Is anyone accepting gifts/donations through PayPal?

Hi,



A few people are accepting donations and event registrations through PayPAL.



It would go straight into Raiser's Edge using either SmartPAYMENTS or SmartPAYPAL... See www.smartthing.org for more details...



W.

Could you? Yes. Should you? Maybe. Maybe not.



A few years back I did a research project to see if accepting PayPal as a payment option had a significant positive effect on online donations. I wanted to know the answer based on data, not anecdotal evidence.



After several weeks of testing and a statistically significant sample size of transactions, I found no evidence that it produced a significantly positive result for nonprofits in the analysis compared to normal payment options.



Let me note that I like PayPal and use it in my personal life for e-commerce transactions. But that is a very difference user experience. You have already committed to the purchase (the biggest barrier) and then it's a matter of completing the transaction.



Donations are a very different user experience. Adding PayPal or other off-site payment options add friction to the donation process. Friction is bad and should be avoided whenever possible.



There is only one goal for an online donation form: get a conversion at an optimal amount. Anything that prevents this goal should be stopped.



I can think of about 10 other things that nonprofit's can do to improve their online donation conversion rate that would come before adding additional payment options.



Just my $0.02. Your mileage may vary.

Sure, I'm happy to explain this in a bit more detail.



Adding things like another payment option that takes the donor off your donation form, over to another website, where they must login, verify the transaction, and then be sent back to another page adds a lot of friction for the donor.



I'm also setting aside the potential reconciliation and data challenges inherit with multiple systems. That's a completely separate thing to take into consideration.



There's a great report by Dunham+Company where they looked at 151 nonprofit organizations and how they scored with their online giving. You can find the report at: http://www.dunhamandcompany.com/onlin...



A big part of their analysis looked at friction which they defined as: "Our researchers were primarily looking for friction points that created barricades to giving a gift online. Examples of friction points include: excessive steps or clicks in the giving process, multiple conflicting calls-to-action, or non-essential buttons,


menus, or navigational elements. Eliminating friction in the giving process leads to lower abandonment and greater conversion rates."



Does this help to answer your questions?