and MasterCard.

Are there special credit card processing rates for non-profits?

Yes, there are special rates for non-profits. Specifically, there are special INTERCHANGE RATES. In order to qualify for them, you must be on a price plan that enables you to take advantage of them. We call this wholesale or interchange plus pricing. Typically we offer this for merchant accounts processing more than $1 M annually. Interchange plus is what large companies such as Home Depot or Barnes and Nobel pay. It always includes a % of the transaction, a per item fee, Visa/MasterCard dues and assessments, and a merchant discount. Over 95% of your costs are in the % of the transaction, so that is the area that must be controlled or MANAGED.

The most meaningful way to lower your costs is to hit levels of interchange with a lower rate. We can get your non-profit into a program where you’ll hit interchange rates lower than what most retail accounts pay, that is a lower % per transaction. Some of your transactions such as visa rewards cards will process at the same as for profit companies. However some transactions will process at a lower rate, usually at 20 basis points or .2% lower than the lowest rate for profit companies.

In my experience, most non-profits have not been offered these special interchange rates. You can save $2000-$10,000 per million dollars in donations just on this one item. National non-profits typically save 25-50% by implementing my recommendations and services. Which is easier? Finding a donor to give you $100,000 + every year, or calling me one time and saving that much on your expenses every year?

Here’s how you can check to see if you are getting the best rates for your non-profit.

First Look at your merchant statement. Go to the section, usually the last page or two, which shows INTERCHANGE COSTS. Do you have this section? If not, you are not on a price plan that lets you participate in the program.

Second. If you have the interchange cost section, you’ll see things like VISA RETAIL DEBIT, COMMERCIAL DATA RATE 2 ETC. Do you have one that says EMERGING MARKETS OR EMG MKT? If you do not see this category on any of your past statements, you are not participating in the program.

Both conditions are required whether you are accepting donations online or swiping cards for event registrations and auctions.
If you answered no to either question, and your non-profit is processing at least $1 million annually, please call and I will help you keep more donor dollars to use for your organization programs.

Would you like a PDF presentation with actual examples of what to look for on your merchant statement? Call the hotline 954-942-0483 and we will send it to you.

What are the best choices for accepting credit cards for online payments for non profit organizations? Google Checkout, Paypal Payments, and traditional merchant accounts cost analysis, plus all in one donation form with integrated payment solutions.

Paypal costs for 501c(3) non-profits

1.9% +$.30 per transaction for organizations with over $100,000 monthly volume
2.2% +$.30 per transaction for organizations with less than $100,000 monthly volume.
3.9% + $0.30 USD Transaction Fees for Cross-Border Payments – United States

Google Checkout costs for 501c(3) non-profits

Google Grants recipients are eligible to process donations for free until 2010 (need to buy Google AdWords)
Others pay these standard fees:

Google checkout vs Paypal for non-profits:

It depends on the size of your organization. If you can only choose one, Paypal would be better due to wider acceptance.

Payment processing costs when included with online donation form generator:

Some web sites specialize in providing an all in one solution for non-profits to collect cash donations, create auction sign ups, or create event registrations.  The theory is you collect more money than you would normally (usually true), so it offsets any higher costs you may pay for the service which ranges from free to $29.95 per month and up plus other fees.

Merchant Services provider costs ie traditional merchant account and internet gateway

These numbers are going to be all over the place. So how can you tell if  you are getting a good deal?
A typical average is 3% effective rate for online credit card processing. This rate varies by target audience and many factors, and can be lower, but generally should not be higher. Non-profit merchant accounts with >3% credit card processing effective rates usually have hidden information, few details, or poor price plan.

View the entire presentation including pros & cons and actual examples of what to look for on your merchant statement. Recommendations are valid whether you have an ecommerce store, online donation form, recurring donor payments, event or one time donation.

Ecommerce Credit Card Processing for non-profits (PDF download)