Online Payment: Answers to Your Questions

Is your nonprofit's leadership team on the fence about taking the leap into online payments? That's completely understandable!

In this article, we answer the most common questions nonprofits ask us about online payments. We also share best practices for rolling out this payment method.

• Managing and tracking payments
• The cost of online payments
• How do I get my community on board?
• Security and online payments

Managing and tracking payments

Our team has a solid handle on tracking payments. Won't switching to online payments just create more headaches for them?

Our advice

We have no doubt your team is top-notch. Your treasurer knows their way around a spreadsheet, and your payment tracking is airtight! But keeping it that way takes real discipline — and a solid command of Excel.

Online payments simplify that process in several ways:

• Automating tasks that used to be done by hand: payment statuses update automatically for every sale, membership, donation, and more — and transactions are automatically imported into your books;
• Giving you clear, easy-to-read dashboards to track your sign-ups, memberships, and donations — updated in real time, so you and your fellow volunteers can collaborate from anywhere.

How do we handle refunds?

Our advice

Springly makes it easy to refund someone after a payment — whether it was a purchase, membership, donation, or anything else.

Check out this article to learn how to issue a refund in just a couple of clicks when someone requests one.

Tips

• On top of sending the funds directly back to the person's bank account, Springly automatically posts the refund entry to your books 🤖;
• When issuing a refund, you can choose to pass the payment fees on to the person or absorb them yourself.

The cost of online payments

How much is this going to cost us?

Our advice

Online payment access is included in your plan, with no volume commitment required. You can use Springly's online payment service regardless of how much you collect online.
The only additional fees are the payment processing fees. For credit and debit cards, these are 1.8% + $0.25 per transaction.

Learn more about payment fees.

Tips

Enable the Tip option to cover payment fees at no cost to you.

See: Tips on Springly

How do I get my community on board?

Our members and community are used to paying by check — and old habits die hard!

Our advice

In the US, the vast majority of internet users shop online regularly — buying event tickets, booking travel, and more. Online payments are far more mainstream than you might think, and your community is probably already comfortable with them.

That said, change doesn't have to be abrupt. If you've noticed some hesitation among your members, we recommend making the transition gradually. Here are a few tips to help things go smoothly. 👇

Tips

Offer multiple payment methods on your form

For your Membership Campaigns, Donation Campaigns, Events, or Product Sales, you can configure multiple payment methods and give your community the freedom to choose.

Learn more about customizing your Membership Campaigns, Donation Campaigns, Events, or Product Sales.

Support your community through the change

Here are a few approaches our users have put in place:

• At the start of your season, set up help stations with a computer or tablet on hand so members can complete their payment on the spot. You can walk first-timers through the process step by step;
• Build awareness around online payments through email or printed communications to your members.

Security and online payments

There's a lot of talk about online payment security. How do I know payments made through my platform are safe?

Our advice

It might seem counterintuitive, but online payments are actually a more secure way to collect money.

By moving payments online, you reduce the risk of checks or cash being lost or stolen — no more keeping envelopes of money at home or in your office.

More specifically, Springly's online payment service is fully secure.

All pages — login pages, payment entry pages, and more — are protected with an SSL certificate, which encrypts data exchanged between your computer (and your community members') and the platform.

Finally, all payments are automatically enrolled in 3D Secure.

3D Secure is a widely trusted online payment security standard. It verifies that the person entering card details is the legitimate cardholder. In practice, this typically means your bank sends you an automatic code to confirm and complete the transaction.

Learn more about security and Springly 🔒

📘 Check out our complete guide to online payments on Springly.